Martian Dragons
Date: 2019-06-13 07:00:00+00:00
Description: In the near future. A young warrior priest has his life turned upside down after alien forces destroys everything dear to him. He finds himself thrust into the middle of a war that's lasted for thousands of years. Three Earth-born sentient races battle against an aggressive alien force. Only an ancient Martian outpost, the few surviving marines, and their battered space fleet stands in their way. The outpost holds a great secret that, if discovered, by the right man might swing the tide of war..
Publisher: 4864 Books

The Martian Dragons
by

Ian Woodhead

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright June 2019 by Ian Woodhead

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

Chapter One

First Contact

David Hamilton, the first person to set foot on Mars, listened to the faint beeps and whistles which signified that his suit computer had finally established a connection with their orbiter. He still needed to wait for the orbiter to receive the promised data-packet from Vandenburg Air force base before continuing. How long did he now have to wait before the black cloth was finally pulled off the mystery box?

His bio-readings suggested that he should attempt to bring his heart-rate down. Dave suppressed a nervous smirk, like that was even possible, at least, not until they had received that data-packet. He panned across the desolate landscape, keeping his eyes peeled for anything that didn't resemble either dust or rock.

David's internal com-sensor beeped softly.

‘Two minutes, David. Are you ready to part with your one dollar?’

‘Not going to happen, my friend. Not going to happen.’

The mission's navigator, Geoff Frost, released a short laugh before he closed the connection.

David had just two minutes to wait before Mission Command released the exact coordinates of the anomaly. Two minutes before he discovered exactly why he and his crew had been ordered to come back to this airless desert almost a decade after every space agency had scrapped all their plans to reach for the stars.

The primary lander had touched down just thirty miles from where its ancestor, the lander from the Wayward  Adventure first landed. He turned to the left and gazed across the red desert, almost believing that he could see the three-metre-high conical lander where had had descended and left that iconic first footprint before replaying his simple speech which, he'd believed, would make him the most famous human on the planet.

Perhaps if he had known the truth, about just how bad things had become back home, David might not have spent over two weeks worrying about whether the first words spoken on another planet would carry so much weight. After all, why bother praising mankind's peaceful intentions when seven-three million miles back home, the same species was doing its hardest to try to wipe each other out?

David only discovered the truth, about the state of the planet and what had happened to his home town, his family and almost everybody he ever cared for when the machines on board The Wayward Adventure revived him when the ship. That did not happen until the ship was close enough to Earth for direct communication.

He looked into the amber sky to where Earth should be and a single tear rolled down his cheek. That bio-genetic weapon, launched from some now nuked forgotten eastern nation had killed all life within three hundred miles of detonation. While David stood on virgin Martian dust, proudly reciting the speech that he'd spent so much time stressing over, the government were busy scooping up what remained of his wife and family into barrels of bio-hazardous material before storing them deep underground in some nameless warehouse.

“Come on, man. Pull yourself together,” he muttered. The past was the past and although the situation back home still wasn't exactly back to peaches and ice cream, the insanity which he remembered had thankfully passed. The countries who were still, more or less, intact had realised the error of their ways and were trying to find some kind of status quo.

The situation was steadily finding an uneasy equilibrium. At least, they were until some joker in South America hacked into some forgotten decades old Martian rover which still continued to rumble across the surface, collecting data and images and transmitting the material back to its mother capsule which still orbited the red planet.

David looked back at the lander and noticed Geoff as well as their communications officer, Andy Lewis, waving at him. He waved back, just as the data finally came through.

‘Are you getting this?’

He nodded before realising that Geoff wouldn't notice the movement. He didn't bother correcting his mistake, he couldn't anyway. The images showing through his front view player had rendered him dumb with shock.

‘This has got to be a joke,’ said Andy. ‘Someone is playing a stupid prank. None of that stuff could possibly be up here.’

David listened with half an ear while their navigation officer sarcastically asked Andy if the United Space Authority would really spend billions of dollars on getting them up here for some prank.

The images continued to flow across his view player, each one revealing more and more of the anomaly. It was obvious that this really was no joke. Andy finally shut up. David figured that even the most cynical of their crew had realised that this thing really was here.

David found his voice and ordered the suit's computer to replay the last three images at a delay of five seconds each.  The first image showed a close up of a rectangular hole, cut into the Martian rock. He estimated the hole large enough to fit a small car inside. Although the regularity of the cut was highly unusual, it wasn't totally implausible to suggest that it could still be a natural formation. That all changed in the second photo which zoomed in on the north face of the hole and in the corner of the image was what just had to be a severed mechanical arm. It almost looked like the thing had crawled out of the hole. He could even make out shallow score marks cut into the rock face, now filled with sand, but they did match the spacing of the arm's six digits.

The third image, taken a twelve metres west of the hole displayed what appeared to be the edge of a canyon, only, like the hole, the edges were perfectly straight. It wasn't too clear what lay at the bottom of that canyon, as the angle was too steep to make it out but there was a single clue, right at the edge of the image, a solid silver line.

It didn't take much of an imagination to bring the canyon and the hole together into one scenario. David felt himself lapsing into shock again at the implications. If the rover had taken another photograph, just a couple more inches closer to the edge, David had no doubt in his mind that it would have showed the bottom of the canyon, full of mechanical creatures.

David skinned back to the second photo and zoomed in on the arm. He saw no distinguishing marks, no maker's imprint, no writing of any kind. Then again, David wasn't expecting to find any. According to the text attachment, the boffins back home had already established that this artefact was old, certainly well over a few thousand years.

His two companions were a few metres from his position now. David quickly replayed the last few images then used the suit's GPS to triangulate their position in relation to where these images were taken. They were within walking distance, less than half a klick north.

‘I gather you two received the same data as me and I'm sure that you no longer think it's some kind of trick, Andy. So, what are your thoughts now?’

‘This is just utterly incredible!’

David imagined Geoff was now dancing inside his suit. The comm could not contain the man's excitement.

‘Alien tech. This is like a dream come true. This is going to reunite mankind. Not only is their life beyond our planet, it's intelligent too! Can any of you even comprehend what this discovery means? It's like.’ Geoff took a deep breath. ‘I don't know. It's like Inca stumbling across a 20th century motor car or the Romans finding a cave packed with computers. They must be from another star system, meaning we might even find a starship with a working FTL drive!’

He had to admit, Geoff's enthusiasm was contagious. He still remembered how it was in the world, when he was still a kid, back in the late 2050's when most of the nations generally got on with each other before everything turned to utter shit. It would be so nice to return to that state, only with interstellar spaceships, first contact and all the bells and whistles which came with the package.

‘Andy, what do you think?’

‘We need to take off, right now and nuke the site from orbit,’ he replied.

‘What?’ shouted Geoff. ‘You can't destroy the greatest gift that mankind has ever received. This is going to solve all of our problems.’

‘No, it will make them worse. Come on, Geoff. You can't be that naïve? You even used the analogy of the Romans finding computers as an analogy, for crying out loud! If those guys had, somehow, found a cave full of tech, the first thing they'd do is use the knowledge to crush all of their enemies. Two thousand years might have passed but we're still essentially the same primitive, violent beast.’

‘You're wrong, Andy. How can you even say that when the three of us are standing on another planet? We have achieved so much and now, thanks to this gift, our knowledge is going to quantum leap ahead.’

Dave began to walk away from his two bickering companions, while wondering if he should turn off the comms too, as it wouldn't matter how far he travelled, their two voices would still be present, one for each ear.

‘I'm not wrong. Have you forgotten that there are two more ships on their way to Mars? Do you think the Chinese or the Europeans are going to adopt your hippie attitude, Geoff? The damn Europeans won't be suing for peace any time soon, that's for sure. Has it slipped your mind that the Brits and the Russians nuked our two main carrier groups three years ago? Hell, the only reason they didn't destroy our other groups is because we took out their capital cities. Do you honestly think those traitorous Limey bastards are interested in holding hands and singing songs about peace and love?’

‘Gentlemen, it doesn't really matter what we think now does it? We are here to do a job and our orders are very specific.’ Dave looked up, almost imagining that he could see the afterburner glows from the other two spaceships. Andy was right about one thing. Both the Chinese and the Europeans didn't trust each other and both certainly didn't trust them. It was only their expertise and technical ability which helped them get here before the others. Dave shuddered to think how this might have played out if either of the other two had got here before them. Andy was right about another point too. The orbiter did indeed carry nukes. And they had orders to make sure their nation staked their claim first.

Turning around, I saw Andy and Geoff crouched around something poking out of the ground. Andy had already cleaned away enough of the dust for Dave to identify the object. He walked back to them, leaned over Andy and blinked rapidly.

‘Now this, Andy. Now this is what I would class as a prank.’

‘Either that, or some other country has been here before and not told anybody.’ Geoff reached forward, took hold of the object in both hands then carefully lifted it up. ‘Then again, maybe not. This is ancient.’

Dave stared in utter disbelief at the human skull held in Geoff's hands. This was like something ripped straight out of some Victorian science fiction novel. He almost expected to see a dusty British flag in the earth as well. ‘How old, Geoff? I'm guessing it's older than us?’

‘Most definitely,’ replied his colleague. ‘Remember where we are. No atmosphere, no life, low temperature.’ He handed the skull to Andy. ‘There's also the question of equipment.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Geoff while turning the skull upside down.

‘Unless our friend here danced around the Martian sands totally naked, there should be some of his gear here too.’ Andy swept away some more dust.  ‘There's some more bone here.’ He pulled put another piece. ‘Like this can't get any weirder?’

Dave leaned closer. ‘What the hell is it?’

‘You got me there.’ He passed the bone fragment to Dave. It was another skull, a little smaller than the other one. This wasn't human though. It look reptilian. He looked at Andy then at Geoff, noticing they were both staring at him. He figured that his companions wanted him to state the obvious. He couldn't say it, no matter how much he wanted to. Dave could not announce that he held in his hands a genuine alien skull.

His comms crackled. ‘Gentlemen, our friends have entered orbit. You have to reach the designated area and stake our claim. It won't take them long to reach the surface.’

‘Mission control. There has been a complication. We have found what appears to be a human carcass.’ Dave couldn't bring himself to tell the guys back home what he held in his hands. It took them a few moments to reply. He imagined the conversation the guys must be having.

‘Message received and logged. Log the coordinates and proceed to the designated area. Our friends have already begun their descent.’

‘That's not possible!’ said Andy. ‘Their tech is decades behind us.’

Dave thrust his fingers through the large eye sockets. ‘After what we've just discovered, it sure is refreshing to find details that there are some things in the cosmos which makes you wonder, Andy.’

‘What's that supposed to mean?’

‘Never mind. We best move out. You all heard Mission control. Time is against us!’

It took the crew another thirty minutes to reach the designated area, while they trudged across the land, David kept a close eye on the other two landers, steadily descending through the thin Martian atmosphere. Even from this distance, he saw how similar the two landers looked. Were they sharing technology? The implications of such an alliance sent a shudder down his spine, especially after the explosive information they had already discovered hiding just below the surface. If there were more artefacts on Mars, not just in the area where they were racing to claim, and the Chinese or Europeans find them, then there truly could be a new arms race about to explode. One that Dave didn't think he'd live through. More than likely, none of them would live through. Unfortunately, it appeared that the men who ran the world were more like Andy than Geoff.

Andy and Geoff were already at the designated area and had taken the three metal claim poles from their backpacks and had started to mark the area. Dave found it satisfying to see that the two men did their duties before actually checking out the rectangular hole. Even from here, Dave could see the severed mechanical arm. It took so much effort not to try to run over to the site. Andy could keep his two skulls. Dave wanted that arm as well as anything else mechanical they might find down there.

Geoff positioned the last pole and gave Dave the thumbs up sign. This was it. As soon as he gave the all clear, the three poles would activate and log the claimed area and transmit the data all the way home where it would be stored at an underground facility, guarded by personal picked from all three nation states.

‘Okay, Geoff. You have the all clear. Get them activated!’

A slight but steady vibration reached Dave's feet a couple of moments after his colleague activated the claim poles. He frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen. Dave looked across at the other two, wondering if were feeling the vibration as well.

The ground beside Andy opened up. He stumbled backwards to avoid falling into the new chasm. Geoff caught the astronaut and helped to pull him away from the collapsing ground. Dave began to jog towards them when both men fell. He heard one of them screaming through the comm then Geoff just vanished.

"What the hell is happening?" he gasped. Andy managed to get to his feet and stumbled towards Dave.

‘There's something down there!’ shouted Andy through the comms. ‘There's something…’ His colleague jerked to a sudden stop, he thrust his arms up and screamed. ‘Please, help me!’

Dave groaned in disbelief and terror as several dark green mechanical tendrils pushed up through the sand, curled around both of Andy's ankles and dragged him under as well. He kept perfectly still, despite the desperate urge to spin around and run as fast as he could back to the lander. If Dave did move, even breathe too loudly, it would be the end of him. He didn't need to be any anthropologist to know that whatever was under the ground must be attracted to movement. Maybe if he stayed here, pretending to be a rock, then it might go away. Dave have enough breathable air for another three hours, plenty of time for the crew from the other two landers to reach him. He hoped to God that they brought weapons.

His forlorn hope that maybe those things down there would be satisfied with his two members vanished when Dave caught sight of another three of those mechanical snakes rising out from that hole. They slid across the red sand, moving farther and farther apart until they all shot back into that hole.

Hamilton's law kicked into effect when those snakes returned, only with some extra pals, only Dave quickly discovered that those snakes were not separate entities at all. ‘Suit, please open direct one-way communications with Mission Control and begin all sensory recording.’ The suit would have already, recorded the tragic deaths of his crew members already but the data was still locked in the suit's onboard computer. Dave knew he wasn't getting out of this situation alive.

Those mechanical snakes had grown in number, now totalling twenty. The endings dug into the sand then about a third of the snakes' bodies stiffened at an upright angle while the rest of the segmented pieces rose up, bringing what looked like an egg-shaped globe, the size of their lander, from out of the hole.

‘You have got to be shitting me.’

The underside recessed before two oval flat panels slid into the machine. From out of the two openings, a thick bundle of what looked like corded wires, each one as thick as his wrist, dropped to the surface. Once they reached the sand, the wires spread out in three directions before folding back on themselves. The mechanical snakes then detached from the surface and slid back into the machine.

Dave very slowly lifted his left leg without taking his eyes off the three-metre, bipedal, mechanical monstrosity, and took one step back. As soon as his foot touched the Martian surface, the egg-shaped body swivelled a couple of degrees. Another two flat panels, this time on the side of the machine, slid back, and a very recognisable object pushed out of its body.

‘Oh fuck.’

It didn't matter where it had come from, it appeared that weaponry looked pretty much the same. The tube structure panned across the landscape, until it pointed directly at Dave.

‘You really don't know who you're messing with!’ he shouted into the comms. ‘The others will come back here and kick your ass for here to…’

Before Dave Hamilton could finish his last ever sentence, the ancient Mech turned the astronaut into a stream of energised particles. It could not return to its slumber as the Mech's sensors had already picked up more lifeforms heading towards this location. It did not deploy its protective armour, nor did it retract any of its limbs. The lifeforms did not pose any danger. The Mech cycled up both cannons and waited.

Chapter One

Two Hundred Years Later

Ryan Yates stopped beside the kerb. His girlfriend, Bernice Grey, had now reached the beginning of her usual work's lunchtime conversation. He suspected that this particular time segment of her previous day's documentary could take her another hour to get through. He smiled to himself, judging from her heated emotional states, Ryan might even get away with not having to nod or shake his head in all the right places.

That was fine by him. It meant he could watch tonight's sky lights without fear of being interrupted. Ryan absolutely adored Bernice and would do anything for her but there were occasions when she didn't pick up on his subtle hints, like when to be quiet. He squeezed her hand a little tighter when she tried to cross the empty road without him.

“What are you...oh, I should have known. They're about to start again. I don't understand why you find them so fascinating, it's just basic boring nature.”

They have had this conversation many times in the past. This time, instead of explaining to her that, although he knew that the scientists say that the Night Lights are just another facet of the Aurora Borealis, basically a natural light display, this did not stop Ryan from being totally awe-struck by them.

“You know, my friend says that the sky lights are not a natural phenomenon at all, that it's the work of some shadowy part of the government testing out new weapons.”

Ryan tightened his grip. He hadn't heard that one for a good few years. The most recent subversive notion for the Night Lights were that they were the remains of a planet that some alien civilisation had blown up before they reached their world. Just like the weapons idea, it was all rubbish, made up by people who had nothing else better to in their lives.

“Is this the same friend who told you last week that we evolved from monkeys and the world wasn't flat?”

Bernice shrugged. “Maybe.”

“You didn't believe him, did you?”

“Of course not. Jack just a bit eccentric that's all. Plus, I think he like to show off, he likes the attention, that's for sure.”

“You just be careful, Bernice. People like that end up attracting the wrong kind of attention, believe me.”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Ryan. Stop it with the mother hen treatment. He's just some harmless guy at work. He's not one of the Dispossessed or some Rimland terrorist. Jack's been spouting this nonsense for years.”

“Even so, I've known people like that who have found themselves being investigated by the Papal Police and before you know it, they end up getting transported over to the outer colonies. Not just them either. Half their friends vanish too.”

“Will you stop being to melodramatic? You've put me right off my stride now. I've totally forgotten what I was about to tell you.”

Ryan wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or anxious. This tale about her fellow workmate, Jack, was going to bother him all night now and he wasn't being melodramatic at all. The Papal police really were cracking down on the subversives, the malcontent and those individuals who seem to be obsessed with spreading fake news and false rumours. He took his attention away for the sky, gazed into her large brown eyes and smiled. “I’m sorry, Bernice. I didn't mean to sound so hyper. I've not had the best of days.” He leaned closer and gave her a quick kiss. “I'll tell you what, why don't I buy you dinner? There's a new restaurant that's opened on the other side of town and I've been told that they do a really nice steak. My treat.”

“What are you after?”

“Nothing,” he replied. “I just thought it seemed like a good idea, that's all. I mean we were going for a drink in town anyway. Try to see this as a drink but with good food.” What Ryan was after was for both of them stop talking about stuff that was borderline dangerous. He also intended to find out a little bit more about this Jack character over dinner as well. Just to see if he really was as harmless as Bernice made out.

“Okay, but only if you promise me not to look into the sky tonight. I swear, there are times when I almost believe that you're not even listening to me.”

He nodded. “It's a deal.” Ryan led her across the road and took Bernice through the town's high street, now busy with other people sitting in one of the many outdoor cafes, either eating, drinking or generally chatting. They passed the bar where Ryan originally intended to take her, peeking into the window as they passed. He didn't recognise anyone, not that made much difference. Like the rest of this town, nobody was really a stranger, at least, not after a couple of drinks.

Ryan slowed down as they reached the last shop on the high street. He turned around and gazed down the road. Ryan counted around forty people. He turned to Bernice. “Look at them, honey, and tell me what you see.”

She shrugged. “I don't know. People having a drink?”

Bernice didn't understand. He never really expected her to either. She, like most of the people here, were all so lucky. Ryan saw it alright. The people down there were happy, they were content and focussed their leisure activities on just generally having a good time, just how it should be.

Their kind and benevolent High Bishops and the Papal police  who carefully tended the Bishops' flock, classed this time as the Great and Bountiful Human Era and it was, compared to the hell on Earth which preceded it. All the people down there, enjoying their drinks, happy and carefree, had no idea of what the land was once like just two centuries earlier.

Back before the Final Reunification, the separate nation states were at constant war, sending out their young men to die in pointless conflicts. Destroying their enemy's civilian centres of population with nuclear missiles and before that, half the planet's population starved while evil men paraded in front of their sycophants, and everyone only worshipped the God of greed and power.

“My feet are starting to hurt. Can we not go back to the bar? It's getting cold as well.”

“We're nearly there. Not long now.”

Ryan counted in his girlfriend as one who had no clue as to what this world was once like. He had wondered how Bernice and her group of friends would react if they did know the truth. Perhaps, those individuals, screaming for attention by shouting out borderline blasphemous words and slogans might even cease and desist if they knew that the human species had never had it so good.

The warm glow coming from the restaurant's front window, placed a smile upon his face. The place looked quiet too. That pleased him, although Bernice had no problem with crowds, thanks to the residual effects from his last profession, too many people around Ryan made him feel a little uneasy.

“There you go, almost here. You'll soon warm up.”

Bernice, jumped in front of him, grabbed his other hand then reached up to kiss his face. “You know, you really are sweet to me.” she kissed him again.

“Two kisses?”

“Yeah, well. You promised not to look into the sky and you didn't!” She laughed. “If the food in here is as nice as you promised, there might even be three kisses in it for you.” Bernice winked. “Plus a little something extra.”

“Four kisses?”

Ryan's training instructor once said that people who don't learn the mistakes of the past will always repeat them. He also said that if people are not aware of the past and instead guide along the correct path instead, then the mistakes will simply cease to exist.

How would Bernice react if she ever found out that a city called Birmingham once stood upon this ground and its ruins are still here, buried under her beloved town of New Haven? How would she react if Bernice found out that her ancestors survived the cobalt bomb which wiped out almost a million innocent souls? How would his girlfriend respond is she discovered that Ryan 's direct ancestor sent the missiles over? Something told Ryan that he could wave goodbye to the chance of that promised fourth kiss.

Their society should only focus on the present and the future. The past held nothing but tears, regret and misery. Best leave it buried, like the rubble of that ancient city beneath their feet. This is what his commanders taught and it is what he believed.

Ryan stopped beside the next crossing and waiting for a hyperrail pod to whiz past them. Not everyone thought the same as him. There were certain members of their happy society who thought the opposite, that keeping people in the dark about their terrible past made them just as evil as the previous generations. They did believe that in order to grow and florish, the human race must come to terms with their past atrocities, and then grieve for all the untold billions who died so their children could live in paradise. They called themselves The Dispossessed, and if Ryan had any say in the matter, he'd put their pampered little arses onto the next boat heading for the outer colonies and let the sadistic bastards who run the rebuilding camps to knock all the self-righteous fluff out of them for good.

“Ryan? I think we're about to receive company.”

The unease he heard in her tone brought him hurtling back to reality. Ryan spotted them straight away. There were six adults walking towards them in a determined manner. They each carried a white-painted wooden pole which gave away their affiliation and their purpose. “The thoughts of evil shall be made manifest,” he murmured, quoting the last line of a verse from the Good Book of Jacob.

“Are they the Dispossessed?”

Bernice's fingers tightened. Her trembling carried all the way through her finger tips.  Ryan nodded. “They are indeed. Do not worry, my dear. They might look intimidating but believe me, it is nothing but show.”

The six men slowed to a stop, blocking the path and standing between them to the restaurant doorway. They must have believed that this charade of passive aggression would intimidate him. They chose the wrong couple tonight.

“Let's go around them, Ryan. Please, I don't want any trouble.”

Trouble could not hear her plea.

“Ryan, what are you doing?”

He stopped a few inches from who Ryan believed to be the chapter leader. He glanced down at the white pole, looked into the man's eyes and sighed heavily. Ryan guessed him to be around twenty-three or twenty-four, and by the look of his posture and body, this clown had never done much of anything too extreme in his life. When Ryan was this guy's age, a decade ago, he was up to his neck in freezing mud, with the other recruits to the Papal order, in the Rimland, while his drill instructor fired live rounds a few inches above their heads.

“Hello there, puppy dog,” said the man. “Are you taking your kitten for walkies, by any chance?”

This brought on a rising tide of derisive giggles from the blond man's pals.

A six-foot, dark haired youth, wearing a brown leather jacket winked at Bernice. “She's a pretty kitten.”

“There's no puppy here,” he replied. “Just a big, bad wolf.” Ryan moved in, until his nose was almost touching blond man's nose. “Turn around and walk away before you get hurt.”

Leather Jacket barked out a harsh laugh. “Won't get hurt? Can you not count? There's six of us.”

Ryan stepped back and nodded at every individual. “So there is. You're right, young man, these are bad odds I'll tell you what I'll do, just to make it fairer, I'll put one hand behind my back. Is that any better?”

Blond man lifted his white-painted pole. “We don't want any trouble. All we want is for the mass to listen to the truth, to understand that...”

Ryan jumped in, snatched the pole out of blond man's grasp, spun it until the business end was level with blond man's nose.

“Hey give that back!”

“You want it?” Ryan caught sight of leather jacket wielding his own staff and jumped back. He pulled the staff back, waited until leather jacket was close enough, then tapped him on the back of the head, not enough to cause any serious damage, but with enough force to convince leather jacket not to try anything else rash. “Drop it now,” he growled. Ryan took his eyes off leather jacket, walked back to blond man, wrapped his hard fingers around the trembling man's wrist and pulled his arm over to the white pole. “Don't look at me like that. Take hold of it, after all, it is yours.”

“Who are you?” he asked.

“He's Knight's Order,” said Leather Jacket, rubbing the back of his head. “Come on, let's get out of here.”

“A wise decision,” said Ryan. “Go home, give your sticks back to mummy and reflect upon what happened here.” He picked up the white pole dropped by Leather Jacket. “This is a small town. It won't take me too long to find out who you are. Any more trouble and you might find yourself waking up and finding me stood at the foot of your bed.” He ran his hand up and down the white polished wood. “It won't be a stick in my hand either.” Ryan threw the pole at Leather Jacket. Who caught it but unlike the others, did not turn around.

“You can't do this. The people have the right to know.”

Before Ryan could reply, the restaurant door swung open. The group moved back, allowing Ryan to see who had just come out. He tried not to grin at the sight of his old friend, Todd Stiles. He was the reason why Ryan had decided to take Bernice to this restaurant. Todd owned it.

“Are you having trouble, Ryan?”

He shook his head. No, just a minor disagreement. These kids were all about to turn around and go home.”

Todd sighed. He reached behind his back and pulled out his old Knight's Order Pandora Cross. Even from this distance, Ryan could see that the close combat baton had a charge running through it.

“The Good Book is waiting for you.” Todd stepped out from the shop's alcove. He placed his feet on the kerb and cupped his hands, holding the Pandora Cross next to his chest. “Regrets 12:23 states knowledge must be earned. Only the foolish and the weak blurt out folly.”

Todd stared straight at Leather Jacket. “Damien, remember the tales of the tide. Remember Shadow 16:2”

All six spun around and ran back up the road. Ryan waited until the last of them had gone before slipping his arm around Bernice and guiding her over to Todd. “This is Bernice,” he said.

The large man placed the Pandora Cross back in its scabbard before stepping back and going down on one knee. “My name is Todd Stiles, and I am the owner of this establishment. My friend said you were a wonder and I see that he was not lying.” He kissed the back of her hand before standing up.  “Let me just make sure your table is ready.”

The man vanished inside, leaving the two of them alone. “Are you okay, Bernice? I hope they didn't unsettle you?”

She pulled his arm off her back. “Wait, let me get this straight. You're Knight's Order?”

“Was. I retired a few months before I was fortunate enough to meet the love of my life and fall in love with her.”

She threw up her hands. “Stop that, just no. Ryan, were you ever going to tell me? I mean. You know almost everything about me and...” She took a deep breath. “You know, I think I want to go home now please.”

Ryan had been dreading this moment for a long time.  “If you knew beforehand, Bernice, you would have given me your famous pretend smile, taken my offered drink and vanished into the crowd. I would have never seen you again!”

“But, but you kill people, Ryan!” she gasped. “No, please don't give me the sad face. I'm sorry, but I...” Bernice turned away and sobbed. “Please. Take me home.”

He walked over to her and gently placed his hand on her shoulders, feeling a piece of his heart shrivel and die when Bernice physically cringed. “I don't kill people,” he said, lying. Our job was just to protect people like you. That's all. To seek out the ones who strayed away from Jacob's path and help them to repent before their re-integration.” He gently turned her around and wiped away the tears running down her cheeks. She didn't stop him so he took that as a good sign. The Papal police ensure that idiots like The dispossessed don't become too much of a nuisance to our civilians and the Knight's Order are there to bring back the ones who somehow slip through the net.” Ryan bent down and kissed her lightly. “We are nothing more than shepherds. Now, are you sure you want to go home or will you allow me to take you into my friend's restaurant?”

“I don't know.”

Ryan took her hand, turned her around and slowly walked her towards the door. “Let's get you warmed up, Bernice.”

Chapter Two

The Beginning of the Start

Nothing that Ryan had said during the excellent food had helped to calm her mood. Bernice had sat opposite him, pushing crab, salad and breadsticks into her mouth, chewing then swallowing before repeating the process. He didn't think that the woman was even tasting the food. This had been a bad idea. Why did he take her back home just like she asked? Ryan looked up from staring into the middle of the  glass of warm beer that he'd been nursing for the past ten minutes. That question did not even need an answer. He knew deep down that complying with her initial request would mean this relationship would be dead in the water.

“I've not seen a face that morose for a very long time.” Todd placed his fingers over Ryan's wrist, he gave it a comforting single squeeze before he sat down opposite him. “I'm proud for you as well as a little jealous, my friend. She really is a beautiful woman.” Todd turned his head towards the bar where Bernice was leaning on the counter and drinking her Scotch and lemonade alone. “Why don't you go and ask her to dance?”

“There's no music playing.”

“Ryan, do you forget that I am the owner? Has this pitiful mood given you a touch of amnesia to go with the misery? Remembrance 23:4 does say that...”

“Just stop that, right now,” he interrupted. “I know exactly what Remembrance says. Just drop the guise, Todd. You're not fooling me. You didn't believe back then, I doubt you've suddenly found your faith now.”

He laughed softly. “Okay, so maybe I have been putting on a show for the staff and the clients. So what? It helps to bring in the custom.”

“Oh really, so it's for the staff and the clients? Come on, Todd. What part of dropping the pretence did you not understand?”

He sighed. “Fine. It's to keep my payments down on the lease.”

“You are an ex-Knight's Order commander, with three distinctions. The government is obliged to give you a means of alternate accommodation as well as a start up package. You should not have to pay.”

“Oh, you poor naïve choir boy. Were you not aware that life outside the monastery is never quite black and white?”

Ryan downed the drink in one gulp then banged the glass on the table surface. “Quit it with the patronising chatter, Todd. This isn't boot camp and I know how life works outside. Why do you have to pay?”

“Fine. It's because my lapse of faith is on public record. I have to attend apostate nursery twice a week for two years then go through the tedious process of re-taking my vow under truth serum before I'm cleared.”

For the first time since entering the restaurant, Ryan felt the beginnings of a smile slip over his face. “Truth serum? You had best give up now. You are never going to blag your way through that one.”

“I'm so glad that you find my current predicament funny.”

“Sorry, it is just that you are the most cynical person I know. You question everything. It is why I believe that you became such an outstanding officer.”

The bartender brought Ryan another beer. Todd waited until he had taken one sip. “Are you going to ask her to dance?”

He shrugged. “I will give it another few minutes.”

“Why wait?”

“She is heading to the bathroom,” he replied, smiling.

Todd stood up, he walked around the table, put his hands under Ryan's armpits and lifted him up.

“What are you doing?”

“I am positioning you in the middle of the dancefloor, under the lights, where your girlfriend will see you when she returns. You are also in between her and the bar.” Todd moved him away from the table. “Did you see the Night Lights?”

“No, I missed them.”

“That is a shame. I believe they were the brightest this month. It will have to be the Chinese weapon's platform destroying another one of our old satellites. A good thing too, if you ask me. Who knows how much damage all that scrap could cause if it fell to Earth in one piece.”

“Do you still believe all that rubbish, Todd? There's no such thing as a Chinese weapon's platform. At least, not one that's still operational. Stuff like that is just centuries old propaganda. The Night Lights are nothing but a natural effect.”

“You wonder why I used to call you a naïve choir boy. You're spouting stuff that not even any of The Dispossessed believes. You said it yourself, Ryan. Regrets 12:23 states knowledge must be earned. Remember that bit? Also, only the foolish and the weak blurt out folly.”  Todd placed him in the middle of the dancefloor then walked over to the leaned against the metal bar separating the two sections. “Ryan, can you quote Regrets 13:1?”

“Learn to filter what is the truth from the words that are suggested.”

“Even earned knowledge is not given freely, my friend.”

It took Ryan a few moments to untangle what his friend was trying to say to him. He put that down to the large amount of alcohol that he had already consumed. “So, let me get this in context. You are saying that because I choose not only see what flows through the crack in the wall instead of  pulling that wall down, I'm as ignorant as the rest of the population?”

Todd's face cracked open in a large smile. “You know, I think you have had a little too much to drink. A sober Ryan would not have so skilfully dissected his problem with such ease.” He chuckled. “Still, that's not a bad thing. Now, while I'm solving all your problems tonight, let us focus on the one which matters and that is how to woo back your beautiful girlfriend.” His eyes darted over to the bathroom door. “Speaking of which, your princess returns!”

He spun around, desperately trying to clear his head. Todd was right, He needed to find some way to woo her back. Ryan cleared away enough of the fluff to compose a poem that he was quite proud of but the words turned into gasps of shock and panic when the lights all went out.

“That isn't supposed to happen,” said Todd. “Davis, grab the flashlight from the shelf under the bar and see if you can...”

Ryan's world detonated into a jumbled fury of white light, deafening thunder and flesh-searing flame.

He tried to scream, only for a blast of searing air to pull the breath from his body. Ryan felt his whole body lifted up and fly backwards. He felt like he'd just been swatted by a giant hand. A solid surface stopped his trajectory and Ryan slid down to land in an untidy mess of limbs.

Several seconds past in which Ryan tried and partially succeeded in getting some much-needed oxygen back into his bruised and battered body. As he struggled to breathe, his hearing began to function again and a barrage of screams assaulted his ears.

He took in huge gasps of smoke filled air while fighting down the panic which threatened to send his already battered psyche into a total meltdown. The extra oxygen flooding his system pulled Ryan back from the brink, bringing his senses up from where they had sank.

The realisation that he'd survived some kind of explosion smashed into him at the same time as his vision finally cleared enough for Ryan to discover that the force had thrown him out of the restaurant. It then dawned on him that the blast hadn't thrown him out at all. The restaurant no longer existed.

He tried to stand up, only to fall back onto the rubble. Where the hell was his girlfriend? Ryan pulled himself up onto his knees, frantically looking around for her. “Bernice!” he croaked. Ryan tried to shout her name again only to collapse in a fit of coughing.

The restaurant as well as half the street no longer existed. Ryan managed to get back on his feet without falling over. What he saw made him wish that he had stayed on the ground. A crater now occupied the space where the building once stood, and he realised that Bernice could not have survived whatever had hit them.  Ryan screwed up his eyes and angrily told his subconscious to leave him alone. He had made it out more or less intact and just before this catastrophe occurred there were just a couple of metres between him and Bernice.

He then spun around, remembering he hadn't been alone. Where was Todd, or that bartender? “Please,” he sobbed. “Don't let me be the only survivor.”

Ryan stumbled over to the crater lip, vaguely aware that the blast had damaged some part of his lower anatomy. He hadn't escaped unhurt after all. Ryan dare not look down to inspect the wound, fearing that he'd fall over and not get up again. He had to find Bernice, nothing could get in the way of that!

Something moved. He caught sight of vivid colour contrasting against the blandness of the grey landscape. He stopped and turned his head a little too fast. A sudden wave of dizziness nearly took him down again.

“Bernice?” Ryan shook away the dizziness and stumbled over to the new addition of colour as he neared. The identity soon became apparent and it wasn't his girlfriend. A dust covered figure emerged from under the rubble, crawled closer to Ryan, expelled a long-drawn-out groan before collapsing by his feet.

Todd lifted his head, looked into Ryan's eyes and coughed harshly. “What just happened?” he whispered.

Ryan crouched and gently took hold of his friend's hand. “Are you hurt anywhere, Todd?” He waited until the man shook his head before dropping to his knees. He lifted away the debris from the man's body and visually gave him the once over, looking for any irregularities. “You look fine.” This gave him even more hope that his girlfriend might have made it through this as well.

“Bernice is still missing,” he said, trying to keep himself from breaking down. “She must be around here somewhere.” Ryan turned back towards the crater. “Can you help me find her?” Ryan started to walk over when Todd's hand grabbed his wrist. “What are you doing, man?”

“You can't go that way!”

“What are you talking about?” He tried to shake the grip loose only for his friend to wrap his other hand around his ankle. Ryan could not take this anymore and got ready to rip his fingers away when Ryan heard the sound of a small rock avalanche. “Bernice!” he shouted, turning around, expecting to see her crawling out of that crater. Something had climbed over the crater lip but it wasn't his girlfriend.

“What the hell is that?” cried Ryan, jumping back. Todd had not let go of his ankle, meaning he fell straight onto the other man. He rolled off and lifted his head, only for Todd to push him back down.

“I need you to keep quiet and don't move! Don't even try to breathe, Ryan” ordered Todd. “Movement and sound gets them all excited.”

His emotions were all over the place, and he knew that if he didn't find Bernice, he'd lose most of his mind. He blinked several times while his body obeyed the commands of his old quarter-master sergeant not particularity caring whether he wanted to or not. Ryan stayed motionless, freezing every muscle apart from his eyes. With those, he watched the new arrivals like a hawk. They reminded him of spiders, but these things did not look alive, but, not in the traditional sense of the word. Their body comprised of two, identical sized silver globes. From the globe at the rear, three flexible legs, each one as smooth as the body, propelled the metal spider across the broken landscape with considerable ease. Every so often, the spider would stop and three tiny holes would open in the front sphere and another set of smooth tendril-like legs would emerge and shift around through the rubble before retreated back inside the shell. The metal spider would then move to another location and repeat the process.

Ryan swallowed hard and fought the urge to run over there when the metal spider uncovered something very wet and very red. “Oh no,” he hissed. “It's her, it's Bernice. They've found her!”

“Shut up! You idiot,” said Todd. “You can't let...” He tensed up. “Too late, they're coming!” Todd jumped to his feet and pulled up Ryan. “We need to get out of here, right now.”

“What are they?” he cried, as Todd dragged him away from them. Ryan twisted his body and slapped off his friend's hand. “Okay, I get it, we need to move,” he growled while following Todd through the remains of the destroyed buildings. He turned around to find another four spider machines had crawled out of that crater as well as something altogether more human-like.

Todd saw it too and pulled Ryan back. “This is bad. This is real bad,” he muttered. “Keep quiet, Ryan, and this time, please do as I ask?”

“One last time, Todd,” he growled. “Tell me what is happening.”

“I can't, I'm sorry, I really can't.”

“Thought you'd say that.” Ryan rabbit punched his friend then savagely pushed him back before dodging the other man's outstretched arms and running back the way he came. As Ryan neared the spider-machines, the new arrival's movements changed. Ryan find himself staring at something out of a video-game. It stood over two and half metres tall and clad in a grey, organic-looking armour, approximately a similar shape to a human but the proportions were all wrong. The arms were so much thicker and longer than any human he knew and the legs were half the length. The disparity in shape did not hamper the creature's movement at all. As soon as it saw Ryan it threw itself out of the crater, raced over to the remains of a ground car and leaped onto the roof. It twisted its body and crouched before it lifted its left arm. Several thin tubes extruded from around the wrist. It took Ryan exactly three seconds to understand that this thing had just armed itself, and he was the intended target.

“No you don't, freak. Nobody and nothing is going to shoot me today!” Ryan dived forward. He scrambled across the loose rubble, listening to a high-pitched whine coming from the large creature. He hoped it didn't have any body-heat targeting system built into whatever was to come out of those tubes. Ryan suddenly found himself just inches away from one of the spider-machines. He reached for it and grabbed hold of one of its legs. It too released a noise but this one sounded more like an electronic scream. Ryan swung it around his head the released it in the direction of the creature.

He then picked up a lump of concrete and threw that towards it as well. The creature dodged both improvised missiles then jumped off the roof of the ground car and landed against an undamaged wall, clinging to the red bricks like some huge, grey, bipedal insect. It raised its arms once more, pointing it straight at Ryan.

“Get down, you idiot!” shouted Todd.

He threw himself down, just as the creature fired. Half a dozen micro-missiles flew harmlessly over Ryan's head and detonated against a parked up hover-carrier, turning the two-decker passenger vehicle into molten slag. The creature ran up the building and reached the roof, then clambered onto the angled slates, knocking most of them into the street as the heavy creature clambered towards them.

Todd reached Ryan and jumped into the shallow. “You sure know how to make everything complicated, don't you!” he yelled. His former NCO, reached behind him and pulled out a short range blaster of a type that Ryan had never seen before.

“Look, I really am sorry about Bernice.” Todd handed Ryan the pistol. “You need to leave. You need to leave right now before...”

“Before what?”

Todd pushed him to the ground and fell on him. “It's too late.”

“I will shoot you in the guts with with thing if you don't start making sense.”

Todd grabbed Ryan's head and forcibly turned it to face the night sky. The Night Lights were in full force tonight but one of them outshone them all, and it gained in intensity, until it Ryan had to look away for fear it would burn out his retinas. It's only when the light blinked out and two bright streams of green energy blasted out from the light's location, vaporising the other humanoid creature and the side of the building when he understood exactly what now hovered a few metres above their head.

“No, I refuse to accept this. This has got to be a dream or some kind of drugged hallucination.” Todd climbed off Ryan and stood up then moved away from him. Ryan looked at the weapon, turning it over and over, while feeling for some kind of switch which, when pushed, would open up a small compartment where the batteries were stored. As he watched the man whom he thought he knew walk towards the descending spaceship, it became crucial to Ryan to prove to himself that this device was just a simple toy. If he could prove that then perhaps this whole façade would unravel. The spaceship would vanish, so would Todd and the burning buildings. That heavy dread which pressed on his guts, knowing that his beautiful girlfriend had most likely been incinerated in the initial explosion would never exist and he could go back to the point where the most important thing in his life was whether to have fish for dinner or beef.

It did not shock him in the slightest when the spaceship landed next to Todd and a hatchway slid back to reveal a perfectly normal looking human who climbed down and shook Todd's hand. Humans in outer space, why not? If this was a drug-fuelled delusion then of course their species should have conquered the stars.

Ryan could not find anything on the gun which resembled a catch or button or anything similar. He so wanted to fling the device at the two approaching men but the best he was able to achieve was to drop in in between his legs.

“Who is he?”

Todd picked up the gun. “An old friend.” He placed the pistol back into it holster. “We have to take him with us.”

The stranger shook his head. “You know the rules. “We can't allow it.”

“Don't give me that. We both know the situation.”

Ryan's heavy dread refused to leave his body, as the truth of the situation began to eat away any lingering doubts that what he was witnessing right now was no illusion. The man, standing next to Todd was not truly human. A relation of his species perhaps, related to us like a wolf is related to a dog. His eyes were a little too far apart and like the other humanoid, his body proportions were not quite right, not as distorted as the other guy but it was still apparent.

“This isn't a dream, is it.”

Todd turned his head, gave him a slight shake of the head then turned back to the other figure. “We can't leave him here, you heartless Danu bastard. He's not collateral, he's my friend and he's lost everything dear to him. We really don't have a choice.”

Ryan didn't understand the creature's reply, He spoke no language that Ryan understood.

Todd left him by that spaceship and came back to Ryan, he crouched by his side. “You have to come with us.”

“Wait, what? No. I'm not going anywhere until I find my girlfriend. He tried to sit up, only for Todd to push him back down. When he tried again, Ryan found the muzzle of that gun pressed into his chest. Something told him that the device really was no toy.”

“Don't make this any harder than it already is. I am serious about you not staying here. You are a witness to this. The clean up crew will delete your presence when they arrive to put everything back as it was.” Todd sighed heavily then reached for Ryan's hand. “Please come with us, Ryan.” Todd pointed at the three spider machine who were still examining the surroundings. “Don't you want to avenge the people who killed your girlfriend? Come with us and that could be a possibility.”

Ryan looked at the spider machines, then at Todd before he stared at the other man. “Where are we going?”

The other man turned to Todd then to Ryan. “We are going to Mars.”

Chapter Three

The Arrival

He felt her warm breath flow over his cheek. Ryan turned his head to face her. Bernice pushed herself across his soft grey pillow, kissed the tip of his nose then rolled onto her back, giggling when he tried to kiss her in response.

“Now, you wait right there, mister,” she said. Bernice folded back the covers, slipped out of bed and padded over to the open window. The full moon gave Ryan enough light to make out her body contours beneath her shimmering colourglow nightdress. He so wanted to go over to the woman and glide his hands up and down her body while planting kisses on the back of her neck. Ryan had been told not to move, and he wasn't going to disobey that order. Instead, he closed his eyes and allowed his imagination to do the work.

“Ryan.”

He opened his eyes.

“You do know that I'm not really here, my love.”

He nodded once then shut his eyes again. A fat tear squeezed through his eyelid, rolled down his cheek and landed on the pillow. Ryan knew this, he just didn't want to think about that just now. He kept his eyes shut tight and focused on remembering how her soft skin felt under his fingers and the soft scent of her freshly washed hair used to feel as it brushed across his face as they made love.

Used to. There it was, his own admission that none of this was real. The despair which threatened to pull his body into a dark pit drifted towards the perimeter when he sensed Bernice return to the side of the bed. He opened his eyes to find she had put on his dark blue dressing gown. Ryan opened his mouth, ready to spout out one of his standard quips but nothing appeared. From the corner of his eye, Ryan noticed the creeping shadow was just a metre away from her shapely legs. “How am I supposed to make you a coffee when you've stolen that?”

She turned around and kicked at the lingering blackness. It vanished through the cracks in the floorboards. Bernice turned back to face him. “Ryan, the drugs are beginning to wear off.” She bent over the bed and ran her finger down the side of his face. “You'll be waking up soon. Before you leave this place, remember that I'll always be here, in our bedroom, waiting for you to come back and don't worry about that, my love. It won't be coming back. Not ever.”

Ryan grabbed her wrist. “No, I don't you to go. I don't want to go. Please, don't leave me?”

The surroundings and all noise faded away, leaving him feeling both physically and mentally numb but the lack of sensation lasted less than a second before cold, hard reality slammed into him. Ryan's body altered from feeling like he was on fire to becoming cold enough to stop his heart. He snapped open his eyes and found himself staring into the distorted face of some giant pink monster.

Some limited functionality returned to his waking mind, allowing Ryan to make sense of the confusing riot of colour exploding in front of him. He tried to sit up and grunted in shock when his forehead slammed against a hard surface. Lying back down gave him a better chance to finally work out where he was. He had been placed in a glass box. That familiar panic simmered just under the surface at this realisation and it took a great deal of effort not to submit to the irrational fear that some unknown fiend had buried him alive.

He had wires attached to his arms and thighs. That wouldn't happen if whoever had done this wished him dead. Ryan lifted both arms and traced his fingers against the walls. The material felt different, softer. More compliant than the window above his head. Ryan pushed his fingers as hard as he could,  gaining hope when his fingers sank deeper into the flexible material. Ryan might actually be able to escape the confines of this prison after all.

The pink face returned, this time it had brought a friend. Ryan jumped when all the wires dropped out if his body and the casket lid lifted. His friend, Todd peered inside. Their gaze met. Todd gave him a reassuring smile as he helped Ryan to sit up.

“Hey, take it slow, buddy,” he said when Ryan tried to climb out. “You need to give your body a bit longer to come around first. Don't worry, Ryan. You're safe in here.”

“Where exactly is here?” he murmured. Ryan managed to sit up with a little help from Todd. He scanned the room in confusion while impatiently waiting for the last pieces of his memory to come flooding back. There was another casket beside this one. He reached out and ran his fingers along the surface, surprised at its texture. It reminded him a little of firm flesh, not at all what he'd imagined. Ryan looked up at Todd, who simply supplied him with an enigmatic smile. The walls behind the man were the same dull gun-metal grey as everything else. The room had no sharp edges at all.

“This feels like a hospital but it isn't one I've ever been inside.”

“Oh, man, you really are out of it.” He pulled out a small box-shaped object, the size of his index finger and the same colour as everything else in here. Todd placed it on Ryan's forehead. “Not bad, it appears that the magic juice the Danu pumped into you before he placed you into the sleep-pod has done its job. That's some good news at least.”

The whole host of new and unfamiliar words from Todd's last sentence, set off fireworks inside Ryan's head. Random images, sounds and emotions fought with each other as they all attempted to make themselves understood. He saw himself with Bernice, walking hand in hand up the town's high street as well as listening to low music drifting from a hidden speaker behind a restaurant wall and finally, Ryan experienced, second-hand, toned down versions of all those intense emotions which slammed into him moments after he finally understood that Bernice was never climbing out of that crater hole.

He took a deep breath and waited for the heart clinch to cripple him yet nothing happened. Ryan just sat inside that casket, vaguely wondering if the nurses in this strange looking hospital were ever going to feed him.

Todd leaned over and helped him out. “What do you remember?”

He frowned. “Pretty much everything. Apart from where I am. I still don't know that, Todd.” He looked at his friend. “Why am I not crying for Bernice?”

“You'll find out in a second, I guess. Come on, let's get the rest of the shocks out of the way while you're still as high as a kite.” Todd guided him across the floor, which, like the casket surface, felt warm and organic under his bare feet. The sensation was not altogether unpleasant but it did make Ryan cringe every so often.

Todd stopped directly in front of a blank wall, pulled out the small box thing and attached it to the wall. Ryan blinked rapidly, a little shocked as a section of the wall slid back to reveal yet another room. Unlike the one he and Todd was still in, this one wasn't so bland. Todd walked inside and motioned Ryan to do the same.

The humanoid figure whom he remembered as Danu, sat in a long leather chair at the back of the room. He swivelled around when he and Todd entered and nodded once to his friend before smiling at Ryan.

“I am glad to see you awake and about. How do you feel?”

What sort of a question was that? Ryan simply shrugged. It seemed to be the safest option. He examined the wall behind Danu which was full of flashing lights and an assortment of switches. The feeling that he was in a hospital rapidly began to fade. The idea vanished altogether when he just happened to the look to the side past where Todd stood. “I do not believe this,” he croaked. Ryan kept swallowing while pushing past his friend walking straight to the side wall, straight to the view screen which dominated that wall. He stopped about a metre from the viewscreen and stared into space, literally.

Todd joined him. “Impressed?” He rested his hand on Ryan's shoulder. “We thought it would be best if we allowed you to see for yourself.”

“Is that, wait, is that another planet?”

“It is Mars,” replied the other individual, “and it is our destination. We are coming into land within a couple of minutes.”

Ryan spun around and stared at the pair of them. “You are serious?”

Todd nodded. “Of course. You have been in the stasis-pod for nine days. The Danu and I thought it was best to leave you in there for the whole journey. He also injected you with a synaptic stabiliser which gave you time to grieve for your loss.”

“It is said that amongst your people that time is the best healer. This is, to some degree true but as time is not a possession which we can manipulate, I installed a memory companion. It had to be done, and I am sorry about that.”

Ryan wasn't too sure what any of that meant. Right now, after what he had just found out, he decided not to dwell on it. “Wait, you're an alien, a Danu?”

Todd abruptly laughed. “No, Ryan, not at all.”

“What is it then because there is no way that it's human.”

“It's best to think of The Danu as a distant relative, Ryan. Their species evolved on Earth, just like ours did. They just left the planet before we came on the scene.”

“You were already on the scene by that time, Todd. Your species were too busy killing each other with rocks and sticks to take much notice of our departure” He went back over to his chair. “We are ready for descent. Please find a chair and prepare yourself.”

“Is this going to be rough?”

The Danu shook his head. “Remember Todd's words about seeing for yourself? Turn to face the viewscreen and observe.”

Ryan did as he asked. He sat beside Todd and watched the ship fly at an impossible speed towards the surface. Todd slapped his hand against his stomach.

“Before you say it. No, we're not going to crash. This is perfectly normal.”

The ship plummeted towards the surface and despite his friend's words, Ryan still wanted to scream out in terror as the surface sped towards them. It was only at the last couple of seconds when the ship braked to a halt, hovering about two metres from the ground. If anyone was standing under the ship they'd be able to reach up and touch the underside.

“That couldn't have happened. It's impossible.”

“If you say so,” replied the Danu. “Please continue watching, we are almost there.”

Two large metal hatches  on the Martian soil slowly slid back to show a perfectly circular well. Once the hatches were far enough apart, the ship dropped into the hole, falling down for a couple more seconds before abruptly halting and flying forwards. The viewscreen shut off and the interior lights changed from a muted yellow to a harsh white.

The Danu left his seat, turned to the right and walked over to another blank grey wall.

Todd caught Ryan's arm. “This is where the fun and games start. Whatever you see out there, please try to stay calm. We both need you in one piece and functional. Okay, are you ready for this?”

Ryan didn't even know where to start to respond to that question. He watched the Danu produce his own small grey box and attach it to the wall. “Fine, I'll stay calm. After what I've been through, I doubt there's anything left that could possible surprise me.”

“I wish you hadn't said that,” muttered Todd. “Come on, let's go get you introduced to the locals.”

Another hatchway opened and the Danu walked through it. Ryan couldn't see anything beyond the wall apart from more greyness. He wasn't even sure if the humanoid had even left the ship. He mentally shrugged and followed Todd through the hatchway.

The contrast in noise, movement and colour from the ship's interior to wherever he had reached almost blew away whatever calmness Ryan had managed to collect since waking up in that steel coffin.

He walked straight onto the deck of a busy military base. At least, that's how it appeared once his mind was able to process the almost overwhelming amount of noise and new visual data. Todd grabbed his shoulders as soon as his feet touched the ground and steadied him.

“You need to keep quiet now, Ryan. We don't really know how this is going to play out.”

He resisted the urge to ask his friend just where the hell they were and what this place was as he wasn't too sure whether he'd be able to cope understand Todd's reply. Keeping quiet and observing did sound like the safest bet.

It didn't matter where Ryan cast his gaze, the comparison of his new environment to the base where he trained could not be denied. Their ship had touched down on what appeared to be some kind of landing pad. Other spacecraft of the same design as well as numerous other types of craft, both smaller than theirs and larger, filled the interior. As with most other military bases, the colour grey dominated the scene, from the spacecrafts to the floors and walls. Ryan lifted his head and observed the lifeforms which filled in the spaces not occupied by machinery. They too wore mainly grey.

Ryan spotted plenty more of his own species with mainly Danu forming the rest of the majority. Not he was able to see this more of this species, Ryan could easily tell them apart from the humans, from their shape, proportion as well as their smooth, liquid-like movements. From what he could make out, there was no species hierarchy. Both races fitted into either troops or officers. That surprised him. From what he could make out, the Danu developed and created all of this advanced technology. He saw nothing he recognised from either military service or civilian life.

Even the large amount of signage around the base was incomprehensible. The alien script was like nothing he had ever seen before. What threw him more than anything was that the longer he stared at it, the more confused he became. It felt like it tried to imprint itself on his mind without him knowing what it said. Ryan quickly turned away, fearing the stuff would give him a headache.

He stayed close behind Todd, as the three of them walked towards another human. Ryan almost smiled to himself when the middle-aged, muscular male, wearing a light grey tunic, grey combat pants and black boots marched over to the Danu and stopped directly in front of him. The man's hard eyes gave them all a quick once-over before switching that steel gaze on the Danu. They might be on another planet and surrounded by non-humans but Ryan drew comfort that some things never altered. This man was clearly in charge of something on this base. The man reminded Ryan of a certain gunnery sergeant he knew back when he and Todd were serving together. Even down to the short-cropped salt and pepper coloured hair and the knotted muscles aching to break out of the man's thin clothing.

Ryan then noticed something from the corner of his eye, there was another moving colour amongst this ocean of grey. An individual wearing orange heading straight for them. He had to force a fist into his mouth when the crowd parted and a seven-foot reptilian monster stopped behind the other man, saluted then bowed its head.

“What the fuck is that?” he hissed.

Todd quickly turned his head. “Don't panic, they're on our side. Now hush. We still don't know how this will go.”

The reptile left the package by the man's feet then hurried back in the same direction. Ryan watched the orange jump-suited creature, still wondering if he had really seen that. Todd said that they're on our side, meaning that there must be more of them. It also brought up the possibility that the thing could even be sentient. Now he understood Todd's off-handed reply about nothing surprising Ryan.

“You are three days overdue. Would you care to explain the delay?”

“Marauder patrols, sir. We had no choice but to come in via stealth for fear of discovery.”

“That is an interesting story. Perhaps you stopped to pick up passengers too?” He glared at both Todd and Ryan. “Care to explain why you brought these two unauthorised civilians?”

“They are here to join the great cause, sir.”

The human nodded while stroking his chin. “Yes, I’m sure they are. These fine specimens are just what we are looking for. Well done.” He turned around and clicked his fingers. Another Danu and a human, both dressed in identical uniforms. They stopped and saluted. “Put these two on the next Terran bound transport and place that Danu liar in the brig.”

“This is not going the way we planned,” growled Todd. “Ryan, you're going to have to trust me on this.”

“Trust you on what?”

“You'll see.” He ran up to the Danu guard, slapped away his slender arm and snatched his gun straight out of his holster.

All three humans found this act highly amusing. Joviality was one emotion that Ryan was not feeling at this present time. Todd obviously had a death wish.

“And what were you planning on doing with that, my rather ignorant friend? asked the deck officer. “Has your Danu pal not informed you that us humans are not able to operate their weapons?”

Todd ran back over to Ryan and slapped the gun into his open palm. “Okay, here we go. Point it at the Danu guard, Ryan, and shoot him.”

They had attracted a sizeable crowd now of both species. He looked at the Danu guard who appeared unconcerned that his friend had stolen his gun. The only person he knew who wasn't finding this situation amusing was him.

“Don't worry, it's on a low setting,” barked Todd. It won't hurt him, besides, the guard is wearing armour.”

This brought even more merriment. The laughter increased when Ryan brought the gun up and pointed it at the Danu guard. He looked over at Todd who hurriedly gestured him to get on with it. He pressed the trigger and the whole hanger bay fell silent when the guard collapsed into an untidy pile of limbs.

The deck officer grabbed Ryan, pulled the gun out of his fingers and handed it to a human guard. “Enough of these games!” he shouted. “You have orders, both of you,” he said glaring at the guards. “I’ve changed my mind about the humans. Throw them in the brig as well.”

The Danu who had brought them here lifted up the Danu guard. He looked as astonished as the rest of his kind. He stared at Todd. “How did you know this was going to happen?”

His friend had no chance to reply. Two human guards grabbed an arm each and pulled him across the hanger deck. Another two human guards took hold of Ryan arms, and he found himself following his friend. He didn't struggle, there seemed no point. After all, even if, by some miracle, he did manage to get free, where would he go? Ryan took his eyes off the back of Todd's head and watched the reactions of the people they were passing. Most of the humans were staring at him while the Danu all bowed their heads when he passed.

“What's going on here?”

The guard to his left laughed. “You really don't know?”

His companion gripped Ryan's arm a little tighter. “Of course he doesn't, he's a bluelander. A spoilt, soft babyman who probably still lives with mummy.” The guard sneered at Ryan. “Go on, tell me I'm not wrong here, bluelander. So, you wanted to join our cause? I bet you have no idea what is happening here, do you?”

Ryan wasn't all that sure what a bluelander could be, but he did have an idea. After all, the babyman bit did kind of fit the description of most Earth civilians.

“Look at that face, Garth. He really has no idea!”

The guard on the left chuckled. “Shame he won't live long enough to find out.” He caught up with the other three as they walked through a security door and into a wide corridor, hewn from the Martian rock.

“Are you going to kill us?” asked Ryan.

The left guard stopped. “Of course we’re not going to kill you. We're not savages. Besides, I don't think the Danu would allow us, not after the trick you have just pulled. No, we're going to do what our commander ordered us to do. Throw you in the brig.”

The guard on the right leaned in close. “Why bother killing you when the marauders are likely to do just that when they arrive.” He grinned. To be honest, you haven’t chosen the best moment to join our cause. You see, we're evacuating the planet. Four marauder battleships and a dreadnought carrier group are about to reach orbit.”

“And you're leaving us behind?” gasped Ryan.

The guard on the right nodded happily. “You catch on quick. Bluelander babyman. Perhaps you'll be able impress the real aliens with your pointless talent? It may keep them amused before they rip off your skin and eat your insides.”

Chapter Four

Meet The Natives

The blaring sound of that alarm which threatened to shake Ryan's bones from out of his body shut off, leaving him shaking like a leaf. He slowly lifted his head from the floor of this cramped and filthy cell and crawled over to the other occupant, lying on the other end of the cell, while doing his best not to throw up.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked. Ryan had no idea what the other guy's name was. The alarms started just seconds after the two guards had thrown him in here. He could still see their mocking glares while Ryan gripped the metal bars and screamed at them to come back.

The other guy, another human, lifted himself up onto all fours and wearily nodded twice. “I hate it when that happens. You can't hear the noise up on the decks, you know. The loudness is for our benefit alone.” He kneeled up and turned his head, staring at Ryan. He frowned. “I thought I knew every human currently on the base, that is, until you and your pal arrived.” He slowly got to his feet and wobbled.

Ryan rushed over, grabbed hold of him and guided the man over to the stone bench at the back of the cell. He looked about ten years older than him, with long greasy black, curly hair which grew over his eyes. The man kept brushing it back only for the hair to fall back down a couple of seconds later.

“Are you going to be alright?”

“You are so considerate, my new friend. An attribute not usually felt around here, for the obvious reasons.” He groaned again. “You know, I think I'll be glad when the aliens get here. At least I'll never have to put up with that alarm again.” He stretched his arms out and yawned. When he'd finished the man looked back at Ryan. “I knew there was something different about you as soon as those bastards dragged you and your pal down here. The translator mech doesn’t quite do your rather musical accent justice. At first, I thought you might be from the mining colony as I know for a fact that you are not beltborn. Then, I changed my mind. Even miners are able to adjust to the gravity difference. You two do not do this. I found this a little strange. It’s almost like you haven’t been into space before.” The man then chuckled. “Now, after much observation, I think differently. “You two are bluelanders!”

Ryan nodded. “I take it that's what you called humans born on Earth? If so, then yes. I'm a bluelander. I'm Ryan by the way.”

“An actual bluelander? This is extraordinary! Oh, your name is Ryan? Sorry. I am Villas.” He jumped up and enthusiastically shook his hand. “I can't believe it, an actual bluelander. At least I can now go to my grave knowing that I now know that you people really do exist. Of course, we did know that you did exist but as you people never bothered to help us in our struggle, we all believed that you were a myth. I discontinuity, I know but that is how it works up here. Our lives are full of discontinuities.”

Ryan wasn’t too sure what that meant so he focused on what he did know. “Are they really going to evacuate this place and leave us down here?”

Villas shrugged. “Yes. This is another discontinuity. It's how it works, I'm afraid. Look, don't look so worried, my new friend. The Marauders don't always kill and eat the prisoners. They hardly ever kill us. The Danu and the Velicions? Well,” he grinned and tapped the side of his nose. “We all know what those things like to do to them.” He opened his mouth, then shut it again. “Oh, no, you don’t. You are a bluelander. Well, you will soon find out.” Villas walked past Ryan and walked over to the bars. “Time is short, why don't you tell me what you did on planet-side?” He turned around. “No, wait, let me guess. I'm generally good at guessing.” Villas pushed his forefinger into the side of his mouth and imitated a low-pitched hum. He stopped, blink twice and grinned. “I bet you were some kind of soldier?” He pointed to the ceiling with that wet forefinger. “No, don't interrupt me. It's all in the pose, you see. Even in the lower gravity, it still shows. The way you carry yourself. You're a man who knows how to make a bed, polish his boots and murder other soldiers. Am I right or am I right? I am right. I know I am. It is one of my many gifts.”

Villas sat back down on the bench. Looking really pleased with himself. Ryan wasn't sure whether he liked this man at all.  Then again, considering the fate waiting for all of them, he didn't think he really mattered. Ryan walked back over to the bars and tried to see if he could see Todd.

From what his limited view, it looked as though this area contained another five cells. Two cells to his left and three opposite. Where was Todd? He was about to shout his name when Villas slapped him on the back of the shoulder.

“I should not even be in here, you know. I'm an innocent man.” He squeezed in beside him and the wall, blocking his view. “I'm a cook, you see. The best cook on this planet too.”

Somebody laughed. The sound came from the far cell on the opposite.

“Yes, I am a great cook. It's one of my many gifts.”

The laughter started up again. “You could burn water!” yelled the voice.

“Shut your hole, Barnaby, what do you know?”

“I do know not to eat anything that you cooked.”

The little man didn't look like he was going to move away from those bars so Ryan decided to sit on that bench. This whole situation had given him a mild headache as well as tiring him out. “Okay, so you're a cook. Why are you in here?”

“He poisoned the whole crew of a cargo lifter.” shouted the voice.

“It was an accident!” Villas shouted back.

“No it wasn't you...”

Ryan made out the voice of somebody else, a deep booming voice. The other voice started up again, yelling out that Villas ought to eat some of his own food, when Ryan heard the sound of flesh slapping against flesh.

“Go on, Villas, it is appropriate to speak now.” said the deep voice. “Please continue with your tale. The stories that we can tell in the time allowed are all that we have left to look forward to now.”

“It was an accident,” murmured Villas. I had no idea that there were any Velicion on board and I certainly wouldn't intentionally want to hurt any of them. They are such beautiful creatures.” He sighed heavily.

“Wait, you said you were on a cargo freighter? I can the impression that there is a war on? Isn't there a chance of the enemy blowing you away?”

“Oh my, you really are a bluelander! Space is a big place, and those freighter captains are a wily bunch. Most trade is conducted in the belt. An area where no large ship would dare enter for fear of a chance collision.” The man stopped talking. “You look so confused, my friend.”

Ryan nodded. “Until today, I had no idea any of this even existed.”

“Well, now you do.” Villas turned his head. “Oh, I can see your friend.”

He walked back over to the bars and saw Todd looking right at him.

“I'm sorry I got you into this, Ryan. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing.”

“It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong.”

Todd coughed into his hand. “I not sure that's true. You see, I knew about your specific talent from years ago. Do you remember how you had no problem in using any weapon, back in training camp? Even the holy instructors were shocked at the ease you could master a weapon.”

“Sure I remember. What has that got to do with anything?”

“Unbeknown to you or the instructors, one of the weapons you fired once belonged to a Danu soldier.”

“So, it is true?” gasped Villas. “You really can fire their guns?”

“What about Velicion weapons?” asked the deep voice. “Can he fire ours as well?”

It took a few moments for the revelation to sink in and what it meant for his relationship with that man over there, gazing back at him through the bars.

“So, the Velicions are those lizard people, right?” How could he possibly sound so calm? His blood had already reached boiling point after he had finally woken up to the revelation that Todd had been manipulating him from the very start. If there weren't two sets of bars separating him from Todd, Ryan would have killed the bastard.

“That is right,” said Villas, “Perhaps I can offer some valuable advice? It is not wise to call them lizard people though, my friend. They do tend to get a bit upset, you see.” A big grin stretched across his face. “I must say, I am a bit jealous of you right now. All this is new for you. How exciting. Allow me to give you some history then. They were the first of the Terrestrials. The first sentient life-form to evolve on the homeworld. The original Bluelander. After the apocalypse, the Danu then appeared and then we arrived on the scene. I so wish I could be here in a few more million years to find out what comes after us.”

Ryan had to tune out his voice. It was the only thing he could do to stop himself from lashing out in pure frustration and fury and to make matters even worse, the source of all this anger stood opposite him, looking like it was him who had lost everything precious to his existence. “You murdered my Bernice, you heartless bastard.”

“Please, man. Don't go down this path. I had no idea that was going to happen. I thought that.” Todd shook his head then looked at his feet. “Never mind. What does it matter? We're all going to die soon anyway.”

“No!” yelled Ryan. “You can't get out of it like that. Tell me why you did it.  Explain why she had to die?”

“For crying out loud, Ryan. What will it take to convince you that the events were out of my control?” He put up his hands. “Okay, you got me. Maybe I hadn't been entirely truthful during the years we had known each other but I had no other choice, Ryan. I had to protect you. If you knew how important you were to the cause then maybe you would understand.”

Ryan turned around and walked back to the bench. He didn't want to hear anymore of Todd's lies. He had enough of those to last him a lifetime, however long that was going to be. Villas stayed by the bars for a few more seconds before joining Ryan on the bench.

“It hurts so much when you lose someone you love so dearly. Trust me, my friend. I know these things.”

“You don't know shit,” he snapped back. “Please, just go sit somewhere else and stop talking.”

“You are. I mean, you were a soldier. Your instructors must have taught you how to face death and how to deal with the sudden loss. Why is this any different? We are at war, my friend. Best to bury your grief. It will not help in this situation.”

“This is not my war.”

“That is where you are wrong. I now understand why some of the others call bluelanders babymen. It is because you are. None of you bluelander are even aware of the war. Am I right, or am I right?”

Ryan sighed heavily. “Go on.”

“It is simple. The Marauders want to destroy all lifeforms that originated from the homeworld. The Danu and the Velicions are the only ones with the technology that is capable of stopping them. If you knew the utter contempt these aliens have for the Terrestrials, especially the oldest race then you might understand. If it is true what your friend said about your unique ability then you might even hold the key to turning this conflict around and perhaps this is why your friend went to such extreme lengths to keep you safe.”

“I said, leave me alone.”

He patted Ryan's knee. “Clearly, I'm not getting through. I don't suppose it matters much anyway. They will be here shortly. Are you a believer? I'm guessing that you are. You see...”

“Don't bother. You know these things, right?”

Villas nodded. “Exactly. So would it not be best to at least allow your friend to continue with his explanation? If you can not make peace with his intent then at least you should try to understand his reasoning?”

Ryan stood up. He walked back towards the front of the cell, not entirely sure how that little man had persuaded him to go through with this. Ryan wrapped his fingers around the bars, noting that Todd was already there. Had the man even moved? They were no longer alone. Villas joined Ryan, and he saw Todd's cellmate for the first time, another human male who desperately needed a shave. He glared at the cook then gave Ryan a dismissive smirk before vanishing into the darkness. The cell next to Todd contained the two voices that he heard earlier. One more human male, who looked to be in worse condition that the man in the next cell and the huge lizard man. That thing looked strong enough to bend the bars and escape. It had to be twice the mass of the human next to it and the body structure suggested that this Velicion did not munch on plants. No wonder that human looked so scared. Ryan didn't think he would be too happy at the prospect of being locked up with a talking Tyrannosaur either.

“Ryan. I really am sorry for what has transpired. I wanted to meet with you alone do you not remember?”

He did remember. In fact, a Todd made it very clear that he wanted nobody else there. With everything that had happened to him, that minor detail had slipped his mind.

“I didn't really expect that Marauder needleship to crash into my restaurant either. What what our Danu pilot said, He tried to wing his craft before it entered low orbit. The targeting computer did register two hits but it didn't look like the needleship had taken any damage. That is, until it failed to pull up.”

Villas repeatedly tapped Ryan on the shoulder. “I'm sorry to disturb you but I think they are here,” he hissed, pointing to the outer cell door. “The Marauders. They are in the base!”

“How do you know?” asked Ryan. “No alarms have gone off.”

Villas sank to the ground. “Trust me on this. I know these things.” The little man lifted his head and gazed at Ryan. “ And I was lying about them earlier,” he said. “They hate humans just as much as the other two Terrestrials. The only difference with us compared with the Danu and the Velicions is that they don't ever subject us to torture. They have no need, they simply tear pieces from our screaming bodies and eat us alive.”

He spun around and grabbed the bars again. “Todd. So how do we get out of this place?” It took him a couple of moments to respond.

“I honestly have no idea.”

“That is not what I wanted to hear. Are you serious?”

“I thought that once the Danu saw your ability, everything would be alright. I never expected them to be evacuating the base, nor did I think they would throw us in here!”

“So now what do we do?”

“We will die down here. That is certain,” growled the Velicion. “We will take some of them with us. That too is certain.” He turned to the human next to him.” Do not worry. Although I find you irritating, you are not the enemy so the Marauders will not eat you alive. The death will be painless as I shall kill you myself.”

Chapter Five

A Linchpin Decision

The human male looked nothing like she had imagined. Faylar Unit-Twelve-C had always imagined the reincarnation of the legendary Danu warrior Taylish to look more Danu than human. She mentally chuckled to herself. Of course she expected that. Which Danu wouldn't believe that the nearest they had to any kind of deity would more resemble their species as opposed to the human savages.

It brought her no pleasure to find the established mental image of the warrior who would bring the three races salvation irrevocably changed but Faylar could learn to live with it. That slight smile had yet to leave her face. Perhaps she might have drawn a tiny amount of satisfaction to find that her old Wordmasters had got it wrong. Of course, one hundred and thirty thousand years ago, when her essence had a body born from a Danu female instead of this annoying collection of cloned cells, the human species were nothing but another upright tribal primate, struggling to stay alive upon the large, southern landmass. Not one Danu honestly believed that the species would become anything more than a clever animal.

She remembered the tales of the exploits of the last of the Danu warriors, about how he fought the Velicion hordes and also how that warrior became the great diplomat who finally managed to bring the two races together after thousands of years of fighting. Of course, there were some voices who spoke of an alternate tale of how Taylish could only bring the races together because they faced a threat which could destroy them all. Faylar Unit-Twelve-C chose to believe the former, mainly due that everybody knew that the Marauders only became a threat long after the races became one. By the time they made contact with their bitter enemy, the two races had long since left their homeworld. It is ironic to know that if the original Terrestrials had never come into conflict then the humans would have not had had the opportunity to become the dominant planetary species for it had always been their intention to return. Unfortunately, the war lasted much longer than any race had even thought possible.

The Danu male operating the data terminal next to her, stood up and soundlessly left the operations room. She found it odd yet perfectly acceptable not to know the name of the male who had sat next to her ever since the time of the last base re-occupation.

With him gone, Faylar was the last Danu in this section. She would not be leaving her workstation until her human commander gave her the order, if that ever came.

If they did re-occupy this base after they had fought off the Marauders then Faylar decided to try to start a conversation with the Danu male, even if it is to discover his name and which clone batch he originated. Perhaps it was time to emulate the humans desire for change. If the warrior Taylish can have the sheer audacity of sharing his great mind with a human then should the rest of their kind not try to emulate his example and attempt to break free from the reins of their genetics?

Faylar waited until every other Danu in occupying the section opposite were totally engrossed in their work before discreetly swapping her screen to show the camera display in the cells. The human sat on a bench next to another prisoner. He didn't seem to be doing anything apart from, perhaps meditating? She recalled Taylish used to meditate regularly, especially before the start of a great battle.

She wasn't sure how the warrior was going to defeat the Marauders once they did take the base and their bounty but Faylar had every confidence that the alien enemy would not survive the encounter. Taylish would not have allowed the stupid humans to lock him up if he did not have a plan.

How could the humans not see the gift which fell straight into their laps? It did not make any sense. Surely, one of the commanders must have realised what they had within their grasp. As ridiculous as it was, not one of them questioned the order to incarcerate him, even when every single Danu on the deck dropped to their knees.

Faylar noticed the proximity sensor discreetly flashing moment before a collective sigh echoed around the operations room. She hurriedly switched her monitor back to the screen she was supposed to be studying before turning around to await their visitor.

A light blue haze appeared a metre above the central podium. Moments later, their human commander's holo-matrix image stepped out through the haze. He took precious time to address the remaining Danu operators by their given titles as only a human would before he finally turned to face her.

“Bad news, I'm afraid, Faylar. It looks like this one is going to be another damage limitation operation, meaning the augments have to be running at full power.” He nodded slowly. “Yes, I'm aware that it'll hurt you but there's no other way. The Marauders are already at the surface defence wall. We don't have much time.” The Base Commander paused and licked his lips. “I need to know if you're up to this amount of pressure.”

Faylar wasn't sure whether this human was paying her some kind of weird human compliment or questioning her abilities. Inter-species human  interaction always confused Faylar. She found it truly bizarre to find that although the Danu and the Human were genetically closer, the Danu had an easier time talking to Velicions.

"I am prepared, Commander Lindstrom. I have already shunted the appropriate subroutines into my guest cortex." She ran her slender fingers down her white one-piece tunic, still wondering why the human asked her that question. This was her job. Nobody in the base was qualified or experienced. Faylar had never failed before. Was he showing her affection? She decided to replay this interaction at a later date to see if she had missed any subtle hand or eyes gestures that the humans are so fond of using. If that did not help then perhaps she could log the runclip with the auto-Wordmasters to see if they could make discover what she had missed.

The human nodded again. "Good luck," he smiled. "Try not to miss the last transport out, Faylar." The holo-matrix image vanished and a few seconds later, the remaining five Danu operators stood up as one and trooped out of the operations room. Just like the Danu male, not one of them acknowledged her presence. She frowned, wondering why she even questioned their behaviour.

The other operators were heading for their private booths on board the most heavily armed ship in the joint fleet. Once she had finished her preparations, Fayler would be heading for the ship too. Within the ship's central core, she had her own booth to fit inside where she would connect with the rest of her squad.

As the base primary augmented pilot, it was her job to remote link to the Danu attack cloud platform, positioned in stationary orbit on the other side of the planet. The Terrestrial defence orbiters hadn't been able to stop the Marauder ground forces as they always infiltrated in unarmed stealth landers. Faylar's task was to destroy as many Marauder fighters which came in on the second wave, so their ships could get off the planet before the enemy's reinforcements arrived.

Her heart rate increased to a beat above her recommended level and her sweat glands opened up without permission, Faylar knew the reason and although she could bring her body functions back under control, she could not remove the building frustration of not being able to control other aspects in this invasion.

The Danu and Human joint assault forces would not be able to stop the Marauders, not without suffering heavy losses. Unlike them, the Marauders have improved the design of their body armour and weaponry to the point where even Danu weapons had trouble in penetrating the enemy's armour.

Only Velicion guns were effective against them but there were so few of their ancient allies left alive. To risk their friends on such a pointless endeavour was inexcusable. Better to just cut their losses. After all, this wasn't the first time that this ancient base had changed hands.

Faylar entered the shutdown sequence codes then rose from her chair. She knew it was wrong to form an emotional bond with a room but she could not help herself. Working so closely with humans had begun to affect her mental status. Danu were not supposed to act in an illogical manner.

Faylar did not behave like a member of the lesser species. Their code of demeanour made that point most clear, just as it was coded into every individual to obey an order no matter how wrong it felt. Not for the first time, Faylar was torn between her duty and her inner ethics. That human would not survive the Marauders, not matter which spirit resided inside that body.

“The Wordmasters were wrong about your appearance, perhaps they were wrong about other things too.” She leaned over, swapped the view to show the cells, then in-putted the command to open his cell door. “May Lady Light guide you onto the highest path,” she whispered, before hurrying towards the exit.

Chapter Six

An Uneasy Alliance

Ryan jumped back into Villas when their cell door slid open. Unlike him, his cell mate didn't hesitate, he pushed past Ryan and raced out into the narrow corridor, spinning around with his hands in the air. As soon as the other prisoners saw this, they all began to bang on the bars while demanding their doors to open too. Their voices melded into one loud jumbling mass of indistinct shouting. Villas stopped, he stared at Ryan then ran back into the cell, grabbed his arm and pulled him out.

“What are you still doing in there, my friend? he shouted over the din. “Come on, we have our freedom. We need to get out of this hateful place before the aliens show up and eat us!”

Ryan shook off his hand. “No, I'm not going anywhere without the others.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Villas ran over to the outer cell door then came back. “We don't have any time to start figuring out how to get their cell doors open too. It's going to be hard enough to get that main door open.” He ran back over to the outer door and pushed his thin arm through one of the bars.

The little man said something but the surrounding din shallowed up his voice. Ryan hurried over to Todd. “What do we do? How can we get the rest of you out of here?”

It was the Velicion who answered Ryan. A set of claws pushed through the bars, hooked Ryan's arm and dragged him over. Ryan tried his best not to be so intimidated by this creature's appearance. This one dwarfed the last Velicion he saw up on the deck. The creature pulled his claws out from the ragged holes it had made in the fabric then rested his hypnotic gaze upon Ryan. Those bright red eyes set into that dark green, reptilian skin seemed to pierce his very soul. He managed to pull his eyes down to his feet before quickly shifting his gaze over to the other occupant. This must be Barnaby. A mid forties human male, with short-cropped blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in a filthy blue boiler-suit. The man noticed Ryan staring at him. He shook his head a couple of times before turning around to face the wall.

“Ryan, please, pay attention,” said the Velicion. “There is an access panel to the left of the outer door entrance. It close to where the other human is pushing his spindly arm through the bars. There is a release mechanism, hidden under the organic transverse mesh. Just lift that up, you should be able to see what to do then.”

“What?”

Barnaby turned back around and hurried over to the bars. “Are all bluelanders so lacking or are you just a special case? It is a simple task. Go to the panel, open it, pull back the Danu circuitry and kick the stuff underneath.”

“Go back to your corner, human,” hissed the Velicion. “Do this now and perhaps I won't eat your face.” He turned back to Ryan. “The other Velicion killing human occupying your cell was correct about us running out of time, Ryan. Please. Go to the panel and try to get these doors open.”

Ryan nodded then ran over to the outer cell door. He dropped to his knees and ran his fingers along the wall, trying to find anything on this smooth surface that might signify some kind of access panel.

“Good, you're back. I'm sure there's a release button on the other side of this wall. If we can get out of here, I know a hidden route down to one of the tertiary decks. There is bound to be one forgotten ship I can steal to get out of here. I possess a wealth of launch keys. One of the codes will work. Of this, I am sure. It is lucky you are with me, my new friend. Without me, you would be as dead as the others in these cells.” The little man looked  around. Ryan, “what are you doing down there?” he asked.

“The Velicion says there's a panel somewhere that will open the door.”

“Which door, this one or the doors separating us from them?”

“Their doors, obviously.”

Villas pulled his arm our from between the bars and jumped in front of Ryan. Stop that, right now. We really can not let them out!” He dropped down to his level. “Please, you must believe me. They'll kill us both then steal my ship. They are all violent prisoners. Why do you think they are down here? Trust me on this one, Ryan. You do not want the others out of there.”

From the increased noise coming from the cells, the other prisoners heard Villas's warning and they were not happy. Ryan sighed to himself, gently moved the little man and continued looking for the hidden panel.

“Even if such a thing exists, you will not be able to open it. This is a Velicion station, constructed millions of years ago with advanced Danu organic tech fused over the shell. The insides are not meant for the likes of us humans to interfere with.”

The little human's tone suggested that he wasn't that enamoured with either of the other races. He  saw no point in asking why, all he was sure about was that these Marauders were on their way here and would kill them all. Faced between that fate and Ryan getting all the cell doors open, he was sure the little man would choose the latter.

He heard a soft click and a rectangular panel, the size of Ryan's hand slid back, to reveal what looked like several tightly coiled masses of thousands of multi-coloured hair-sized threads, packed into raised ovoid shaped areas across the area of a dark-green ridged board. “What is this?” he murmured. Ryan remembered the words of those two behind him and slowly moved his hand towards the panel.

“What were you expecting, a big red button titled push me? Look, just leave it alone, Ryan. You really do not want to put your hand in there.” He looked over at the Velicion's cells. “He's lying about this. Trust me, I know. It's bound to have an anti-tamper device installed. One touch from you and that's the end of it. You'll be turned into charcoal.”

Ryan stood up.

“Good man. Now step away from it and help me reach through the bars to see if we can unlock this...”

He placed both hands against the wall and slammed his boot into the recess. Villas moaned as all the other cell doors slid open. Todd ran over to him, he gave Villas the once over then hung hung his head.

“Thank you, Ryan. I know I deserve to have stayed in that cell but...”

“You all should have stayed in there,” interrupted Villas. “Thanks to that little stunt, you have activated the deadbolts on the door. I just heard them slam into the wall.”

The Velicion headed straight for Villas. Ryan stepped to the left and stood in front of him. “I don't know why you two aren't pals but, right now, I think perhaps we have more important problems?” Barnaby left the cells and walked over to the cell at the end of the room. He leaned inside and pulled out another individual, a tall Danu who, upon seeing Ryan, ran over to him, fell to the floor and kissed his foot before going back over to Barnaby. As soon as the Danu reached him, Villas moaned again before sliding down the wall and tucking his head between his knees.

The Velicion tapped Ryan on the top of the head. “The Danu believe that Lady Light filled your empty vessel with the reincarnation of their last warrior. I myself do not believe that this is even possible. Even if my eyes state otherwise.”

Villas peered out from behind Ryan's legs. “There, you have your wish, Velicion. Now get us out of here!”

“There is no way of unlocking the deadbolts from this side of the cell, human.” The Velicion's arm snapped out, caught Villas's shoulder and pulled him past Ryan. “So, you would not intentionally harm any Velicion because we are such beautiful creatures?”

Barnaby giggled.

“We are going to die in here, human. Even now, I can sense their approach. This is a shame.” He looked at Ryan.  “If the ghost of some mythological Danu warrior really is trapped inside this human shell, it is clear that this ghost has not ascended.” he pulled back his teeth. “To witness the struggle as the two spirits fight over this human body would prove most entertaining.” He pulled his arm back and stretch out his claws. “At least I will be able to end the miserable life of the Butcher of Sigmas Three.”

“Don't kill him!” shouted Todd. “We need everybody alive. Let's deal with the one problem that's going to kill us all. You know, the enemy of my enemy is my friend idea?” He hurried over to the exposed panel and kneeled in front of it. “What does this do, apart from open the cell doors?” He looked over to where Barnaby and the Danu stood. “I know what your race are like for installing multiple safeguards. I doubt they wouldn't have built this place with only one way in or out. Isn't there a secret exit or something?”

“It is a prison,” he growled. “Of course there is only one exit. You must not listen to rumour and heresy.” The Velicion lowered Villas who rushed over to Todd. “You pathetic human, he can not protect you.”

“I'm not the Butcher of Sigmas Three, you freakish cold-blooded herdsuckler,” he spat. “and I'm have no intention of cowering under anyone's legs.” Villas glanced over at Ryan. “I might need your help here.”

Ryan looked at Todd who just shrugged, before sidestepping the huge reptilian creature. He leaned over Villas who had pushed one hand inside the panel recess. “Are you looking for a big red button?”

“You're funnier than the Velicion,” he snapped. “Listen, your friend was not wrong about the lizards building in multiple redundancy features into everything they had ever designed. It's the sole reason why this place is still functioning.” Villas pulled Ryan down. “There,” he pointed to a small coil of multi-coloured fine wires, previously hidden under one of the ovoid shapes. “Pull that.” He turned to him. “If everyone is right about this Danu spirit hiding inside you then pulling that should open another panel somewhere in this room.”

“And if everyone is wrong?”

“Then you really will be reduced to a small pile of grey dust.”

Ryan could now hear heavy footsteps heading towards them. Like he had a choice in the matter. He reached inside, pinched the wires as instructed, recoiling when every hair on his back stood up. “Oh, that feels weird,” he said.

“Come on!” urged Villas. “I can see them now. They're heading straight for this door.”

He took a deep breath and savagely jerked back the wires. Ryan cried out as something jumped from the wires and buried itself into his flesh. He toppled backwards, screaming in agony, while something made out of broken glass crawled up his arm from the inside. Its shape continuously altered to maximise the mind-numbing pain. A strange slender hand wrapped over his eyes and mouth and he heard a gentle melodic, haunting voice whisper words of an unknown language in his left ear. Another hand took his wrist and lifted his arm over his head.

“Taylish seeks freedom,” said the soft voice. “Do not fight it. The pain will only increase. Relax your inner self, Ryan. Allow the process to come to fruition.”

When he thought the pain could not get any worse, it proved him wrong by that broken glass expanding from his shoulder, all the way back down his arm and into his forefinger. The slender hand over his jaw relaxed ever so slightly, giving Ryan his last chance to shriek. He opened his mouth at the same time as the agony suddenly vanished leaving as weak as a new born baby and unable to even lift his head.

He had to rely on his ears to figure out what just happened and they were not sending him anything that he could understand. The only noise which did resonate inside him were solid, heavy sounding clunks coming one after the other eight times. They had to be the deadbolts disengaging.

A pair of claws curled around his wrists and pulled his limp body into one of the cells. The Velicion lifted Ryan onto the bench and sat him upright then ran back out of the cell. He blinked once, twice. That movement alone felt like an achievement.

The Danu crouched in front of him. “You are an astonishing individual.” He turned his head. You two will need to shoulder the burden. At least until Lady Light de-entangles their merged souls.”

“What does that even mean?” asked Villas.

Even in his vegetative state, Ryan heard the panic in the little man's voice. He wanted to soothe him, to explain to Villas that everything was going to be alright. Odd, considering he didn't have a clue how could that even be so.

“It means we have to carry him, Villas,” replied Todd.

“What's the point? We're still in the same situation. Apart from the weird blue lightning that left your friend's fingers, nothing has changed, apart from the Marauders are now about to open that outer cell door!”

The two men took an arm each and wrapped them around the back of their heads and lifted me up. He found that if he focused, he was able to keep his head facing front. They both took a single step forward then jerked to a sudden stop when a flash of searing red light flashed past the open cell door.

“Is that a Velicion weapon?” cried Villas. But, but that's impossible!”

Todd chuckled before urging Villas to continue moving closer to the door. The Danu ran out just as the huge Velicion moved into view. He now held a device which more resembled part of the creature's reptilian anatomy than some kind of weapon.  Ryan dug into every energy reserve he could muster and turned his head a few degrees to the right, towards the now open door and he saw those hateful fiends, the others called Marauders. Three remained intact. The Velicion's body part gun had reduced what looked like another two other Marauders into piles of smouldering lumps of unrecognisable innards and molten metal.

They were the same type of being who he first encountered back on his home planet. The two men holding him hurried past the Velicion who fired off another shot. The Danu, who now also possessed a smaller weapon,  pushed all three of them into the next cell. Before he left them, he passed Todd another weapon. “That is for the binded one when Lady Light allows him his freedom of movement. The Danu leaned forward and lightly kissed Ryan on the forehead. “I will see you in my next body.” He left the three of them and a moment later, Ryan heard another energy weapon being discharged.

“Where have the weapons come from?”

Todd shifted his position slightly and Ryan saw another panel open on the far side of the wall.

“It opened a moment after you fell to the floor. Not quite another exit but the second best thing, wouldn't you say, Villas?”

The little man let out a heavy sigh. There are no human weapons in there I see.”

The open panel contained another eight assorted weapons, of types that Ryan had never seen before.

Todd laughed. “Or course there isn’t. What did you expect, Villa? Think about the timescales. When that was installed, our species were still painting in caves and wearing fur.”

“Even so, I still would have preferred to not stay in here, babysitting.”

“No, you would have preferred to have run out, leaving all of us to die.”

Ryan heard more weapons fire but this time, he did recognise the sound. The Marauders were firing back! The Velicion ran into the cell. He took up position by the edge and fired again.

“We can't escape through the main door,” he said. Two more take the places of the ones I kill and this ancient weapon is not recharging. There are three shots left, maybe four.

Barnaby poked his head out from the cell opposite. Ryan had forgotten about him.

“Fire again. Two more shots down the middle of the corridor,” he said. “I think I have found a way out of here.”

The Velicion looked straight at Ryan. “What do I do?”

Why was he asking Him? Ryan didn't have the answers. It then occurred to him that the Danu wasn't with them. He opened his mouth. “The Danu?” he croaked.

“His bravery is why I am still here. He killed three Marauders before their filthy weapons killed him. Ryan, do I do what the human asks?”

“No, no way,” hissed Villas. “Barnaby is a Sons of Argo sect member. He thinks the Velicions are a Danu genetic experiment and anyone who isn't a cultists are nothing but parasites.” He looked straight at Ryan. “The maniac actually believes that the Marauders are doing a good thing here! Trust me on this, my friend. I know what I'm talking about.”

Ryan nodded. “Shoot,” he uttered.

The little man almost dropped Ryan at the same time as the huge creature fired once, then stood up moved a little further out then fired again. Just before he did discharge the weapon, Barnaby darted out of the cell, ran over to the open panel and plucked out a small grey cube, lying beside a gun very similar to one the Danu gave to Todd. He then ran into their cell. Two shots from the Marauders flashed down the corridor, both of them slamming into the open panel, turning everything in there to molten slag.

“I hope you know what you're doing!” hissed Villas. That's it, there's no more weapons left and the Velicion has one last shot, thanks to your stupidity.”

Barnaby glared at Villas before he grabbed Ryan's wrist and turned it over. Villas tried to stop him only for the Velicion to intervene.

“Good idea, human. Perhaps you are not as deluded as I first believed.”

The grey cube vibrated in Ryan's palm and several dull yellow dots appeared on the top face. The Velicion ran over to the side of the cell and ran his hand along the wall. “Here, this is the best place. Stick it here.”

“What is going on?”

Todd hurried over to the far cell corner, taking Ryan and Villas with him. “Have you never seen a compression mine before?”

Barnaby did as the Velicion asked before joining them. The Velicion then spread his bulk over them all. A dull crump popped Ryan's ears. The Velicion ran back over to the open cell door and fired off his remaining shot. Both Barnaby and Villas ran over to the wall, leaving Todd to pick up the weight. Ryan had now recovered enough strength to at least hobble across the floor. The compression mine had blown a hole straight through the cell wall.

“Be just our luck if there's a squad of Marauders waiting for us on the other side.”

Ryan lifted his head. “Then we'll take care of them too.”

Chapter Seven

The View from Saturn

The journey from the entrance lair to his foot of his throne took the slave three tenths of a cycle. Even at that relatively brisk speed, this one had not spilled a single drop of Trasker blood onto his polished, marble floor. The Marshal Governor, Di-Malok, the Prime Executor to the Imperial fifty-first fleet of Deathbringers and Twelfth in line to the throne, dug his claws into the flesh-chair to stop himself from bowing to the temptation of  flicking the side of this little Bayan's yellow furry head, just to see if he would fall over.

Chances are, if Di-Malok's forearm claws did hit the slave with any force, he would end up breaking its head. Bayans made such good slaves but they were so fragile. He hated waste and as this one performed its duties impeccably, it would be a shame to break it. Finding another one, especially out here, in the arse-end of nowhere, would be problematic.

If he stood, the top of his little slave's head would reach the Governor's scaly crimson chest. Completely harmless, docile, loyal, once they were broken in and very intelligent. When their kind encountered this species, Millennia ago, the first Dionion scientist who set foot on their homeworld, after the shock troops had massacred and eaten millions of them, concluded, after a few more were dissected and studied, the few which remained should not be used to feed the troops. The scientist believed they could be tamed and used to perform many tasks and chores. That lone scientist unwittingly saved the first sentient race discovered by the Dionion empire from extinction.

He stayed motionless, with only his bright yellow eyes moving. They followed the progress of the mammal as it hurried towards the entrance lair. He admired its nerves, it must strain its little heart every time it left his side, terrified that its master would suddenly call it back in order to be punished for whatever imaginary slight it had committed. Di-Malok knew from listening to his several Mid-Executers that tormenting their slaves was sometimes the only pleasure they could find out here. The question to whether they were sentient was no longer in doubt. They believed this special and almost unique trait is why they made such excellent slaves and why the Mid-Executers gained so much enjoyment out of tormenting them.

This place, this forgotten star system, light years from any other civilised system, on the outer edges of their magnificent empire was not the worst place they could have dumped him to rot. Unlike certain other 'punishment' postings at least this one did have a few comforts. So it was not quite up to the luxurious lifestyle he was used to in the Imperial court but perhaps that could be seen as a good thing? Being waited on daily had made him fat and slow, both in body and in mind. Di-Malok should have seen the betrayal coming. Looking back, all the signs were there for all to see. Only, he chose to ignore them. Could anyone really blame him for not believing that his own father would want him dead? He took a delicate sip of the Trasker blood and almost spat in back out. At least back home, the slaves knew how to prepare the liquid correctly.

“It is not a pressing problem,” he growled. “I can show these savages myself.” No, that might not be such a great idea. Him amongst a group of shivering, cowed, delicious chunks of warm walking meat would ultimately resist with him having no slaves left to cook his food and badly prepare his favourite drink.

Blood, such a joy to taste and yet, such a curse to share. Maybe not so much a curse. If Di-Malok had not been the son, then it is certain that the lesser lord would have repurposed his body into one of the Imperial warrior amalgams or, knowing that old bastard's dark humour, more likely into a piece of furniture. How magnanimous of him to banish him to here instead.

Without realising it, he had pushed every forehand claw all the way through the side of his flesh chair. How inconvenient. Di-Malok had wanted to allow the flesh-chair to settle into its new position before hurting it. He slowly eased his claws out of the warm material. They all left the chair with an audible pop. He ran his long black tongue along his claws, licking away the residue while so trying not to lose his temper at the thought of his own father actually even contemplating murdering his only son just because the wizened old bastard felt threatened by his son's success.

Just like a whole host of other lesser lords, His father dreamed of sitting where their Emperor now sat. As the naming ceremony had yet to commence, those leering, simpering back-stabbing fools were using every devious trick they knew, just to gain favour with their Emperor in the vain hope that their name might end up of the final list. It made him sick. None of those two-faced bastards were worthy to lick the throne's legs never mind sit in it.

It was best that he was out of it, at least for now, as their despicable behaviour was only going to grow more and more out of control, the nearer to the final day arrived. Alliances will be made and broken in the same day. False evidence, implying a targeted Lord of some fictional crime will be planted. The position of royal food taster will become the most dangerous task for the house slaves.  Blood will be split. That much was certain. Some of the lords from the more barbaric sections of the Empire employed more direct methods of using off-planet assassins to ensure the more favoured Lords ended up dead.

Di-Malok relaxed just a fraction. Today was not the best time to start getting upset and itchy over a situation that he could not control. For him, a battleground meant warriors fighting head-to-head, using the weapons they were born with or manufactured or repurposed weapons to defeat your enemy. Dropping a vial of poison into your enemy's drink or getting some sneak to push a blade into their neck bladder while they slept was just not right.

“Perhaps they will kill each other off. That would make life so much easier.” He took another sip of the Trasker blood. It still tasted bitter but not quite a revolting as the last time. Was he getting used to the taste already?

Let them play their stupid and pointless games. He had faith in their great leader and if Di-Malok could see through their childish charade then surely so could the Emperor. No, he was best out of their way. At least in this system, he believed that he could make a real difference.

Di-Malok planned to make their Grand Emperor sit up and take notice of him without having to resort to playing court politics. He had only become the system's latest Marshall Governor for eight cycles but had already figured out that this system's untapped resources could bring about a new golden age for the Empire. The mineral wealth alone, buried under the inner rocky worlds were vast enough to almost double the size of their Imperial fleet of warships. The gas giant held enough fuel to power these new warships of centuries. “With this new ship fleet, the Empire could finally grind our ancient enemy into dust and finally retake the systems lost to us all those aeons ago.”

This system also contained one more hidden gem. A single inhabited planet which just happened to be populated by what had to be the tastiest animal that he had ever had the pleasure of eating. He did not know why human meat had such an intoxicating effect on his tastebuds, nor did he care. He did know that Di-Malok could not get enough of the stuff. The meat would be worth a fortune back home. If he could figure out a foolproof method to smuggle some of it past border quarantine and get it into the claws of a couple of his trusted contacts then even if this posting failed to live up to his hopes, at least when he returned, Di-Malok would be set up for life.

The future could wait until he had, at least, understood what happened to the governor preceding him. On the surface, by running through the collected data from the previous fifty-thee cycles of conflict with the indigenous species, he proved to be utterly incompetent in completing even the most basic of operations. It catalogued campaign after campaign of failed invasions, of defeats by an inferior enemy and an unforgivable amount of troop casualties. It read like a step by step guide on how to prepare for the Imperial interior cardinals and to await punishment. Which is exactly what happened. The previous Marshall Governor suffered the most hideous of executions only usually subjected to their disobedient slaves. They repurposed him.

Di-Malok, with his Imperial court upbringing knew that the surface only showed what was meant to be seen, to reveal another truth, one had to peel away the many layers. Di-Saloth came here, riding a wave of celebratory triumph. The young Dionion warrior put down an armed rebellion on an outpost even more remote than this one. His field promotion from Tertiary Line Holder to Subsidiary Troop Commander brought him to the attention of this quadrant's Governor General who believed the young warrior had the mental strength to take over this posting.

This surface description needed little scratching to figure out the poor bastard had been set up for this job. Clearly, the warrior had not gained enough experience to undertake such a heavy responsibility. Yet, it was equally clear than even though the young Dionion was not ready for the position, he should still have been able to achieve some measure of success. This record of his exploits made it look like the Governor General had placed a Bayan slave with a leaking brain in charge of this system.

So, did the last governor have an operator than he never knew about? It did make sense to Di-Malok. Although he had not dug too deep regarding the Dionion's service record, he was still confident that it would show him nothing too spectacular, but one aspect that was bound to stand out would be the lack of ineptitude.

Di-Malok left the flesh chair, grinning at the sound of it breathing a sigh of relief. As he turned, he saw that his claws had caused it some significant damage, enough to still be showing. It appeared that its self-repair nano-modules were not as efficient as they advertised. Or perhaps he ought to be more gentle with the flesh chair and treat it like a Bayan slave? He barked out a short laugh. That was not going to happen!

He grabbed the metal beaker and downed the contents before striding over to his wall-mounted control and conquer station board. Nobody was going to try an operate him, that much was certain. Di-Malok had witnessed and, indeed, played too many of these pathetic games whilst inside the royal court and the lords, both lesser and upper were experts at in their chosen field and he had learned from the best, just as the ones who thought they could control him was soon to discover.

His arrival here might only be counted in single digit cycles but Di-Malok had not been idle. He tapped his own hastily installed intercom bypass which connected him straight to the Comms deck aboard his own ship. He activated a soundstress field around him and ordered one of his personal Bayan slaves to bring their guest up to his command room.

Once his slave acknowledged, he commenced with his next task. With the soundstress field still in place, he opened up a vis-package which arrived moments before he retired to his command room. His inbuilt optimism ensured that the many procedures that he had already placed would have worked without any discrepancy or errors but of course, his inbuilt optimism had to fight with Di-Malok's inbuilt realism and the latter nearly always won that battle, mainly because his inbuilt optimism was nearly always wrong. He believed that the dichotomy of that very emotion is what kept it going.

The vis-package had travelled many millions of miles, all the way from the interior of the fourth planet in this system and it contained, he hoped, his own personal account of his forces assault upon that base, currently held by the Terrestrial coalition. One of the procedures that Di-Malok had installed will have edited the account recorded from the many security cameras dotted about the interior of the base.

He sat on a lesser chair and settled down to watch the account while sighing in annoyance that he could not do this while in his comfortable flesh chair. It also raised a niggle of annoyance that he had finished his drink too. Di-Malok pressed play and promised himself something a little more nourishing and tastier once the vis-package had performed its function.

The image of an empty corridor overlaid the top half of his station board, “So, this is what the inside of the base looks like?” he murmured. It did not look so impressive. He paused and zoomed in on the wall and saw immediately the stark difference between the original shell and the covering, installed be another species, millions of years later. This much, Di-Malok already knew about. From the original, if flawed intelligence notes left from his predecessor and the more detailed and accurate account given to him by one of his procedures, the Dionion knew all about the original construction of the base by a species of creatures not unlike his own kind. A species called The Danu added the aesthetics and a new internal collection of control systems when they discovered the base many millions of years later, after they too reached self-awareness and changed from a tribal culture into a global civilization.

The Danu were not like them or the Velicions. At least this earlier species had the common decency not to be mammals. Sentient mammal, what a disgusting idea, to make matters even worse, another sentient life form had gained self-awareness on this green,blue planet. A species who call themselves Human, another mammal species.

Di-Malok was going to need another drink before continuing with the vis-package. He called to his inner self-discipline. A promise was a promise. The drink could wait until after. This had to be done right now. He un-paused the video and zoomed out, just in time to witness a group of mixed-species mammals travelling down this corridor. He could not distinguish between either species not helped by them all wearing identical clothing. They vanished around the corner and then a moment later another group appeared. These were human, all of them. Two holding their primitive human-made weapons against another two. He leaned closer. It was the two in custody who interested him the most.

The tall blonde human, currently arguing with a stout male had already been singled out to Di-Malok from his procedure, suggesting that this one could be of use. The procedure would not tell him exactly how the human could be of any use and Di-Malok could not figure out the reason, unless this one's flesh is even tastier than the examples he had already sampled. The procedure refused to disclose the required information either despite his threats of retribution. The procedure was braver than Di-Malok anticipated but he had even taken this into account.

The multiple cameras followed them into the cells where the armed humans separated them before leaving. The base alarms signalled the arrival of his troops which caused the mammals in those call to squawk in panic as caged mammals tend to do. Nothing of interest happened for the next few segment cycles, causing him to speed up the replay.

Amidst the confusing scenes, he glimpsed a micro-segment cycle's worth of Velicion and in his excitement Di-Malok missed the explosion of multiple action which commenced after one of the cell doors mysteriously slid back. He paused it once again, rewound back to the crux point and watched with growing incredulity as most of the prisoners inevitably made their escape once the human's unique skill became known. Di-Malok stopped the tape at the point where his surviving troopers entered the prison and disappeared through the hole in the wall.

This talent brought up so many interesting possibilities. This human could indeed be of great use to him. The Bayan slave brought in his special prize a moment later. He retired to his flesh chair, noticing the wounds he caused were no longer visible. The mental wounds would take longer to heal, if he allowed it. An unlikely scenario as he just knew his claws would be piecing the flesh again before this day was over.

He impatiently motioned the slave to approach. The shivering Bayan brought himself and Di-Malok's prize closer. When his slave stepped back and fell into a prostate floor bow, the Dionion stepped off the flesh chair and walked up to a two metre high black box that the Bayan had deposited in from of him. Di-Malok disengaged the AG harness then tapped in own security code on the panel at the side of this stasis coffin. Once the onboard computer verified his identity, the coffin 's no-see curtain drew back to reveal a young human female encased in inside. The temptation to unfreeze her and start the torment almost overpowered his system. He managed to bring himself back under control, apart from his mouth. That continued to drool no matter what he did and if Di-Malok did not get this over with, he feared the rest of his body would disobey his brain too.

He first expanded the soundstress field before remote accessing a secret Comms package, straight to a certain individual located inside the Terrestrial interior base. Almost immediately, the package acknowledged a repose and a floating image bubble showed him the very anxious face of the base deck commander. Di-Malok's very own spy, his private procedure.

“You look well, considering you have just lost your base, again.”

“I did as you asked, Di-Malok. The base is yours now and just as I promised, my special gift is awaiting you in one of the cells.”

That threw him a little. Could this human not knew that his gift had escaped? How could he not know this? Surely, he had reviewed the data before sending it ahead. Nobody could be that inept.

“The prisoners have escaped,” growled the Dionion.

“That cannot be!” he gasped. “Nobody can get out. They are escape proof.”

The programs integrated into the Comms package evaluated the human's heart rate, pupil dilation and emotional trigger points merged into the human's speech pattern and suggested he was telling the truth. Di-Malok guess that already, the human had too much at stake to try any games. Could there be another player? Or perhaps an old player getting back into the game in order to trip him up just like they tripped up the previous Marshall Governor? It appeared that he needed to embark on some more layer peeling. That could wait for later. This human needed to be shown a lesson.

It did not matter to Di-Malok that the prisoner escaping was not the fault of the human. This thoughtless act happened on his watch and the human deck commander needed an incentive in order to keep him in line.

“You are going to use every resource available to you. I need this human alive. Is that understood?”

The man on the other side of the screen nodded frantically. “Yes, of course. I'll see to it right away.”

Di-Malok leaned closer. “Make sure that that you do otherwise the results will be.” He paused and clicked his fingers. The slave engaged the AG harness and pushed the human female into view. The sight of her caused the human make to gasp out a harsh cry. “Or the results will be most unfortunate. Right now, your daughter is in perfect health. If you fail to do my bidding, I shall give your young daughter over to my slave.” As expected, the human looked straight at the shaking Bayan.

“Do you seriously believe that a person of my high standing would have just a single slave?” Di-Malok pulled up a vis-package of a large Trasker bull in their natural habitat.

Like the Danu and the Bayan, the Traskers were mammalian. Whereas the Danu evolved from another omnivorous more primitive ancestor and the Bayan ancestor were simply very intelligent plant eaters, the mighty Trasker belonged to that rare group of sentient mammal, the carnivore. With claws almost as impressive as his species, a jaw full of dagger-like teeth and a mass twice of the average human. The Trasker made a fearsome opponent. Di-Malok had made a quick study of the extinct fauna on the human planet and one of their animals bore a striking resemblance to the Trasker. The humans had called them polar bears.

If the humans had not hunted those magnificent beasts into extinction and, if he had the time, Di-Malok would have rather enjoyed watching a fight between a Trasker and one of these polar bears.

“Most of the remaining slaves in my compound are gelded in order to make them a little more docile. I do keep a single bull for studding.” He laughed. “If I dropped your rather fragile daughter into his pit, do you think he would butcher her first or perhaps attempt to mate with her before ripping this rather delicate human into shreds of meat?”

“Please! Oh God. No, don't do that. I'll find him, you can count on it!”

“Perhaps you will or perhaps not? Remember, I do not know you well enough to trust you. More time is needed but that we do not have. You need to trust me, my friend, especially the meaning of my words. Allow me to demonstrate. After all, I think that we both know that a threat without substance is just a meaningless collection of words.” Di-Malok walked over to the coffin and deactivated the stasis field. He had a few seconds before her awareness would kick in which gave him just enough time.

“Please don't hurt my daughter! I employ you.”

The Dionion lifted the woman’s arm and gently fastened his razor sharp teeth around the second rung on her little finger, being careful not to break the skin. If that happened then he wasn't sure he would be able to stay in control.

Di-Malok waited until the woman's eyes fluttered open. The human male wasn't the only one who needed to understand.

He bit clean through skin, muscle and bone. The screams from his frantic procedure almost overpowered the noise coming from the female. The harmony of shrieking prey combined with the sweet taste of warm blood took him dangerously close to the point of no return. Di-Malok pulled himself from the ledge and managed to reactivate the stasis field. He turned off the Comms package after ensuring that his demonstration had the desired effect. He then settled on the floor to savour this incredible meat.

From the corner of his eye, Di-Malok noticed the slave had already begun to move the stasis coffin away from him. The no-see curtain had already reactivated. He opened his jaw and pulled the now de-fleshed bone out of his mouth. “When you have secured our precious cargo, slave, bring me a large cage of food.” Di-Malok returned to his flesh-chair and stared at it. “It is a pity that they repurposed you into this, former Marshall Governor. Do not worry, I will make sure that whoever did this to you will pay.” He sat down. “Not to avenge your humiliating death, you understand. I do not care about that. What I do care about is some other Dionion scum thinking they can operate me.” He opened up his talons then plunged them as deep as he could into both sides of his chair.

Chapter Eight

Inside the Walls

Three pursuers still remained on their trail and it didn't matter what they tried, those Marauders stayed just a few steps behind them.

“What are we going to do now,” shouted Villas. He ran past Ryan and ducked into the next turning. “It's almost like they're tracking us.”

Ryan reached Villas braced himself against the corner and waited for the others to run into this corridor before he crouched down and took up position. Barnaby followed Todd leaving the Velicion hurtling towards them and not far behind him were the three Marauders. Ryan managed to shoot one of them in the centre of its chest, just as it prepared to fire. The shot knocked it back into one of its companion but had little effect against their thick armour. The only weapon which killed them lay close to the section they burned through.

The Velicion had led them to another weapons locker but that one only had the two pistols. A Velicion gun, which didn't look anything like a weapon and the Danu pistol that Ryan grabbed. The Velicion's weapon only had enough charge for a couple of shots before it died. The Velicion had then informed them all that there were no more weapon's lockers on this level.

Todd joined him. He held a human made weapon that he took from a dead guard, but didn't even bother firing. That was less effective than the Danu gun in Ryan's hand.

“This isn't going quite to plan, is it?”

“Wait, you mean there's a plan?”

Todd laughed. “Apart from not to let those things turn us into pools of gloop?”

“How can you even joke about what's happening?” cried Villas. “There must be something we can do.”

Ryan shrugged. “Why are you looking at me? This is your world, remember? I'm just only a visitor here.” He turned and took aim at the closest Marauder and fired three rapid shots. The blasts were strong enough to knock the alien into the side of the corridor as well as giving the Velicion the breathing space he needed to join them without the other two pursuers taking him down.

“It is the last soldier, who is the problem.” he hissed. “We have to find some way to stop him. He has a remote body tracker built into his helmet HUD. We need him dead or we have no chance of living through this.”

“We don't have a chance of living through this anyway.”

Ryan turned on his ex cell companion. “Look, if you don't have anything constructive to say to us then please, keep quiet. You have already lived longer than you expected to. Try to remember that.”

The Velicion peered around the corner. “It ist ime to go. I think I have figured out  how to gain a couple of seconds. It might be enough.” The huge creature thundered down the middle of the grey corridor, he stopped beside a door and gestured to the others to catch up. He looked both ways before his claws danced across a recessed grey panel beside the door.

Ryan reached him first, biting his bottom lip in shock as one of the alien's energy bolts slammed into the wall, a few inches from his head. He turned and pulled the others inside, forcing back a quiet groan as the three aliens ran straight for them. He so hoped the Velicion knew what he was doing. He jumped back when the creature in question slammed his palm into a panel on this side. The door slammed shut.

He snatched the Danu gun out of Ryan's hand, took aim and fired at the panel. “That should give us enough time to think of some way to take out the Marauder who is tracking us.” He handed the weapon back to Ryan. “Okay, I have done my part.” he gazed steadily at Ryan. “They will be through that door in less than a segment cycle. Come up with a solution.”

Both Villas and Barnaby yelled at the Velicion. Each one coming up with different reasons why they should murder him and leave his corpse at the door for when the Marauders came in, with the hope that perhaps, the aliens might spare their lives.

Todd walked the perimeter of the room while knocking and tapping on every inch of the walls while the Velicion wandered over to one of the corners. He waited for Todd to pass him before sitting on a bench.

Ryan took a single step back and watched the centre of that door start to glow red. They were already trying to cut through the material. He spun around. “Wait, you said this base was millions of years old, meaning the original material must be made from some pretty spectacular stuff. Surely, those bastards won't be able to cut through that door so easily?”

The Velicion shook his head. “If the door was part of the original construction then you would be correct. Only, it isn't.”

“He wouldn't trap us in here if there wasn't some other way out.” Todd glared at the Velicion. “Come on, show us where it is.”

The large creature shook his head. “What would be the point? We cannot go anywhere without eliminating that tracker.”

“So there is a way out of this room!” He turned to Villas and Barnaby. “Don't just stand there, help me find it!”

Ryan felt the heat from whatever instrument they were using to cut through this door. He did not move. They had already cut through one side and were making their way along the top. Out of the four other lifeforms in here with him, the only one whose red eyes were drilling into the back of his head belonged to the large lizard man. He wanted to turn around and point his Danu weapon at the Velicion and order him to get them out of here. Ryan believed that he would do just that, much to the delight of the others.

He lifted the gun up, turned it around in his hands then dropped it on the floor. Ryan didn't need that anymore. He wasn't going to threaten the Velicion because Ryan knew what to do now. It could end up being the last thing that he ever did but there really was no other choice.

That red-hot line travelled up the last side of the door and met with the original point. Ryan drew in one shaky breath, lifted his arms into the air and waited for the inevitable. The melted door slammed forward, the edge landing a couple of inches from Ryan's feet. The three Marauders stomped across the door surface and stopped directly in front of him.

The lead Marauder barked out something in a language that made no sense to Ryan but the tone wasn't exactly friendly. The Marauder repeated the sentence while swinging his weapon around until the muzzle pointed at the Velicion.

“Ryan, prove the Danu are right about you,” said the Velicion. “Prove to me that my faith is absolute before we all die in here.”

“Are you going to come with us peacefully, Velicion? Say this is not the case. We want you to struggle as that means I can eat your eyeballs.” announced an electronic voice.

Ryan guessed that whatever was used to decipher the alien language had finally kicked in.

The huge creature stood before Ryan, towering over him by over a metre. Its two companions stood utterly motionless, life statues. They did move, but only in small, lizard-like jerks. This Marauder cocked its head to one side which must have activated some kind of internal mechanism. The helmet rolled down, melting like a thin shell of black-coloured ice under an intense heat. It did not surprise Ryan to discover that these aliens were lizards too. Unlike the Velicion, this one's eyes were more like a chameleon, and right now, they both swivelled towards the creature still sitting behind Ryan.

It had not even given him a moment's gaze, it's like he didn't even exist. The Marauder didn't even react when Villas raced to where they stood, dropped to his knees beside the lead Marauder and grabbed the side of its leg. “Please, don't hurt us. We've done nothing wrong to you.” he said.

Ryan believed that, to this huge orange, scaly bipedal monster, humans were nothing but irritating insects. Cockroaches, only to be stepped on if they got in their way.

“You do not answer?”

He didn't think the Velicion would be saying anything to anybody, especially to this Marauder, at least until Ryan had done what he had to do. He reached forward and snatched the strange alien weapon out of the Marauder's claws, much to its amusement. It finally acknowledged Ryan's presence.

“Give that that, monkey. Do it now or I shall become more that a little irritated.”

How the hell did this thing work? Ryan found no trigger mechanism or anything which suggested any other type of firing device.

“Are you listening to me?” It thundered. The Marauder stepped into the room, followed by its two companions. “Kill them all.”

Its companions targeted Villas and Barnaby and just before they fired, Ryan saw them push a middle claw into the underside of their weapon. Ryan did the same and the tip of his finger found a small, fleshy nodule. He brought the gun around to face the companion targeting Villas and pressed on the nodule. Ryan shouted out in shock when a stream of energy erupted from the gun and literally melted the Marauder's head. He aimed at the other one and fired. The beam missed due to the surviving Marauders had already run off.

“We do not have much time,” said the Velicion, jumping up. He ran over to the shattered door. They are easily shocked but will soon return in greater numbers. He looked straight at Ryan. “Thank you for proving to me that my Danu brothers do, on occasion get things right.”

“We need to get out of here before they come back!” said Barnaby, running over to the door. The Velicion grabbed him. “Not that way. The Danu's saviour had taken out their tracker but there are other means to find us.” He joined Todd at the far wall. “Your fingers brushed over this, you know.” He moved Todd out of the way and tapped out a quick pattern on the wall.

Ryan heard running fight at the same time as another hidden panel slid back.

“Hurry,” hissed the Velicion. “We need to exit this room before the Marauders see us leaving!” He grabbed Todd and threw him in, Barnaby and Villas followed next. The Velicion pulled Ryan close. “Watch Villas,” he whispered before he pushed Ryan through. He followed next and slammed the panel shut.

“My name is Vel-Dragil. I apologise for not introducing myself earlier but it is not our custom to share our names with individuals who do not deserve to hear our warrior name.” He thrust out his right claw. “I believe that it is now the custom for you to shake this for some obscure human reason?”

Ryan wasn't sure exactly how this whole situation could become any weirder. This giant talking, lizard man who, he presumed, evolved from some kind of therapod carnivorous dinosaur millions of years ago wanted to shake his hand. That alone should have melted his brain circuits. Coupled with the fact that they were now inside the inside of some ancient base while even more lizard men were after them who, unlike Mr Vel-Dragil here, were aliens.

He gingerly took the lizard's dry hand, trying not to think about one slip of one of his razor sharp claws could quite easily open him up. Ryan took the time to study where this evolved dinosaur had brought them now. This inner cavern was twice the size of the Danu designed corridors that they had just left. He saw no sign of any visible technology either, in fact, if Ryan hadn't already known he would had sworn blind that they were now deep inside some ancient human pyramid. Only rich ambers and deep reds dominated the colour of the rock face. He even spotted strange-looking script engraved into some surfaces. The style reminded him more of Celtic runes than Hieroglyphics. It took a little convincing to remind himself that these sentient creatures had constructed this place millions of years before his species was even a glint in their evolutionary ape parent's eye.

Ryan wondered what the writing said. His gaze moved off the walls and onto the floor. He saw a number of footprints in the dust. Where had the others gone? He thought they would have at least waited for them. Ryan couldn't work out how he meant about that.

“Erm, nice to meet you, I guess.” He would have liked to know what all the others had done to Vel-Dragil for him not to reveal his name to any of them. “Vel-Dragil. I think, look, should we not be trying to catch up with the others? I'm not sure that it would be wise for any of us to separate.”

“Do not worry about that, my friend. This sectional core is restricted to five inner chambers, each one intersecting in the middle. To reach any of the outer sections and junction zones which connect to the other sectional cores require access codes as well as door location points. None of which are available to the other two Terrestrial species. They will not be far.”

He cocked his head to one side. “That is not right,” he muttered. Vel-Dragil ran back over to the panel which had brought them here and pressed the side of his head to the wall. “These Marauders have not left. They are in the process of looking for the entrance. This is not their usual behavour. They should have given up by now and left.” He rejoined Ryan. “This is not good.”

“They can't get us in here, can they?”

“We had better find the others, Ryan. I am afraid they can. The material the Danu used to cover the shell is incredibly tough but the Marauders possess quite an arsenal of terrifying and powerful weaponry. Come, we must go.”

“Wait,” he said. “Where are they so eager to get to you?”

“It is not me, Ryan. I am sorry, but you are their target. Now, please, we should depart from this location right now.”

He shook his head. “Are you sure? They didn’t even look twice at me. It seems that all their attention was on you.”

“Their genetic conditioning cannot be ignored, Ryan. We are like them, their great enemy. Outward behaviour does not guarantee their true purpose. Remember this. Not all sentient behave as humans do.”

Ryan jumped at the sound of something heavy thudding against the panel before he raced over to Vel-Dragil. “If that’s the case, we didn't they capture me? They have us in their grasp. I’m sorry, but I still got the impression that those guys weren't even aware that we, I mean us humans, were even in the same room as them.”

His companion didn't answer Ryan's question. He asked again and this time, Vel-Dragil asked him to keep quiet. The large creature suddenly stopped and brushed his claw tips along one of the deep red stones. He raced along the stone-clad corridor before stopping again and repeating the action. “Ryan, please, come here. This is very important!”

“Vel-Dragil, where are the others? You said they couldn't be all that far away.”

“That is the problem. They are no longer in here.”

“You said that was impossible!” He jumped back when Vel-Dragil rushed straight for him. Ryan managed to duck, he reached for the Danu gun, only to find that it was no longer there! He must have dropped it along the corridor. The Huge lizard reached the spot where he had just moved from. Vel-Dragil slammed both of his claws against the wall. Three runes beside Ryan glowed a deep orange. It then dawned on him that the lizard man wasn't trying to murder him after all.

“We are betrayed,” he growled. Vel-Dragil spun around. One of the other humans or perhaps all of them are holding secrets known only to the great race.” He stormed over to another wall and slid three claws across the surface. Vel-Dragil muttered to himself while his claws danced over the stone. More of the runes began to glow.

“What is going on. Please just tell me what's happening!”

“Is that not plainly obvious? Is that not...” The huge lizard broke off in mid-sentence. He sniffed the air then growled again. “One of them are close.”

The hairs on the back of Ryan's neck stood up at the sound of this creature's deep growl and the primitive, mammal part of his mind, calmly explained to its captive audience that he now stood next to an organism which hunted and ate living animals, probably not too dissimilar to Ryan.

“The traitorous worm should die.” The Velicion fell on all fours and raced along the corridor. Much to Ryan's utter shock, he found himself running after him, despite knowing that in Vel-Dragil's present state, Ryan's chance of coming out of this alive had dropped to almost non-existent.

“You need to slow down!” he shouted. Aware that even if this killer didn't spin around and turn him into a shredded carcass, Ryan would likely die down here without his help. Vel-Dragil didn't slow down, but he had managed to catch up. Ryan said a silent prayer before he grabbed the creature's tail and gave it a savage tug.

They both landed in a pile of limbs. Ryan found himself face to face with a pair of blazing red eyes and a jaw full of razor sharp teeth which looked poised to rip off his face. “Calm down!” He yelled. Dial back on those emotions. At least until we find the others. You said one of them were still in here? Fine, let's find whoever it is together, and take it from there, okay?”

Some of the bright light in those lantern eyes dimmed ever so slightly, enough for Ryan to believe that his words had actually sunk through that thick hide. Vel-Dragil climbed off Ryan and stood back to allow him to stand up. “You said this part of the section wasn't too large. So, where is he? Help me understand here.

The Velicion simply shook his head. He spun around and marched away. “Follow me, human, and I will show you.”

That had to be a bad sign. Vel-Dragil called him human instead of his proper name. Would the next stage involve Vel-Dragil calling him dinner before pushing a long wooden pole up between his legs and eating him like a kebab?

“Here you go,” he announced, proudly. “There is our traitor!” Vel-Dragil stood over a pile of filthy clothing, he leaned down and spun the body onto his back.

Ryan reached the pair of them, crouched in front of the body, wiped off some thick dust away and looked into the unconscious face of Todd. He didn't even look alive, that proved not to be the case when he checked the man's pulse. It was there but not very strong.

“This is your traitor is it, Vel-Dragil? He's not even conscious.” Ryan ripped off some material from his sleeve, used a splash of water from his flask and wiped away as much of the dust as he could. Ryan heard a distant explosion but pushed that ominous sound away, focusing only to bring Todd around. He poured a tiny amount precious water over Todd's lips, sighing with relief when the tip of the man's tongue pushed through them.

“Todd, come on, man. You need to snap out of it!” he looked up at the Velicion then back the way they came. It didn't take much to connect that explosion to the Marauders finally breaking in here.

The man groaned quietly then coughed. Ryan sat him up. “What happened to you?”

It took him a few seconds to respond.

“Villas. It was that Villas.” Todd turned and gazed at Ryan's side. “He stole your Gun.”

“Why? He already told me that I'm the only non Danu who could fire the thing, or was he lying about that?”

Todd shook his head, then groaned in pain. “I shouldn't have done that. It didn't matter, Villas simply hit me with it instead.”

“We must leave this place right now,” said Vel-Dragil. What time we gained will be lost if we do not move.”

Ryan nodded, then struggled to lift Todd up. “Why did he hit you?”

Todd shrugged. “I don't know. When he realised that the Marauders weren't going to kill him after all, he seemed to revert to his former jolly self again. Once we crossed over the threshold and were a good few metres from the opening, I then saw something, a knowing look, I guess, which passed between him and Barnaby and then.” he sighed. “And then, I guess the bastard whacked me.”

The sound of those running feet drew nearer and nearer. “Can you get us out of here?”

The Velicion nodded. “Of course. There is an opening right next to your head, Ryan.”

He rushed over to them and Ryan silently congratulated himself for not flinching. “Then get it open!”

“We are not leaving this way.”

“Have you gone insane?” he snapped. You are the one who said we had little time left. Why can't we go that way?”

“It is quite simple. This wasn't the route the other two humans used to escape.” He grabbed the almost comatose Todd and casually slung him over his shoulder. “Follow me, Ryan. I think I know which route they took.”

Vel-Dragil ran forward then took a swift left, into a smaller, narrower corridor, just as Ryan heard the sound of the excited voices of their pursuers. They had spotted them! He forced down a yelp when one of their energy bolts slammed into the wall above him. Ryan threw himself into the corridor, hoping that the big lizard could get them out of here before the aliens ended them all.

The Velicion came to a sudden stop, dropped Todd on the ground then danced his claws over the stone. “Yes, this it the one they used. I can still sense their taint on the stone. They shall pay for this treachery. Mark my words.”

“That’s great, it really is Now, will you get that fucking door open, you big ugly lizard!” he snapped. “They're almost on us!”

Vel-Dragil's claws completed the circuit and a large panel slid back. He grabbed Todd's shoulder and dragged him into the light. Ryan raced though the closing gap. He took a deep breath. “Thank you. I owe you my life, again.” he bent down in front of Todd and gently shook him. “Oh no. This is not good at all. He's not responding, Vel-Dragil. We need a medic.”

The Velicion picked up Todd again and threw his now limp body over his shoulder. “The only medics currently inside this base right now belong to the species who are looking for you. The humans, Danu and my kind are no longer in the base.”

“We need to do something for Todd!” He had slept through his field medical training all those years ago but even Ryan, with his limited knowledge knew his friend was suffering from a concussion. The cold clammy skin and shallow breathing told him that much, and he didn't think a basic first aid kit would be of any help in this situation. “Does this place have a hospital or anything similar?”

Vel-Dragil froze. “I can hear footsteps. Somebody is coming,” he announced. We cannot stay here, Ryan as there are no weapon lockers close by.” He laid Todd on the floor and stepped back a couple of paces. “Don't just stand there Ryan. You must follow me.”

“"What? No! Are you even listening to what I'm saying? He's going to die if we don't get him medical help.”

“I heard your words. He is going to die anyway, human and you will join him if you do not come with me.”

The footsteps grew louder. Ryan hurried over to Todd. He didn't care what the giant lizard said or did. He wasn't going to leave the man to die. “Take it easy, my friend,” he said. Ryan took his hand. Shocked at how cold it was. Vel-Dragil's reasoning couldn't be faulted, however much he hated it. Todd would not survive this and neither would he if Ryan didn't get out of here. Yet, when he glanced up, he saw that Vel-Dragil had not moved.

“I do not detect the foul taint of a Marauder.”

Ryan kept hold of Todd's hand. It didn't matter if the Velicion was right or not, he still wasn't going to leave. A long shadow announced the presence of the newcomer. Ryan gasped when the Danu pilot raced around the corner and stopped dead, his face white with shock.

“By the grace of Lady Light. You are still alive, human. How can this be?”  His face changed for the worse at the sight of Todd's body. He rushed over and kneeled by Ryan. “This is a tragedy. What fiendish plot put him into this dire situation?”

“Some slimy worm, hit him on the back of the head with a gun,” growled Ryan. "I think he's got concussion.” He turned to the pilot. “Tell me you know how to save him!”

“I do possess the standard Danu med kit but I will not be able to use that.”

“You are kidding me, right? I thought you and Todd were the best of pals. What is wrong with you?” The Pilot now looked as though Ryan had just told the guy the worst news in the world, but he didn't care. Todd couldn't die.

“I am so sorry, but you do not understand. I am not sure that our medicine will even work on humans. The nanomodules are only programmed to repair damaged Danu  anatomy. There is also the sacred law of allowing lesser lifeforms to interact with our technology.”

It took a great deal of effort not to punch the patronising hairless elf. “Now you listen here,” he said through gritted teeth. “If you ever call me a lesser lifeform again, you'll be spitting out broken teeth.” He glared at the Danu. “You know something? You guys have a real problem with the sharing of information!” Ryan lifted Todd's arm and dropped it onto the Danu's knee. “You are responsible for his life. Do you really think you'll be able to cope if he dies while knowing that you could have saved him?”

“The pain I feel at the thought of my fiend dying is more servere than you could possibley understand. But we are not the same species, meaning that the the nanomodules will not understand! They might allow him to live for a few seconds before he dies anyway, or they might unintentionally create an amalgam. Of course, this is improbable but the risk still exists, hence the reason for sacred law.”

“Fine, then he dies.” snapped Ryan.

The Danu stared at Ryan before letting out a very human sigh. “This is so not a good idea,” muttered the pilot.

He reached into a white leather pouch by his hip and pulled out a matt grey cube. Ryan almost snatched it out of his fingers, believing it to be another explosive device. Vel-Dragil grabbed his arm before he could.

“It is not what you think it is,” murmured the Velicion.

“There. It is done,” said the Danu, standing up. “The nanomodules are now in his bloodstream. They will attempt to repair the damage. Ryan. You must pray that our anatomy is a close enough match or.”

“Or what?”

“Or you might not like the end result.” he replied sighing. “His life is now in the gentle palm of our Lady Light. It is up to her what will become of him.” His gaze found Ryan's “Listen to me. It is crucial that no more is said about what transpired here. Do you understand?”

He nodded "Fine, whatever.

The Velicion leaned over Todd and gently pulled his head up. “I can see the colour returning to his flesh already. That is a good sign. He then pulled him up and slung Todd over his back. “The other mammals must be trying to reach the spaceport while avoiding all the Marauder patrols.  Like cowards, all they care is saving their own skins. When I  locate them, they will wish the Marauders found them first.” he peeled back his black lips and growled deep. “I am going to eat their eyes. Come, both of you. We need to move.”

The Danu shook his head. "No. They are now inconsequential to our new mission.”

“Are you trying to anger me, Danu? I have no problem with eating your eyes too.”

“Your threats are wasted on me, Velicion.” He pointed at Ryan. “The confirmation of his true nature means the prophecy foretold by our last warrior is coming true. We have to do everything in our power to avoid the Marauders from occupying this base. There will be no grabbing it back, only for them to continue this never-ending cycle. Once they have it, this time, they will stay and use it as a beachhead to launch the final invasion on the home planet. It has been foretold.”

"It is not known for the Danu to act like savage humans. Perhaps you have been spending too much time with them? Not that it matters. Pre-determinism belongs to undeveloped species. We go to the spaceport and kill the two humans. It had been decided."

“Wait, what prophecy and why am I only hearing about this now?”

“Thousands of years ago, before your species learned to speak, our last warrior spoke of a time when an alien invader will do everything in their power to utterly annihilate the Terrestrial pact. This was due to start when the one who unites us all is found.”

The Danu pilot then pulled out his blaster and aimed it at the Velicion 's head. “Do not test my patience, Velicion. You are an impossibly old species. One who is in terminal decline, possibly freefall. I suspect that even your priests would have foretold your end moment. It is such a shame that you no longer believe. If you did then perhaps you would be more accepting.”

“You speak in riddles and falsehoods, Danu. Nothing less than I would expect from your species. Listen to me, you annoying mammal. There is no such thing as prophecy.”

Ryan found their confrontational dialogue strange and a little unsettling. He also believed this conversation, the mutual distrust and the constant parrying of insults, threats and compromise showed Ryan how these two peoples communicated. How they had found enough common ground to accomplish anything worthwhile was beyond him. “Is it possible, just for a minute, for you two to stop having a go at each other?”

Todd moaned a little louder. It sounded like whatever the Danu had done was having the desired effect. “Wait, why argue at all? There is nothing stopping us from attempting to achieve both goals.”

“Do you seriously expect the three of us to attack a full Marauder assault force with only one working weapon?” The Velicion shook his great head. “You are as addled as the Danu. But then, what else should I expect from a pair of mammals?”

“There are three of us mammals here, not two, Vel-Dragil. I'm sure that Todd will be back up to full strength in no time, thanks to this Danu allowing his closed mind to open up a new possibilities. As for weapons. Well, that is where your vast knowledge will be so essential. You know this place better than anyone else and I know that you will be able to lead us to the next weapon locker while eluding those Marauder patrols. Remember, there will be another two humans ready to join the fight once we reach the spaceport. Vel-Dragil, stop growling. I know you want to kill them but perhaps you could put thoughts of dinner to one side? At least until we stop the Marauders. Do you like those odds any better, Vel-Dragil? Are you too willing to allow your mind to open up too or do will you carry on following your own path a destruction?” He helped Todd to his feet.

“Are you forgetting that they tried to kill your human friend.”

“Of course not. But I think they were trying to stop him from following them, that's all. If they wanted to kill Todd then I think they would have succeeded.” Ryan turned to the pilot. “The Marauders see us as a threat. I agree that we are, but only if we all combine our talents and operate as one.” he grinned. “If we do that, then the aliens won't stand a chance.”

The Velicion turned to the Pilot. “Perhaps you are right that he truly is the one who unites us?”

“Perhaps?”

“Indeed. I suspect this is why I have this incredible urge to stuff something into his mouth to stop him from talking.”

Chapter Nine

Inside the Bowels

Vel-Dragil issued him with a light assault weapon, to Ryan, this beast, as long as his arm and twice as thick, gave him the feeling that he was carrying a small child, albeit, one which weighed the same as a standard human rifle.

The Velicion had stressed to him that the mono-filaments which attached to the user's central nervous system would create a bond enabling him to use the weapon as easily as blinking or walking. He also stressed that until now, any other species who had tried using these weapons had either gone insane or turned to super-heated vapour. At which point, the pilot pleaded with him to stick to the weapons provided by his species.

The elevator had begun to slow. Ryan looked at the Velicion and the pilot before taking a deep breath. “Ready?” They nodded. “How about you, Todd, ready for a scrap?”

His friend had improved significantly since the Danu had injected him with whatever he kept in that pouch. The man's strength had returned, so had his desire to find the two other humans who almost put him in the ground. That itch would need to wait a little longer. To reach the spaceport, meant crossing through their next destination.

The elevator eased to a stop and the doors slid open. Just as Vel-Dragil's motion detector showed, over a dozen Marauder units sat idly along both corridor walls. They didn't even react when they saw the elevator did not contain more of their kind. Well, they did but by the time they jumped to their feet and brought up their weapons, it was too late.

Ryan didn't even need to aim. He simply told his baby who the bad guys were and the assault weapon took control. Stream after stream of energised plasma particles blasted the enemy apart. The Marauders who were lucky enough to escape the effects of the terrifying weapon were caught out by the weapons fire from the other three.

He stepped out into the flat grey corridor, now filled with smoke and dust as well as small particles of crimson mist which stuck to their bodies like glue as they took a few more steps away from the elevator shaft.

Ryan coughed and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, a little disgusted to find that red stuff coating his skin. He dare not ask the other three where it had come from. Vel-Dragil handed him another weapon, similar to what the Danu carried. “No thanks. I'm happy with this one.”

The Velicion shook his head. “I am sorry, but it does not work that way.” He pointed to the area, inside the green organic sleeve which fitted into his left arm. “Its energy banks are totally drained and the shock it sustained has already begun to effect the weapon. We should get it to another weapons locker so it can come to terms with the lives it has taken. Only then will the process of healing commence.”

“You sound like it's alive!”

“It is, Ryan, and intelligent enough to understand the concept of self-awareness. Look, already the mono-filaments are detaching. We should make finding another locker a priority.”

He gazed around at the devastation caused by the weapon while Vel-Dragil assured the others that his motion detector showed no activity close to their position. His weapon, this awesome piece of ancient advanced machinery no longer felt like it belonged to him anymore and as weird as it was, Ryan felt like he had lost another part of his life. “Are you telling me that you created sentient weapons? That is just sick.”

Todd stepped forward. He too looked like somebody had thrown a capsule of watery red fluid at his face. “Could we leave the moral ambivalence for another time, perhaps? We still have a job to do.”

Ryan frowned. He turned to the Velicion. “Help me out with something here. After witnessing the unbelievable destructive power of just one hand weapon, I can't understand how these aliens were even able to get close to the base, let alone invade and occupy it.” He gently stroked the now cold device. “Install a few larger versions of this thing onto your ships and anything that came close wouldn't last more than a few seconds.”

Vel-Dragil nodded. “Strange how we never thought of that,” he replied, sarcastically. “Until now, no other being has been able to persuade any weapon to release its full potential in one burst. If I had used the weapon, it would have allowed me to fire three perhaps four times, at a much lower charge before demanding atonement. Can you understand this?” He turned his attention to the pilot. I still do not believe in your prophecy, Danu, but this experiment has helped to direct me away from my chosen path.”

The Velicion gently removed the assault weapon from Ryan and clipped it to his back harness. “The feelings of loss you are no doubt experiencing will soon pass,” he whispered. Vel-Dragil turned to face the others. “Our route is now clear. We should make the best use of our time.” He gave Ryan one final look before rushing past the Marauder remains.

Todd wiped his face again and grimaced. “I hope this stuff isn't poisonous.”

The pilot shook his head. “Do not worry, it is harmless. You are quite safe.”

“Do I want to know what it is?”

“The Marauders believe that the only way to reach their afterlife once they die, is the total annihilation of the body. If there is no chance of survival or they think the enemy is close to capturing them, they have multiple devices implanted which will detonate. Consequently, even after all these years, our knowledge of them is fragmented. We do not even know where their home star system is located. We do know that this species is intent on either destroying or enslaving every sentient species, unlucky enough to get in their way.”

Ryan ran his fingers over the new weapon. “Where was this made? Come to think of it, where did your spaceship come from or, well, everything else? I mean, apart from you saying that both your species originated from Earth, I don't know anything else about you or the Velicion for that matter.”

At the sound of his name, he looked over his shoulder. “If we do not stop them, the Marauders will invade the home planet, and turn everything you hold dear into dust. Your species will, as the Danu said, either become their next slave race or you will end up on their dining table.” He stopped. “What else is there to know?”

The pilot grinned. “Not every Velicion is as optimistic as him. Most believe that the Marauders will overrun the galaxy and reduce every species, including the Terrestrials into soup.” He shrugged. “That is what happens when the entire species do not believe in the Lady of Light. The conflict in this star system, although important to all of us, is not the only fight to worry about. This pestilence have attacked and occupied countless star systems across the section of our galaxy and to be honest, there does not look to be much hope of slowing them down, let alone finding a solution in which to defeat them.”

“It appears that this pestilence does not take kindly to being irradiated.” Vel-Dragil tapped the motion detector. “There are already even more Marauders are heading this way. Many more. We do not have much time as they are already at the next junction. I think we have to go back to the elevator.”

Ryan turned around. The red mist had finally settled, covering everything with its clinging, greasy touch. He moved a little closer to the last armour shell they had passed, crouched and pulled the weapon out from under the armour. It looked similar to the gun he snatched from the other Marauder. It might come in useful. Ryan then caught sight of movement. He brought up the dropped weapon only to find what caught his attention had been the elevator doors sliding shut. Ryan shook his head. “Going back to the elevator is not a good idea, Vel-Dragil,” He  nodded towards the doors. “I think we're about to have company coming up too.”

“Fuck.” Todd ran over to the Velicion. “Are we trapped here or is there another way off this level?”

He shook his head. “ I am sorry but no, not this time. We have no other choice but to fight our way through this.”

Todd looked in disgust at his human made blaster. “Thank you for saving me earlier,” he said sliding down the wall. “I'm just sorry you wasted it on me. You have only delayed the death sentence.”

Ryan had no intention of lying down and giving up. Not after everything they have been through so far. “We need to find some cover.” He desperately looked up and down the sparse corridor looking for anything that might fit the bill.

“They are almost here,” said Vel-Dragil. He got down on one knee and lifted his rifle. It has been an honour to serve with all of you.”

The Danu joined him and copied the Velicion's movements, only facing the elevator. Ryan had run out of time! Their running bootstraps echoed on the floor as they ran towards them. They would be visible in just a few more seconds.

Todd had attempted to hide behind one of the dead Marauder 's empty armour. “It's obvious what to do!” he exclaimed. “How could I be so stupid not to see it before?”  He ran over to Todd. “You two, come over here, hurry up!” By the time they got here, Ryan climbed inside one of the shells. Todd followed his example.

“This is desecration!”

“Seriously?” Ryan gazed at the Velicion in disbelief. “You'd rather get shot?” He looked past him. “Will you just do it?” He positioned himself against the wall. "Look, if they can't see us then they'll just think we've used a secret entrance.”

“There are no hidden doors on this level.”

“Do they know that, for crying out loud?” He sighed in relief when the Velicion dropped to the floor and squeezed his bulk into the remaining armour shell, seconds before the first unit of Marauder troops came into view. They didn't immediately fire on them, which helped to slow his heart rate down a bit.

The second unit approached from behind and joined up with the others. Ryan listened to them conversing, their speech was unfamiliar like before Ryan guessed that the translators weren’t working in the section of the base. He so wished he could understand their words. They might be discussing something vitally important.

His entire world consisted of a small patch of grey floor, coated with that red film of liquid. Even that limited view came to an end when a pair of huge feet stood in front of his face.

He heard what sounded like arguing followed by a sudden loud cry. The feet moved from his view. Ryan risked moving his head just a faction so he could see just what was happening. His view now showed him the first squad heading back towards the elevator while the remaining squad were still arguing amongst themselves. The most important point that he kept reminding himself was that none of those huge reptilian monsters were looking in their direction. That must mean that his plan had worked. Surely, it would be long now before they departed as well. Underneath their bickering, he heard the elevator doors sliding shut, meaning only half the number remained.

One of the Marauders yelled at a larger, uglier colleague before storming off down the corridor. Two more ran after him. Three down, just another three more to go! Ryan honestly thought everything was going great until he heard the sound of a very human sneeze. The three Marauders spun around. Ryan managed to got off one shot, which almost decapitated the closest soldier. Two more blasts took the remaining Marauders down.

He crawled out of the shell, yelping in shock when two shots, one after the other slammed into the wall just above his face. Ryan rolled into the middle of the floor and fired twice. Both shots failed to hit their respective targets!

The Danu and the Velicion had better luck. They both fired at the same Marauder who literally exploded, spraying his liquefied body all over the other two soldiers. With all that fluid splashing against their faces, Ryan took advantage of the situation and jumped up. He ran over to the side of the wall then dropped to the floor before firing shot after shot at the two remaining soldiers. He didn't stop until the gun registered empty.

Todd and Vel-Dragil helped him up.

“The elevator is returning. I do not think we will survive another encounter.”

The Velicion took the lead and raced over to the next exit at the far end of the corridor.  Ryan and the other two kept pace, acutely aware that the other soldiers were right behind them. He allowed the others to pass him. Their pursuers could not be far behind. Ryan found out exactly how far behind when the first soldier raced around the corner. He fired a couple of shots. Both missed but it made the alien fall. A pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him backwards. The pilot slammed the door shut and fired into the lock mechanism.

“It won't hold them for long,” the pilot murmured.

“It looks like we're not out of the woods yet,” said Todd, breathing heavily. “The lizard says we have a major problem.”

Ryan almost laughed. “Our Velicion friend sure is a big bundle of sunshine. Come on, let's go find out what has upset him now.”

They found him stood against another flat, grey wall section. Behind him, Ryan spotted an open door showing yet more flat grey corridor. How anybody found their way around here had to be a miracle. “What's wrong?”

“We have two options available. If we keeping going, we will reach the spaceport shortly. Right now, the way is clear but that could change at any moment. If fact, I know it will, as I have worked out how they know where we are.” He pointed up, at one of the edges. “Can you see it?”

“You have got to be joking,” hissed Ryan. He knew exactly what the Velicion had found. A surveillance camera. Why had the thought of cameras not occurred to him before? “So, they are tracking every movement. Just great. Vel-Dragil What else can we do?”

He tapped the wall. “There is a hidden entrance here.”

“So why are we even having this conversation?” Ryan asked. “Get it open and let's get out of here.”

“No, you do not understand. Somebody has used it, somebody not of my species.”

“Great, it must be Villas and Barnaby,” replied Ryan. “Again, why are we having this conversation?”

The Velicion sighed. “It was not them, that is the problem. The entrance was opened recently but not that recent.”

“Can you tell how long ago?” Ryan kept glancing at that camera, sure that it was watching him right now. He aimed his gun and fired. “How long, Vel-Dragil?”

“Twelve million years,” he replied.

“I hope that's a joke. That's ancient history. Just get it opened. We so need to get out of the spotlight for a bit. Ryan wasn't sure but it did sound like that locked door had begun to buckle.

Vel-Dragil muttered something under his breath before his fingers did the dance along the wall surface. A seam, stretching from floor to ceiling opened up, next to the pilot. He jumped back, smiling as a door panel slid back to reveal the now familiar red stone corridor. Both Vel-Dragil and the pilot ran in.

“Ladies first,” he said to Todd. “This time, don't let anyone sneak up on you.”

“You are so funny.”

Both men ran inside, moments before the door panel slid shut.

“There is so much I don't understand, Todd.” He stopped walking and leaned against the wall, doing his best to keep his emotions in check, an incredible difficult task considering what he had just endured. “I thought we were friends. I mean, I trusted you with my life and yet,” he groaned in frustration. “And yet you keep all this from me. I don't get it. Why?”

Todd looked down at his boots. “I supposed the simple reply of because of orders won't cut it?”

“Come on, man, you can do better than that.” Ryan looked up at the perfectly smooth stone blocks over his head.

To think that the species who constructed this magnificent structure originated from his home planet. His reptilian ancestors did the one thing that no human had ever achieved, they actually left the planet and started to colonise other world's in far off star systems. It boggled Ryan's mind just imagining how many weird and exotic planets these Velicions must have explored in the millions of years before the human species even evolved.

Both the Velicions and the Danu were out there right now, defending his planet while everyone planetside lived inside some stagnant bubble, still believing that the Earth was flat. What had happened to make them so insular? He glared at Todd, intending to ask that very question when the pilot rushed back.

“The Velicion wants to know where you are,” said the pilot. He sighed heavily. “You should not stray from us, my friends. You are too important for us to lose you.” After he said his piece, the pilot spun around and left them.

“You know something? I think you are their new pet.” Todd grinned.”Come on, let's go see what that giant lizard requires from you now.”

Ryan and Todd entered a huge cavern and immediately saw the Velicion standing next to what appeared to me some kind of giant, bipedal, grey and maroon machine. It didn't look anywhere near benign, thanks to its almost bestial shape. The under-slung weapons on each side of its body also helped to reinforce the image that this thing was a killer. Both Todd and Ryan reached for their weapons.

“Do not be alarmed,” said the Velicion, soothingly. “These assault mechs are long dead. This is their final resting place so please, put away your weapons so show some reverence in this sacred place.” He guided them over to another door. “These magnificent creatures were placed here for all eternity to dream their dreams of glory and conquest, as only mechs can.” He nodded over to the pilot. “You humans must stay here while we ensure the next point in our journey is safe. Do not  worry, we shall not be long.”

“And you called me a pet. Don't you get it, Todd? That's all we are to them, pets, to fuss over and stroke every so often. Why can you not see this? We're just caged animals unaware of anything beyond our own limited horizons. Our society doesn't care about anything apart from the desire to fulfil our own trivial needs. What happened to us, Todd, why have we regressed?”

His colleague looked across at the now closed exit before gingerly tapping the surface of the nearest Mech. Todd turned away then ran his hand up and down the hardened metal. “You know, until now, I never really believed all those stories they told me back when I was recruited. I guess I was like you, blinded by what I could only see in front of me, coupled with all those lies they taught us at school and in church.” He spun around. “We very nearly did become the next Terrestrial species to leave our planet and explore the galaxy. In fact, we weren't doing all that bad. There were the moon landings, the Mars and asteroid probes, followed by the automated landings to two of Jupiter's largest moons before we finally did set foot on the surface of this planet.”

“It sounded amazing. I would have so loved to have been there. To be part of a species with dreams as large as the horizon, pushing themselves further and further into the unknown. Pride and respect for those brave individuals involved in those great feats must have filled the hearts of every individual on the planet.”

Todd laughed. “You really are a product of our new society, Ryan. Listen to me. Most of the population at that time never even knew that Man had landed on another planet, and the few which did know, couldn't care less. Why should anything like that excite them? It didn't stop the criminals, thieves, conmen, rapists and murderers from turning their cities into segregated no-go areas. It didn't help to put food on the table, not did this accomplishment stop the three rival nation states from trying to destroy each other. By this time, this planet had already suffered another world war which killed many millions, it fact, if anything, it made the whole situation even worse. Were were on the edge of an abyss of which we almost fell into.”

“You describe a hell of which, I know something of, Todd. Do not forget, I studied the history of our world too and I know that we emerged from a dark time, of a period that was dire but it has been proved again and again, that humans goodness will shine through even the greatest of tragedies. The fact that we still live as a species proves that. Despite what you say, I refuse to believe that it really was as bad as you paint.”

“It's all true, Ryan. In fact, it was probably a far worse than I described. I do know why it is such a harsh meal to digest. I couldn't believe it either. In fact, I still have trouble understanding how we could have become so savage, and I've seen the old footage.”

“So what has this got to do with this Velicion Mech?” Ryan approached the hulking metal beast with care. Even though Vel-Dragil said it had expired, he still felt a sense of deep foreboding when he stood in front of the thing. Had this metal monster really been like that gun he fired? He shuddered at the thought of being in control of such deadly weaponry and yet, Ryan purposely bit his bottom lip to give himself something else to focus on. It didn't stop him so wanting to climb inside this beast and rampage across the surface, killing anything and everything that moved.

“Something bad happened on Mars, Ryan. The reports don't really say what, only that something, very similar to one of these still contained enough power to reactivate when it sensed organic intelligence close by.”

“One of these things killed people?”

“Nobody is totally sure what happened on Mars. Almost all the information dating back to that incident as well as what happened in the first few weeks after the governments back home found out are fragmentary. The reports only resurfaced almost a year later when it was announced that all three nations states were working together for the first time in history. It wasn't quite looking for a way to stop world hunger or to bring peace to the world. Quite the opposite really.”

“They wanted revenge?”

“You got it, so in typical primitive savage human fashion, they combined their resources and built a military vessel in Earth orbit and packed it with enough ordinance to turn the planet Mars into another asteroid belt.”

“Were they insane? Had these people never heard of poking a wasp nest with a stick?” He imagined that human weaponry would have been quite advanced by this time but compared to what the other players in this war used, their guns must have looked like toys and were probably as effective. “I can't even begin to imagine to the mindset that came up with sending out an untried battleship into a potential warzone. There could have been anything waiting for them.”

Todd nodded. “You needed to think like one of the primitives to understand their reasoning. They thought they were superior to all other forms of life, even alien ones. So, you were right about they had no clue as to what was beyond the relative safety of their home planet. This soon changed when…”

He shut his mouth as soon as the door opened. Ryan found that action a little odd, he acted like a child caught stealing money. Both Vel-Dragil and the pilot re-entered. The Velicion did not look happy which made his heart sink. This probably meant that even more trouble lay in wait for them beyond this cavern.

“The way looks to be clear,” said the pilot and we know there are more like us, hiding in the base. If we can hook up with them there might be a chance of defeating the Marauders.”

“That is good news.” Ryan took one last look at Todd, still unsure or what just happened before looking across at Vel-Dragil. “Why is he so upset then? Is it something to do with not finding Villas and Barnaby?”

The pilot shook his head. “The Velicion never mentioned them once. He told me that he found out who had been inside this hidden chamber before.” The pilot leaned closer. “He said it was the Marauders.”

“Again, why should it matter?” replied Ryan. “You heard what he said earlier, this happened millions of years ago.”

“Ryan, Please listen to me. It is so needed for you to comprehend that time is much broader than the bubble of your own existence upon Lady Light's wings.”

“Please, don't start spouting off riddles. My brain's already cramped with enough stuff to stop me from sleeping for weeks. Just tell me what it is.”

“It really is quite simple, Ryan,” interjected Todd. “Remember our earlier chat? A few million years is just a drop in the ocean to these guys. Stuff around here does not have a use by date.”

Todd followed the pilot out, before he left the cavern, he glanced over his shoulder. “Come on, let's get out of here. The place gives me the creeps.”

Ryan nodded. He took one last look at these machines. He didn't believe the Velicion was telling the full truth here. This not feel like a mechanical mortuary to him, more like their sleeping quarters. He turned around, stifled a shudder and left.

Chapter Ten

A desperate fight

That last shot almost took his head off. If it hadn't been for the pilot firing at the last minute, Ryan would be a red stain on the wall now. He threw himself to the floor, rolled to the left and shot at the Marauder who had, foolishly, tried to storm his makeshift barrier. The new Velicion weapon that Vel-Dragil had found him did the job pretty well. On the second shot, it hit something inside that alien's armour which caused the thing inside to detonate.

The feeling he received when that vile creatures bits covered the wall beside him made Ryan wonder if he would need to have his soul cleansed once this was over. He rolled again and fired, his shot taking out yet another alien. He heard more energy blasts coming from the passageway adjacent to this one and risked getting shot by scrambling to his feet, diving over his barrier and running into the other corridor.

The pilot and Vel-Dragil were pinned down from weapon's fire, coming from two different locations. He crawled over to them, firing continuously, to cover his approach. The Velicion tapped him on the shoulder then pointed over to the side of the corridor. He lifted his head just a fraction and saw Todd doing his best to press his body into the wall. What was he going to do? He had cover. If any of the marauders spotted him then he would not stand a chance! Ryan ground his teeth in frustration. What could he do?

The pilot sighed before throwing away his weapon before reaching into his side pocket to pull out a much smaller pistol. Their time was drawing to a close. Another few minutes and they'd be all out of ammunition.

“We need to pull back,” said the Velicion. “There are more heading straight for us.”

“No, if we do that, then Todd is dead.” shouted Ryan.

“Your friend is dead no matter what we do.” The pilot shook his head. “I am sorry, but that is how it has to be.”

“No, no way!” he shouted. “I'm not leaving him there to die alone.” Ryan screamed the jumped over the barrier, and run straight towards Todd, while firing in both directions. Several more shots almost turned him into superheated mush, but he did manage to reach his friend without getting shot.

He got down on one knee and fired twice then had to throw himself hard against the wall as one adventurous alien decided to move away from his cover in order to take a shot. The alien almost got him too, but it never got chance to fire again as a blast from the Velicion's weapon vaporised it.

“Fancy meeting you here,” said Todd.

“Yeah, fancy.” He fired in the opposite direction, acutely aware that the weapon's energy banks were close to empty. Ryan estimated that he had perhaps another four more shots left before this gun died on him. He had to make them all count.

“What did you go have to run over here, Ryan? Seriously, you know that I'm going to die, There's no need to sacrifice yourself too.”

“Ever the eternal optimist.” He threw himself to the floor and fired at another brave Marauder. His first shot missed but the second one didn't. He shuffled back to Todd. “There can't be that many more left. I mean, they only managed to land one ship.”

“Their assault vessels can carry almost a hundred soldiers, Ryan. I know you're good at this but even you couldn't have taken out that many.”

The Velicion frantically waved while holding up his motion detector. He watched the two Terrestrials scurry backwards before vanishing around the corner. “Looks like its just me and you, my friend.”

“Yeah, I saw them leave. I'm guessing there's more aliens on their way?”

“Would seem like that.”

“How many shots do you have left, Ryan?”

“Two, I think. What about you?”

“Four.” He grinned. “How many do you think we can take out before they turned us both into crimson pudding?”

“Six shots six aliens, obviously.”

“Okay, you take the left corridor, Todd. I'll take the right. What do you say, after three?”

Ryan pulled him back when the aliens unleashed another barrages of energy bolts. He pointed to the floor before dropping down. Todd followed him, a moment later, a stray shot slammed into the wall. Ryan swallowed hard, knowing they'd just narrowly escaped getting wiped out.

“This is unreal. How are we supposed to go out like a pair of noble heroes when those bastards won't even allow us to get a single shot anywhere near them?”

Ryan jumped when another shot hit the wall a few inches to the left of his shoulder. That insane urge to go out while taking as many of those Marauders as possible had kinda left him now. He glanced at Todd and believed he felt the same too. Yet, he still saw no other way of getting out of this alive. Ryan knew they couldn't reach the other side, to that empty space left by their deserted companions. It was tantalisingly close but crawling under the weapons fire, they wouldn't be able to reach it without the Marauders picking them off.

“Don't they ever run out of ammo?”

Ryan shrugged. Like he knew the answer to that question.

One of the Marauders became a little too careless by moving out, and into the corridor just for a second, but it's all Ryan needed. He used one of his precious bolts to take it out. Ryan shot the thing directly in the middle of its chest armour, causing the creature to stagger backwards but the shot only wounded it.

It leapt to its feet, saw the pair of them huddled against the wall, took aim while shouting in their weird language. He didn't need a translation to know that the bastard was calling for its mates. Both Ryan and Todd fired together, vaporising the advancing alien. It was a hollow victory as another four appeared and started to walk towards them. Each Marauder holstered their rifle and took out a huge serrated knife. Todd moaned loudly.

“They going to peel off our skin and eat our inside while we still live! Only a single shot left as well!” he gasped. “There's only one thing we can do, my friend. Our one chance for a clean and painless death. It has been an honour serving with you.” He opened his mouth wide and pushed the gun barrel inside.

“No, don't do it!” Ryan managed to pull the weapon out, just as the lead alien screamed. It fell back and hit the floor. The other Marauders ran to the side of the wall. “The others must have come back!” He pulled the shaking man back to the wall, fired his last round. He only clipped the shoulder of another Marauder but the shot forced it out into the middle of the corridor . Another shot blasted out and killed it stone dead. Ryan dropped his gun, pulled Todd's weapon out of his fingers and shot at another Marauder. This one died instantly. Only two remained. He saw them clearly enough and knew they were an easy target if the Marauders still had their rifles out.

“It isn't the Velicion or the pilot,” said Todd, groaning. “This feels weird.”

“Todd, have you been shot?”

“I don't think so, hard to tell. He blinked rapidly while keeping his gaze fixed on the action behind them. “The shots are coming from behind them and they're using human heavy weapons.”

His friend looked in a bad way but couldn't understand why. He hadn't been shot. Could some residue from the stuff that Danu gave him be finally taking effect?

Ryan picked Todd up and half carried him across the corridor, fully aware that the remaining aliens were staring but he no longer cared. He stopped midway and glared, just as their mysterious rescuers emerged from hiding. Ryan wasn't sure whether to be relieved or angry at the sight of Villas and Barnaby rushing towards the Marauders. Both aliens spun around at the same time that the men fired. The Marauders didn't even get chance to scream.

He nodded in gratitude to the two men while he dragged Todd's rapidly cooling body back over to the barrier previously occupied by two Terrestrials. He looked up at Villas when he felt his presence. “Thanks for saving us but it might be best if you made yourself scarce.”

“Of all the gratitude. After we risked our necks to save your miserable lives. At least we didn't run out like those two did to leave you to die.”

“You saw that?” Todd's temperature had steadied but he was still freezing.

“Of course we did,” replied Villas. He crouched over Todd. “Shit. Is he like this because we hit him.”

“What do you think?” snapped Ryan. “Of course it is.”

“No way,” replied Barnaby. “I didn't hit him that hard. It was only a tap.”

Todd's body temperature remained the same but some movement had returned to his limbs. He slowly sat up, it looked like he didn't know we he was. All that changed when Barnaby came into view. Todd screamed and launched himself at the astonished man, slamming his body into him. The pair of them fell back while both Villas and Ryan struggled to pull Todd off Barnaby. The man fought like a hellcat, shrugging away both his and Villas's attempt to remove him with ease.

Thick blood spread out from under Barnaby causing Todd to redouble his efforts to pull Todd away. He heard somebody cry out. It sounded like Villas but how could that be? Somebody dragged Ryan off them and he saw a large red figure physically lift the frantic collection of teeth, feet and fists off the now unmoving Barnaby.

The pilot and Vel-Dragil has returned. The Danu held him back while his companion carried on hold Ryan's homicidal friend in the air while the pilot passed the Velicion another capsule from his medi pack.

“Villas, go see if the other human continues to breathe,” barked Vel-Dragil. The Velicion laid Todd on the floor when whatever they had given him started to take effect. “Does the human live?”

“What did that monster do to him?” Villas trembled violently. “I've never seen anything like that before!” he spun around, his face a picture of shock and fear. “He is some kind of monster!”

“Does the human still live, Villas. Answer me?”

He nodded while shivering. “He's bleeding everywhere and I think a couple of his bones are broken but yeah, he's not dead.” Villas ripped off some of his top and started to wipe off some of the blood.

Ryan shrugged off the Danu. When he tried to grab him again, Ryan jumped out of his grasp. “Don't you touch me, you left us to die.” He spun around before the pilot could answer and hurried over to the injured man. Ryan kneeled beside Villas, took the other piece of cloth and helped to clean Barnaby up. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Vel-Dragil and the pilot hunched over Todd. It looked like the pair of them were massaging his arms. “I've fallen into a nightmare,” he muttered. Ryan then gasped out when he saw Villas using something which looked very similar to what the Danu used on Todd. “Don't give that to him!”

“Relax, man. It'll help to stitch him up.” Villas paused. He looked across at Todd, stared at the Danu then slowly turned to face Ryan, the blood had drained from his face. “No, don't tell me they used one of their indigenous med kits on Todd!”

“We had no other choice.”

Villas abruptly stood up and ran over to the other three, leaving him alone with Barnaby. He watched the other human exchange words with both the Velicion and the pilot. He thought Villas was going to try to kill them until Villas stood up, hung his head and spoke again. Ryan frowned, he was sure he just apologised to them.

Barnaby's eyes flickered open. He looked at Ryan then sought out the others. The man shuddered when his eyes fell upon Todd. “Did that just happen?” He took a deep breath and grabbed Ryan's hand. “I didn't dream that attack?”

He shook his head. It's all Ryan could do. This man was so close to death a few minutes ago and apart from his ripped up clothing and the drying blood covering most of his skin, Ryan could see nothing wrong. Even the bones had knitted together.

“That was so intense. I thought a Velicion warrior had attacked me.” Barnaby managed to sit up unaided. “Ryan, that is your name, right?”

He nodded.

“I'm so sorry about what happened earlier, I mean with running off and hitting Todd. It's nothing you or Todd did, honest. It's just that...” Barnaby abruptly shut up when the other four walked back over.

“Todd, what happened to you?” Ryan got between him and Barnaby, just in case he attacked him again. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“It will not happen again,” said Vel-Dragil. It was just an unexpected side effect. Fear not, all of you humans. We have ensured that it will not happen again.” The Velicion pulled out an assortment of weapons from his pack. “We did not leave you to die, Todd and Ryan.”

He passed Ryan a weapon similar to the one he discarded.

“There are not many of them left now. It will not be too difficult to seek , locate, and destroy the few who remain. Thanks to our combined efforts, for the first time in history, we have defeated their initial assault force without suffering any fatalities. We should make our way back to the command deck and inform the others that it is safe to return.” He laughed. “This is a great victory, my friends. You should all rejoice!”

Ryan had never felt so alone in his life. He had fallen into the mouth of madness, surrounded by strange non-human beings who he believed to be working to some hidden agenda and three like him who were yet just as alien as the others. He followed the others along the corridor, stepping over the fallen dead while idly running his fingers up and down the weapon stock. Just like before, it was another Danu weapon. It took a great deal of effort to stop himself from using this to kill them all before he escaped this asylum and returned home, where he belonged.

The ghostly image of Bernadette appeared in the middle of the corridor. The others walked straight through her and when he reached the woman, the image flickered out of existence.

Don't be afraid, Ryan. I'm here for you. I'll always be here.

Ryan whimpered.

Chapter Eleven

The Coming of the Final Storm

Di-Malok had not raged when he opened the message package and watched as the vis-data showed him that the battle for the base had gone catastrophically wrong. His flesh chair still remained as he last used it. He had not summoned his Bayan slave to vent out his frustration nor had he screamed and cursed. Di-Malok had simply turned off the vis-display, disconnected the soundstress field and wandered over to the command and conquer board to compare what his network had shown him compared to what the official reports, due for transfer back home, showed.

As he had already predicted, the official report showed a different report. The images from the base were expertly cut and spliced in such a way to appear that the failure to take the base rested solely at his ineffectual command decisions. Di-Malok was seriously impressed with the work. It displayed all the hallmarks of a professional artist.

Perhaps he should rage, just to give the impression to whoever was watching and recording, that these unknown operators were getting to him? The official package began its hyperlight journey once he signed it off. Although it painted him to be just as incompetent as the previous Marshall Governor, he could not delay the package, nor could he falsify the log. The multiple anti-tamper devices embedded in the  message core saw to that. This did upset him. Not the contents but somebody hidden within the shadows had the capability to accomplish what he could not. At least not yet.

It did not matter what they thought of him back home at this moment. Due to events in the royal court, this package and the next few ones would only reinforce his father's opinion that sending Di-Malok here could only be seen as a wise move. As for the others,  he doubted many of the others would even care about his series of poor judgement calls.

This situation would change for the better. Right now,  he could see the other minor players were showing him their hidden moves. Their motives were still not clear but they would be unveiled in short time. As for the major players, his so called operators,  he would need to push them in an unexpected direction in order for him to understand their motives. That would be his next task.

Sometimes the layers took a little encouragement before he could see what they hid from him. The more determined those layers were to stay together, the more determined he was to expose them.

After such a humiliating defeat, it would be proper to analyse all the facts and determine what went wrong and how to rectify the problem so the next mission would be successful. Simple and logical and from watching the previous video packages, this is exactly how the previous Marshall Governor operated after each failed mission.

From his observations, he believed that the failure stemmed from Di-Timok from viewing altered video packages. His operators had already laid the groundwork for him to follow in the same clawsteps. He gazed at the flesh chair. “I know that I am correct. It is such a shame that they snipped your vocal organs when they repurposed you. As I believe that only you would be able to appreciate what I intend to do next.”

He sat down and gently ran his claws along the surface while he formulated his response, knowing that if there was to be any repercussions, this would be the crux moment and repercussions could mean the next Marshall Governor sitting in him.

“Open an internal Comms package to the Supplies Tertiary Overseer.” An image bubble grew in front of his face and for a few segment cycles, he caught a glimpse of Traskers and Bayans,  working alongside low caste Dionion's inspecting and doing light repairs to a number of Imperial vessels. Di-Malok frowned at the state of some of those ships. Some of them looked to be ancient with only their shoddy looking repair jobs holding them together. After coming from the Imperial homeworld where it was required for everything to look immaculate, seeing such decrepit heaps of junk still in use made him both furious and upset.

Did they honestly expect his troops to go into battle inside such dangerous antiques? The regular troops did not concern him as most of them were just repurposed criminals, whose bio-metric fluid were just poured into the armoured containers. The commanders were different. If they died then all those many time segments worth of valuable training were wasted. Seeing the state of those things made him wonder how the rest of his soldier's equipment were faring.

This was his fault. Di-Malok should have known that when his orienteering officer first showed him around the complex, that any visible inconsistency would have been hidden behind closed doors. He remembered meeting the Supplies Tertiary Overseer, standing next to a couple of new looking assault carriers and he stuck Di-Malok as someone who cared about his work, despite the orienteering Officer advising him to keep a close eye on that one. He pulled his file later and the personnel report read very much like the previous Marshal Governor, making him believe that he was another one who had insulted an officer in his past and was shipped here as a punishment posting. Di-Malok would soon find out.

The Supplies Tertiary Overseer's large head filled the image bubble. “What to you want?” replied a gruff, impatient sounding voice. “Can't you see that I'm...”

It amused Di-Malok to see the change in his attitude when it occurred to him that it was not some minor officer calling him.

“My apologies,” he said, looking down at his feet. “I meant not offence, I thought it was... I'm sorry.”

“Tell me your name.”

“Di-Galid, sir.”

“Well then, Di-Galid. Come to my quarters at once.” He terminated the connection. The Overseer would probably be running through the deck, while calling to his mate and telling her how much he cared for her, no doubt believing that his end had come. The belief in his own demise could not be helped. The conversation which he need to have with Di-Galid could not be witnessed by anyone else.

He activated his soundstress field as soon as his Bayan slave showed his guest in. He gestured the Overseer to approach and once he was in range, Di-Malok offered the Overseer a glass of Trasker blood. The look of utter terror showing on his face almost caused his to laugh out loud.

“Are you going to refuse my hospitality, Di-Galid?”

The Overseer carefully took the offered glass, he took a single sip before placing it on the floor next to his knees, in all that time, the Overseer's eyes did not leave Di-Malok. “I am your servant.”

“You are that,” he replied. “I have some questions I want you to answer and then I have a little task set aside for someone of your considerable talent.” He leaned back and took a small sip  from his own glass. The taste was becoming more pleasing. “You should drink, Di-Galid. Do not allow it to start coagulating.” It then occurred to him that this lowly engineer had probably never tasted anything as exotic as prepared Trasker blood before. “Tell me something. Would you consider yourself to be a competent engineer?”

He nodded. “Yes, I do. I am the best there is in this complex.”

That pleased Di-Malok. This Dionion took pride in his work. Now it was time to see just how much pride. “So you say, and yet the evidence that I just saw state otherwise I have not ever witnessed such disregard shown to vehicles belonging to our beloved Emperor. What do you think would happen to you if word got out that a certain Supplies Tertiary Overseer believed he could get away with such inferior and shoddy repair work on such esteemed equipment?”

“None of that is my fault!”

“So you say.”

“Please, sir. Just look at the pile of request forms that I have sent back home, asking, begging, pleading for extra supplies. Every lunar Segment, I am the first one waiting at the docking port, waiting for that shuttle and hoping that perhaps that, this time, home has sent me something a little more useful than a box of suction sockets or one coil of induction rope. Do you know that in the twelve full Segments of being here, I have not received a single replacement assault carrier?”

“I saw two when I arrived. They looked new to me.”

“They were your military escort, sir. They left when your Imperial shuttle left. Sir. I know those ships on our deck are not pretty but they do fly. I have busted my bones to ensure that each invasion force, the old Marshall Governor asked to assemble was in good shape.”

“Indeed.” Di-Malik drained his glass. “Now, tell me about your old Marshal Governor. Do not be concerned about any repercussions. I need to hear the truth. Do not worry, there is a soundstress field active.”

“He didn't deserve whatever fate the cardinals inflicted on him. I heard stories from the conscripts about his military service before arriving at this forgotten place. He was a good soldier and a good commander. He treated his officers and us grunts well. He even had a small degree of respect for those poor repurposed bastards that the troops use as fodder.”

“I cannot get you the supplies which you need to keep your ships up and working, Di-Galid because the same claws which tied the claws of your old Marshal Governor have tied mine up as well. That does not mean I cannot find another solution.” He leaned forward. “Do you, by any chance have in your inventory, a remote auto rig, some particle streamers and two translocater beds?”

“Mining? You're thinking of extracting what we need from one of the local moons!” His face drooped. “We are not allowed. It is forbidden. Everyone knows that.”

Di-Malik shrugged. “So, you do have the equipment? That is excellent news. Now, finish your drink as it is time for you to return to your deck. You are about to become very busy.” He stood up. “How many stealthships are left?”

“There are seven in good order and another eight that are space worthy but cannot be pressurised.”

“That does not concern me. You are to find as many probe walkers as possible, set them all to assault mode, fill every working stealthship then launch every single ship at that fourth planet. Is that understood.”

The Supplies Tertiary Overseer drunk the blood, wiped his mouth and grinned. “Oh yes, I understand that!”

“Good. Find that other equipment before you start. Now I think you had better leave. You have a huge amount of work ahead of you.”

His Bayan slave led the engineer out of his quarters, leaving him alone with his flesh chair. “The wheels are now in motion. Once the news gets out, I think I shall soon discover who the operators are.” He called for more Trasker blood.

If he had any hope of living through this posting, in his present form then unveiling these operators, and then nullifying them was his only option. They were bound to be furious when his plan to pacify the enemy base become known, despite his actions being the only logical choice left to make after so many failed invasions.

Logic also told Di-Malok that it is likely that this decision to use all the stealthships should do the trick. Logic also hinted that they were not amateur players, meaning their attack could happen at any time and from anywhere, and possibly sooner than later. They would not have expected him to react in such outlandish manner.  This would be of concern if Di-Malok intended to stay here, in their lair.

Di-Malok reactivated his soundstress field and contacted his own ship. His Bayan slave answered immediately. “Is the Overseer back on the deck?”

“Yes, sir, and already making preparations.”

“Good, speaking of preparations, I want the ship ready for lift off within the next few micro segments. Initiate a complete surveillance scan, re-screen the new crew members then check all the type four nodules we installed in the Comms packages linking the ship to the base. If any exhibit tampering then scrap them all and insert type three nodules instead. Is that clear?”

The Bayan nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Spending most of his life at court had prepared him well for this kind of duplicity. Di-Malok almost pitied his unknown adversaries. They really had no clue who they were dealing with. He was no minor military officer. If fact, Di-Malok had doubts that the old Marshal Governor was even aware that powers above his pay-grade were using him like some disposable game-board piece. Di-Malok would not allow them to repurpose his body into furniture.

He called up the images of those ancient ships he saw on the deck. The sight of that junk called up an emotion which he had not felt for many years. They made him nostalgic over a forever closed off avenue of his life. Until Di-Malok decided to pursue the sweet coated spikes that is court life, he had already started on his career to become an Imperial starship officer. As of many privileged young Dionions of royal descent, he found the hard training, the absolute discipline and the total lack of respect for his high position, utterly disgusting. How dare these low-born officers treat him like some common slave! He resigned his commission and opted for, what he believed to be, the easier path choice, to join his father at the royal court.

Di-Malok leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment and contemplated where that former avenue would have taken that young and arrogant junior officer.  He imagined an alternate version of himself commanding one of the Emperor's battle dreadnoughts as he lead them and his fleet of support cruisers, destroyers and smaller but no less deadly  Devastators against their ancient enemy.

The last word he received from their timeless war against them was the enemy had wrenched two more star systems out of the Emperor's grasp. It appeared that the enemy were in yet another expansion phase. In the last phase which occurred two hundred years ago, they lost almost a third of their vast territory to these unknown aliens. If they continued to push, then it is conceivable that by the time their current Emperor did announce the list, the names written on that sacred parchment could end up fighting over a few pitiful ruined star systems with the dire knowledge that the enemy were about to overrun the remains of the greatest Empire that this galactic sector had ever seen.

Was it too conceited to think that if the promise of power, willing mates, gemstones of fine meat had not pulled him away, then he alone might have found some way to stop these foul vermin from fragmenting and destroying their magnificent empire?

He closed the images. It was not conceited at all. Until they encountered this highly advanced species of equally aggressive predators, their species had not encountered another race of sentient creatures capable of even standing up to the great Dionion Empire. To announce that another empire existed, possibly even greater than their own, was liable to get the idiotic Dionion who made the statement repurposed.

Di-Malok believed the strategy and dogma which had worked so well in the past could not apply to a species possibly more advanced. How could it work? Beating a weaker opponent, one who could not effectively fight back required little or no skill.

The Dionion belief that no other living creature could possibly be more advanced or superior did nothing to help their fight against these aliens either. Di-Malok stopped dead. He thought back to everything that happened to him since waking up. Every movement, every thought and every conversation played on this belief so perhaps it was not some acceptance that their superiority over every other living creature could be true but an unshakable fact. “Even though this is not the case anymore?” So, perhaps it is this misguided belief that led their lead strategists to commit their forces into battles that, in reality, they could not possibly win? Meaning that they were the ones chiefly responsible for killing their soldiers and not the enemy.

It felt like a paradox to think that he could come up with some winning strategy which could remove his unknown operators and defeat their enemy by employing this same misguided belief which told Di-Malok that he was superior to every other lifeform, especially every other member of his species. Surely, he could not be the first Dionion to realise that without a strategy change, their Empire would cease to exist?

Paradox or not, Di-Malok had already committed himself and his loyal crew onto this path. It would either work, which meant, this system would finally fall, their enemy would be dead and he would be the next Emperor. If it failed, then he really would end up being somebody's chair.

The Comms package from his ship softly beeped. His preparations were now in place. He ensured his route back to his ship was secure before opening another Comms package, this time to the entire complex.

“Fellow citizens of the great Dionion Empire. By now you will have heard that our last push to wipe the deviants from the fourth plant in the system has failed. Procedure and law compels that we  study why this happened, before launching another attack.” Di-Malok could almost hear his operators hurriedly activating their silent assassins and readying them to kill him, depending on the outcome of his remaining speech. He did not intend to disappoint them. “That is not going to happen. Another wave is already on their way which will soften our enemy before the next wave arrives.” He paused one more time before he added in the final blow. “There are twenty-six thousand civilian personal and eight thousand soldiers in the complex. There will be no more sending of a few repurposed criminals to that planet to die in vain as very shortly, you will all be going. This pointless game with the Terrestrials ends now. This system is ours. Fellow Dionions, prepare for war, prepare for victory and prepare to feast upon the corpses of our enemies!”

Di-Malok knew his time here was fast running out. He needed to get to his ship before his operators silenced him for good. He stood up and took out the item which the Bayan slave gave to him earlier. “Listen to me, chair. I know the Inner Cardinals left all your senses intact, meaning you are aware of what will happen to my body if the people who did this to you catch me.” He placed the small fusion bomb on the surface. “If you seek revenge for what they did to you then absorb this device and leave no scar. The proximity charge will do the rest.” He stood up. “One more thing before I leave. I do not regret hurting you. I may be different but I am still a Dionion.”

He waited until the device sank into the flesh before turning and fleeing.

Chapter Twelve

Shades of Grey

His Danu vacsuit softly bleeped while politely informing Deck Commander Tollan Billas that his heart rate had increased to three percent above optimal levels. He considered ignoring it for a brief second. That changed when its insistence got on his nerves, instead, he told it to fuck off before muting the damn thing. Billas still made an effort to try to bring his heart rate down to optimum rate.  He had no intention of allowing this traitorous piece of alien wizardry grassing him up to the men in suits up on that ivory tower.

“Carstairs” he growled. “What part of keep your eyes on the target do you not understand?” He ran across the rugged landscape and stopped close over to the sealed airlock, resisting the urge to punching the sloppy marine on his way to the only viable entrance into this section of the base. His gaze digested the screen data, displayed a few centimetre's above the door panel before returning to his position. Billas didn't need to ask Edison how much longer it would take to cut through the security lock. His second in command knew his beans, unlike the rest of these worthless sad excuse for soldiers in his small unit.

Billas checked the life stats for the remaining two remaining soldiers in his unit. Both Adams and Falkirk were doing fine. Neither of those idle bastards were showing any evidence of increased heart rate. Then again, why should they? The two marines were nice and cosy aboard their dropship. Adams in the cockpit and Falkirk operating the pulse cannons. Billas swiped away the info when Edison signalled that the lock no longer existed and they were free to enter.

“Okay. We go in standard formation. You know the drill,” he said. Carstairs crept forward and took up position behind an overturned rock hopper while Edison scanned the airlock for any hidden explosives. Billas doubted that they'd find any. The Marauders weren't here long enough to plant their usual assortment of deadly anti-personal devices. Billas wasn't taking any chances, despite the explicit instructions given to him by the suit's. As far as they were concerned, his reduced team should have no problem with walking straight into the base and shaking the hand of the base's liberators. Shaking his hand? If Billas could get away with killing the meddling bastard, that's exactly what he would have done. That dirty bluelander deserved shooting in the face for causing all this disruption. Thanks to him, his daughter could end up dead.

Billas had everything under control until the land-lover turned up and ruined all of his carefully crafted  plans. He even had figured out a way of getting his daughter back from the clutches of that new Marauder commander. All Billas needed was a little more time. Well, all that was in the past now, he could only hope that the new Marauder will be happy with a straight exchange. The land-lover for his daughter.

“Give me a status update, Adams.”

“All is quiet our here, sir. There is nothing moving within a million klicks. Apart from our ships, that is.”

“Okay, alert me if they're any changes and both of you, stay sharp. There's no telling how many Marauders have left on the surface, or under it.”

He received a quiet chuckle before the Comms went dead. Adams, like every other human marine knew the story of what came up through the red dirt, over two centuries ago and, somehow, brought their species back from the brink of extinction only to involve them all in a much wider conflict.

Billas gently stroked the side of his faithful human made energy pulse rifle, manufactured up on their capital ship. It might not be as effective as anything designed and constructed by their so-called allies but considering their species had nothing nowhere as deadly as their stuff just two centuries ago, he didn't think they had done too bad. Granted, their spies procured the tech from the Danu and the human scientists had a small amount of success in retro engineering the stuff but still... He smiled to himself. Their species had done pretty damn good for a bunch of talking apes. Talking is apes is what the Danu called their species when they were out of earshot.

If only those legendary explorers had these babies back then. Those ancient Mechs would not have stood a chance.

He still remembered the time when he just happened to overhear one of the Danu deckhands refer to his species in that derogatory manner and just for that split-second, Billas had the urge to throw every single one of those high and mighty, tight-lipped arrogant fuckers right out of the airlock and watch them all simultaneously choke and freeze on the Martian surface.

Billas had generally got on with the deckhands, they weren't usually as pretentious as the other castes. They were more willing to talk to him about their past too, something the others never did. Even the one who left the comment about the human being not that too different from their simian relatives had no problem in sharing their stories.

Billas hearing the tail end of one such story about a Danu pilot who once entered an improperly calibrated quantum gate and instead of the gate flattening him and his machine to one atom thick slice of dark matter, it threw him back hundreds of years in time.

He so wanted to hear what happened to that pilot, what adventures he had, whether he found a way home of if he died in the ancient past but alas, it was not to be as the deckhand telling that particular story did not wish to repeat the tale. Billas had no idea whether this actually happened or if it was just some old sailor's tale. It didn't matter, the premise of the story had stuck in his mind. It reminded him that the other species had their own stories to tell.

Eddison managed to get the airlock open. He threw in a stealth proximity drone waited for it to relay back any relevant information. Once he was convinced that none of them would be vaporised by any hidden enemy, he followed it inside. Carstairs went in next. Billas ran in after them, watching the info from the drone as it sped up through the corridors, continuously scanning for signs of Marauder life signs. The drone was programmed to only detect the enemy and not engage them. The drones were still not powerful enough to do that. Human built tech had some catching up to do before that happened.

Billas thought about the remnants of that story he heard. How great would it be if he was able to travel back to the golden age of human ingenuity and present this weapon to a bunch of resident lab-geeks? Sure, the humans in that time period were busy trying to destroy each other but at least they only had the one species to worry about. The tech inside this humble device might have given them a fighting chance when their legendary astronauts finally got to the dead ball of red rock.

He sighed heavily before unmuting the Danu vacsuit. It might have given their species a some leverage when they finally encountered both the Dionion and the Danu battlefleet. He imagined himself living in a different timeline where all three species were treated as equals instead of the other two races looking at the humans as pets, as inferior creatures, fit only for doing the most menial of tasks.

Billas had never told anyone about how he felt about the other Terrestrials. Keeping his opinions to himself seemed like the wisest move, despite knowing that he wasn't the only human who shared his resentment. The suits clamped down hard on any human who openly showed hostility towards their new friends. He could not work out why the suits had this bizarre compulsion to look upon the Danu and the Velicions as their saviours, and think the human race should be forever thankful of their intervention two centuries ago.

What would have happened if those Mechs, which, by the way, no Terrestrial had ever claimed ownership of, had never awoken when their astronauts first landed? Billas liked to think that perhaps, the new world might have found some other way of uniting their species, instead of it turning into yet another battleground. He sighed heavily yet again. Billas knew his history well enough to know that wouldn't have been the case. The governments were already losing interest in space exploration by the time they intercepted that signal.

It was more of a likely scenario of never encountering the Mechs on the surface of Mars that their species would not have made it to this point in time. The rival factions were already getting looking for any excuse to start another war.

Billas wasn't too sure but if believed he'd just argued himself full circle. Okay, so most of the human population were living a sugar-coated existence, utterly unaware of the daily conflict happening millions of miles from their homeworld but at least they were safe. At least, they were no longer trying to kill each other. Surely that had to be better than the alternative? Not to mention that once this Marauder threat had ended, both Terrestrial species had already promised to share their massed knowledge with their new 'pets'.

Edison signalled the all clear. There were no more Marauders left on the base. The only activity spotted by drone belonged to all three terrestrial species, waiting for them in the control room. Billas relayed the news to the capital ship before ordering Edison and Carstairs to accompany him up to their waiting 'heroes'.

It was time to get this mess sorted out. By that, he intended to ensure that the individuals who had messed up his plans were dealt with in a way that ensured his hands stayed clean. For the sake of his position, his command and for his daughter.

He waited until Edison and Carstairs to secure the inner airlock, before he re-entered the base. The two men moved into the next section and initiated another scan. They had gone through this rigmarole many times before and knew what to look for. The Marauders usually left a couple of nasty surprises for them, either explosives or poison gas canisters. Billas still believed that they wasn’t here long enough but it didn’t harm to take the extra precaution. His men must have believed the same but that knowledge did not hamper their search.

Billas watched them through the section window, feeling so proud to have men of such calibre under his command. Even Carstairs showed skill and diligence as he passed the scanner along the walls. Then again, what else did Billas expect? If Carstairs did happen to miss anything, he'd be the one finding himself missing most of his face.

The men gave the signal then moved into the next section. Billas gave the all clear signal to the dropship then entered the next section. By the time the back-up squad had arrived, he should be ready to deal with the prisoners.

He still hadn't worked out how to persuade the enemy commander to swap the land-lover for his daughter. Billas already knew why the alien wanted him, that was obvious, yet not so obvious to the suits? If Billas could discover his secret before handing the human over to the new governor then perhaps he might have the chance to stop this damned war for good?

The commanders would simply farm the planet, taking the Papal Police, the special forces, as well as any of those land-lovers not too drugged up and press them into a fighting force, equip with the non-human weaponry and then blast them towards the enemy. Their chances of survival might not be that great but Billas was pretty sure the surprise attack would show the alien menace not to fuck with the human species.

“Divide and conquer,” he murmured. That was how he should deal with these so called heroes of the hour.”

He walked back over to the outer airlock, at the same time his drone returned. Billas viewed the data that the machine had collected. Ryan and his gang of thugs had turned his base into a slaughterhouse. Their apparent efficiency with dispensing with their alien enemy almost made Billas change his mind over what he intended to do. The prisoners had killed more Marauders than all his own marines put together. They would make a formidable death squad. So much more capable in dealing out death than his own current motley bunch of disobedient fools.

The choice was made and, as unfortunate as it was, Billas could not back out, not if he wished to see his daughter back in his arms. “Divide and conquer,” he repeated under his breath while watching his remaining two crew members approach the outer airlock.

Billas operated the cycling procedure, eager to get this over with. The rest of the base staff wouldn't be back planetside for about another hour, which gave him time to get this mess well and truly sorted out.

Adams and Falkirk tipped him a sloppy salute as they entered the base. Billas just nodded back, he decided to file their borderline insubordination to be dealt with at another time. He waited for their Danu vacsuits to realise that it really was safe for their occupants to breathe before outlining his plan to them. There really wasn't much of a plan, only to ensure the human Land-lover was separated from the others. He didn't care what happened to the prisoners, in fact, Billas doubted that even the rest of the personal would notice if they were all to quietly vanish. Only Ryan mattered. He needed to get him to a safe place.

“Looks like Carstairs and Edison are on their way back,” remarked Adams. “That was quick.”

“Yeah well, don't let those goons hear you say that, the last thing we need is for those two to be prancing about like Mars owed them a living.”

“Shut up, Falkirk,” snapped Billas . “Listen, I need you to locate our heroes and escort them to my private chamber. Do you think you can do that without fucking it up?”

“Sure,” replied Adams. He turned to his associate. “You see, I told you that our beloved Commander had an important job for us to accomplish. Those escaped prisoners won't be too difficult to locate. More than likely, they'll be either in one of the hanger bays, looking for a way to escape or in the canteen, stuffing their faces.” He gently patted the baton strapped to his thigh. “If any of those scum dare to give us any trouble, they'll be wishing the Marauders had eaten them.”

Once again, Billas wished there was another option. His men were like children compared to those prisoners. Not that it was their fault. Lack of real combat had changed his fighting force into a bunch of wet blankets with attitude. They were nothing more than glorified security whose main job involved escorting base personal to their ships whenever the powers that be decided it was time for the base to change ownership.

He realised that if he did allow them to confront the the prisoners, the clean up team would be scraping his men off the walls. “Hand me your null wand, Adams.”

It pleased him that the soldier passed him the non-lethal weapon without much complaint. “This situation requires a senior officer,” he explained. “You two fools are going to get the heroes of the hour killed.” Billas programmed the drone to follow him. “Go help Carstairs and Edison secure the base. Then return to the dropship.”

Their disappointment was clearly visible but they did as he ordered. Billas should have done this first without involving anybody else. The situation was complicated enough with his idiot soldiers doing something stupid and getting themselves killed.

He moved out, with the drone silently floating behind him. He passed the other two men and explained the situation. Edison nodded then returned to his task. Carstairs didn't move but Billas could see the man wasn't happy with decision. He and Adams did not get on.

Billas had more important things to think about than some dumb argument between the two men. He reached the elevator pod and punched the call button. “Drone. Where are they now?”

‘Heading towards the largest weapon locker on level fourteen,’ it replied.

So they were just two levels below him. Billas cursed his short-sighted stupidity. Of course they were going to re-arm. Had he honestly expected to to lay down on the floor and simply surrender without a fight? They knew the score. Even if they had saved the base, the prisoners must have all have understood their recent heroic actions wouldn't save them from being taken back to their cell. The prisoners have tasted freedom and were not going to allow him or anyone else from taking that away from them.

The elevator doors slid open. He rushed inside and allowed the done to float in before he closed the door. As the elevator began its descent, Billas began to wonder if he had just made the worse decision of his life.

No, the worst decision he ever made was to allow those two Marauder agents to gain access to the base and kidnap his daughter from right under his eyes. Why hadn't he picked up on the obvious signals? Billas should have known that something bad had happened over on that moon orbiting Jupiter when the previous governor failed to respond to his numerous communications.

He glanced at the drone beside him and not for the last time, thanked the stars that none of the human made devices were capable of mind reading. If their species ever took the decision to emulate the Danu and the Velicions in that aspect, Billas knew he might as well kiss his arse goodbye. If anyone ever found out what he'd done, the bastards would space him for sure. It didn't matter that, thanks to the pact he'd made with the previous governor, they'd been responsible for save the lives of countless thousands of soldiers. Who cared if their actions had prolonged the conflict? If he hadn't agreed then it's more than likely the Marauders would have overrun this base years ago, slaughtering every sentient being in the process. Despite his allies technological superiority, none of them possessed the numbers to be an effective fighting force.

Billas found himself smiling at that previous thought. Those damn escaped prisoners hadn't the numbers but the bastards sure had proven themselves against the enemy. All he had to do was to persuade the prisoners that he wasn't their enemy, that meant that Billas had to pretend to be nice. He much rather go up against a squad of marauder troops.

The elevator opened, showing him an empty corridor. There had to be another way, one which didn't end with those prisoners melting his head. “State lifeform inventory, drone.”

‘One Danu, one Velicion, four human.’

It's unlikely that they were going to surrender their hard fought freedom, that's for sure. That was obvious by their current activity. Why re-arm when you've already vanquished your enemy? “Simple,” he murmured. They haven't. Not yet. “Drone, how much time before the control and logistics deck is back under our command?”

“Three minutes.’

If he didn’t play this right, that amount was how much time he had to live. At any moment, those prisoners could come hurling out of that room, surging with adrenalin and equipped with enough ordinance to melt this planet. How would they act of the first alliance marine they saw was him? Like Billas even needed to answer that. “How long now, drone?”

‘Two minutes, thirty.’

Dare he wait a little longer? No. Billas had to do this right now. "This is Deck Commander Billas,” he shouted. “The marauders have been exterminated. It is safe for you to come out. I guarantee that no harm will come to you.”

Billas received his reply a moment later with a burst of sharp laughter originating from the room. “No harm will come to us,” he says. One of the prisoners armed with a molecular disrupter sauntered out of the room. He aimed the weapon straight at the commander's face. “You have bigger balls than I initially gave you credit, coming down here all by yourself with only a floating metal ball for company.” Villas thumbed down the safety. “I’m good at using weapons like this. It’s one of my many talents. Any last words?”

“Tell me what you want,” he replied. Billas shifted to the left. “I need to know what you all want.” The two bluelanders emerged, followed by the remaining human, the Danu pilot and the Velicion. The bluelander wanted by the new governor rested his hand on the criminal’s arm. With some reluctance, the prisoner lowered the weapon. This was most irritating. If only he could find some way to separate him from the others. With Ryan out of the way, he'd easily have the rest of these scum put out of their misery.

“You put us in cells!” shouted Ryan. “You left us for the enemy and now, just because we've done what your troops couldn't, suddenly, you're being pleasant? It doesn't matter what we ask for, you'll go back on your word and throw us back in those cells.”

There wasn't any fear of that happening, not until he'd figured out how Ryan had escaped. “No. That is not going to happen. I promise. Look. Most have you committed crimes generally punishable by death during time of war and yet none of you were executed. Despite your previous crimes and because you saved this outpost, I can grant you your freedom.”

“Perhaps we should allow this excitable human to shoot you?” said the Velicion. “I doubt anybody will mourn your loss. Just as I doubt anyone will miss us if we stole a ship. It's not like you can spare any. To go after us. After all. There is a war on.”

“Drone. Open base - wide communication.”

‘Done and thirty seconds.’

“This is Deck Commander Billas. Thanks to the bravery of these fine men. This outpost still remains in our ownership. Under the authority vested in me by the Circle Triumvirate, I hearby grant these men their freedom.” Billas ordered the drone to close communication and did his best to convey a convincing disarming smile. Ryan was still too close to the others which was a shame but at least they weren’t pointing weapons at him. He dropped his filter down. “Drone, fill this level with suppression gas,” he whispered.

It took less than a second for the gas to effect the prisoners and another second for them all to fall to the floor. Billas grinned to himself while he walked around the bodies, and collected the weapons they had stolen. He might have granted these animals their freedom but that didn’t mean he couldn't have his fun with them. Billas stopped beside Ryan. “As for you, my little sleeping baby, you'll soon wish that I had killed you.”

Chapter Thirteen

A Third Chance

There was a saying that Villas picked up, back when his parents were on the run and hiding out in The Belt. Never give the judged a second chance. He never realised just how apt that saying applied to his existence until he reached the age when his parents finally handed him the family business. Smuggling contraband between alliance controlled bases and the Belt occupied rocks wasn't exactly the easiest or safest of vocational choices but it sure was a lot better than dying in some pointless skirmish against those marauder freaks.

He gave the judged a second chance alright, or, more accurately, that damn lizard took that option away from poor Villas. The fact that it was Ryan who pushed the gunarm down did try to make itself heard but Villas was having none of that. The Velicion put him into this dire situation and that was final. The target of his hate lay next to Villas. The Danu and the other two humans were in the same room. Knowing that his companions were likely to share his fate was another fact which Villas brushed away. This predicament centred on him, he didn't give a damn about what happened to the others.

What were they going to do to him? Villas tried to move his head to the side. The control collar that the bastards had nano-glued to him prevented him from turning his head fully. The fact that they'd installed control collars on them all told Villas exactly what their fate would be. They intended them to do the walk.

“I don't want to die,” he whispered. Why did he have to listen to that fucking lizard? Villas turned his head the other way as far as it would go, just so he could Glower at the cold-blooded, motherless bastard who sentenced them all to being thrown out onto the Martian surface. Their last few seconds of life would be spent in excruciating agony as their bodies were subjected to the thin toxic atmosphere as well as the severe cold.

One of the other prisoners let out a quiet moan. Villas raised his head off the cold metal table as much as the damn control collar would allow. There he was, that Barnaby, the freakish Arco human who, not too long ago, threatened to beat him to death with his own severed arm. He lay back down, not wishing to speak to anybody, certainly not him. Listening to that bastard continuously insult him and blame Villas for being in this situation was not how he wished to spend his last few hours.

He had already started crying out. Villas attempted to tune out the annoying whine, a task made more difficult when the bluelander, the one who arrived with Ryan, began to stir. Villas continued to keep his mouth firmly shut, despite wanting to tell them to shut up. Villas closed his eyes and tried to think back to some part of his life when the universe wasn't trying to kill him.

The closest time that Villas could find, a portion of his existence when he wasn't feeling oppressed was back during his late teenage years, a couple of years after his parents gave up all hope of training him to be a good smuggler and before the Triumvirate finally caught up with them and threw his mother and father out of an alliance cruiser airlock.

Villas had his own ship, a close circle of beltborn friends and the solar system as their playground. Looking back, even during those fun times, the bastards were still trying to kill him. The only difference being they, the marauders, didn't exactly know him by name, they just wanted to stop all the human pirates from stealing their supplies.

That brought a smile to his face. The marauders called him and his fellow band of deranged fools pirates. The name sure had a better ring to it than being the son in some anonymous smuggling family.

The marauders controlled the outer planets and their associated moons while the Triumvirate stayed close to Mars, using the belt as a natural barrier. Most of the valuable ore had already been mined out from the belt, back before the humans appeared on the scene. What meagre ore still remaining were jealously guarded by either Triumvirate marines or Beltborn miners. That didn’t mean there weren't fortunes to make elsewhere. The Earth was a no go area. The Triumvirate made sure nobody strayed too close to the planet. Venus was also out of bounds too as the humans had their mining operation platforms floating through the upper atmosphere.

Calvin and his crew didn’t much care about tackling with the Triumvirate. He left all that nonsense to his parents and all the other losers who lived like parasites. After all, why fight over scraps when the real riches were there for the taking? All you needed were guts, a fast ship and a lot of luck. Friends willing to watch your back helped as well.

Their crew ended up with quite a name for themselves before the party finally came to a crushing end. Villas screwed up his eyes, not wanting to think about his downfall and the humiliating crawl back to his parents. On no, much better to reminisce over those few golden years.

There were three in his main group plus a couple of other Beltborn who kinda pretended to be pirates. It shocked him that thinking back thirty years, Villas couldn’t even remember the names of the two fair-weather friends. Ironic considering they were the only ones in the group who didn't shit on him from a great height or maybe they did? The events after what happened to him did get a little hazy.

He did remember the name of the others, the two men and one woman who, they promised each other, would watch each other's backs for all time. Villas particularity remembered Dayna, his first and only true love. Tall, taller than him by almost a foot, the girl woman possessed a body typical of most Beltborn kids. Not all Beltborn families had AG units fitted into their living modules and the ones that did didn't always work as they should being either scavenged or stolen or passed from hand to claw for generations. Even the ancient Velicion units weren't hardy enough to survive the passing of time and meddling from human fingers.

The Beltborn Freerooms, the areas set aside for schooling, debate between the rival families and for general recreation, were always fitted out with the best facilitates, but not every family were all too keen on sending their kids to some place thousands of miles from their module. Why send the brat all that way when it was just as easy and cheaper to teach them at home?

Three hundred years of this ideology had produced the beginnings of a new sub-species of human. Back then, Villas, Dayna, as well as the other two, Russlain, and Marbik all believed that within another two generations, it would be impossible for human alliance and Beltborn to have kids together.

He remembered Dayna taking his hand, kissing him softly while murmuring into his ear that wasn't going to happen. Not if she had anything to do with it. He also remembered the murderous looks that both Russlain and Marbik gave him.

Petty jealously aside, the two other Beltborn men had no problem with Villas. Why should they? He'd proven himself to be a skilled pilot as well as a great thief. On occasion, usually when they'd just liberated a bunch of supplies from some forgotten marauder outpost, they even called him an honorary Beltborn.

Russlain wasn't that much taller than Villas, but he was Beltborn through and through. It had been Russlain who originally introduced him to the siblings, Dayna and Marbik. At the time, Russlain had said that the group needed his skills, that coming from a smuggler family, he might have a better chance of helping them procure much-needed parts for one of their wrecked Danu moon-hoppers. In truth, and thanks to age and experience, Villas now realised the bastards only needed him because he had money. It wasn't a lot of money but it was far more than they were getting.

His young mind didn't see any of that, thanks to the wandering hands belonging to that young and utterly gorgeous Beltborn girl. Marbik's wild ideas about converting their two scavenged moon-hoppers and converting them into ultra-fast, stealth ships capable of making the journey to the moons of Jupiter didn't do much harm in converting him to their cause. The reason for the possibly suicidal trip into marauder territory wasn't lost on Villas. He knew exactly what these three mental Beltborn kids wanted to do. It terrified and excited him at the same time. Villas had no problem with signing up.

The others had  come around. That Danu pilot was  conversing in low tones with the other bluelander while Barnaby prayed to his non-existent God. The bastard Velicion hadn't moved. Either, the gas they used on them had a more potent effect on their lizard physiology or he was faking it. Villas wouldn't put that past the Velicion, they were all a bunch of dirty sneaks. As long as none of them bothered him, that's all he cared about.

Villas did his best to ignore their voices and focussed on getting back to his happy moments before those Triumvirate soldiers returned to make them all breathe the Martian atmosphere. Villas had to pressed his fingernails into his palms to stop himself from crying out. He didn't want the others to know he was awake, he certainly didn't want them to know how scared he was. Were any of the fools even aware of the fate which awaited them? The Bluelander wouldn't have a clue, not unless the Danu told him, the only purpose the Triumvirate used these control collars for. He'd know alright. After all, his species created the hateful things.

It took him just over a month to help convert the wrecked machine into something that could make the journey to Jupiter's outer satellites without actually falling apart. It wasn't exactly the super sleek super machine that Marbik dreamed of making but the ship did work and that was the main thing.

Villas employed the techniques he worked out while rebuilding the first ship to make the next one even better. In two months, they had the means to make their dreams come true. By this point, Villas and Dayna were an item and, when he wasn't maintaining the two vehicles, Villas spent his time with her, either eating, talking or making love. Villas wanted to do the last item all the time. His teenage hormone fuelled body couldn't get enough of her. Dayna wasn't as eager. Villas suspected that had more to do with what the others thought of her shacking up with a youth coming from the Alliance more than anything else.

Villas never found out the real truth until much later.

They found, to their shock and joy, that stealing from Marauder outposts was easier than they could ever have believed. Russlain said that those scaly bastards were too arrogant and honesty thought that humans wouldn't dare steal anything from them. It sounded like a reasonable explanation and none of the others bothered to question his belief.

The fun times lasted about three months. During that time, the four of them acquired enough wealth to even catch the attention of the Triumvirate, especially when they managed to steal a dozen Marauder armoured suits as well as a crate of light weaponry. Everybody knew that Marauder tech couldn't be used by any other species so as combat gear, the stuff was next to useless but that didn’t mean it wasn't valuable. Even as scrap, the supplies could bring in a decent price. The others wanted to sell as scrap but, as Villas claimed ownership due to him persuading the others to take it instead of grabbing the mining equipment next to it, the decision had been his to choose and he wanted to sell the gear to a contact with the R and D department of the Triumvirate.

“I should have listened the them,” he whispered. Villas opened his eyes, not wanting to think about the explosive result thanks to his poor choice. He found that they were all awake now. The Velicion's red eyes were staring straight at Villas. He blinked twice then, with some difficulty turned  his head, preferring to look at the wall.

“We need to find Ryan,” said the Velicion. “He is not in this room. I believe the base commander has him in a secure location.”

Was this idiot actually aware of the trouble they were in? Villas lifted his head as far as it would go. Both the Danu and the Bluelander were looking at him. He so wanted to lie back down and try to think back to those tender moments he spent with Dayna. He wanted to start shouting, screaming and raving, demanding that the bastards let him go. Like that was going to happen, like Villas could rest his head on the metal bed and allow himself to drift back into his past without remembering what those traitorous Beltborn fuckers did to him.

“Villas,” said the Danu pilot. “We need to know if we can rely on you.”

Shouldn't it be the other way around? Even if, by some miracle, they did escape from these bindings, what's to stop any one of them betraying him? Villas's behaviour since the Bluelander appeared in his cell hadn't been exactly pleasant. Not that this was any shock. Villas acted like that with everybody he met. He learned, a long time ago, that the only way to survive was to only look after himself, as other people always ended up betraying you in the end.

The other Bluelander started to speak then stopped with a gasp. Villas knew why as he heard the unmistakable sound of approaching boot-steps belonging to Triumvirate soldiers. They were coming for him! They were coming for all of them! Villas closed his eyes, desperately wanting to his last few moments to be of Dayna.

His moment of execution had arrived and all his traitorous mind wanted to show him was of Dayna's brother opening the door and several Beltborn security rushing inside along with a single Triumvirate Danu officer. They arrested Villas on the spot and accused him of spying for the enemy.  They dragged him out and his last ever gaze of Dayna was her standing with Russlain and Marbik. And they were all smiling.

Villas heard the door open. He snapped open his eyes. Three soldiers glared back at him. As they approached his bed, he saw himself back in that room. Both Marbik and Russlain were telling the security that Villas was a traitorous piece of shit, that they had seen him conversing with marauder agents.

In the version that Villas remembered, Dayna had stayed quiet, she slunk to the back and allowed them to accuse him of all those awful and untrue crimes when in reality, she'd gone ballistic and threatened to murder both Russlain and Marbik unless they retracted their lies. She hadn't been smiling at all as the security dragged Villas out, Two other security had to restrain the hysterical woman.

The soldiers had reached him. His heart felt like it was going to beat right through his ribcage. Villas so wanted to plead with them, to ask for forgiveness, to be allowed to live for just a little longer. He saw his lost love, standing behind them. He saw her mouth opening but couldn't hear the words. “Speak up,” he said, his voice rose in volume when one of the soldiers made a Fist and drew his arm back. “I can't hear you!”

“I said, are you with us?”

“Yes! Oh, God. Yes I am!”

The largest Triumvirate soldier laid a beefy hand on Villas's chest, he leaned over and grinned, displaying a mouthful of chisel-shaped teeth. “I can already see by the fear in your ratty-little eyes you know what we're going to do to you.” he looked back at his equally formidable colleague then cast his gaze around the room before turning his attention back to Villas. “See, my pal here wants to do you a bit of damage before we throw you out onto the surface. I know you won't mind. As it means a slight delay in your inevitable and agonising death.” The soldier then walked over to the Velicion. “I've heard a rumour that your species can handle a huge amount of physical damage before you succumb.” He pulled out a null-wand then looked back at Villas. “This device doesn't have the taint of either Velicion or Danu parts, unlike almost everything else in this place. You're going to see exactly what pure Terran technology is capable of. Once I've played with this big ugly lizard, I'll start on you.”

The soldier twisted the null-wand's base. A low hum filled the small room. He then pushed the tip towards the Velicion's stomach but before it made contact, the Velicion's arm whipped up, its long claws wrapped over the soldier's wrist. Villas wasn't sure what shocked him the most, the fact that the control collar obviously didn't work on the Velicion or the pure hate displayed towards the Velicion from that Triumvirate soldier.

The other soldier wasn't slow in reacting. He ran towards his struggling companion but he didn't even  make it to the table as the Danu pilot sat up, jumped off the metal bed, pulled the null-wand from out of the soldier's belt and smacked him across the back of the head. The soldier hit the deck in a boneless heap.

“Human arrogance never fails to both amuse and annoy me,” said the pilot. “It is perhaps your greatest strength but also your greatest weakness.”

The Velicion snatched the null-wand  out of the other soldier's hand. “Such a basic and crude device. The Danu is quite right about your species. After all, it is your inbuilt arrogance which caused this current situation. You were not ready to leave your planet, after three hundred years of observation, perhaps you never will be ready. As for you, perhaps you should be directing all this pent up fear towards whoever turned you into the spiteful worm that you are.”

“Fuck off,” snarled the soldier. “You're going to die, you're all going to die. Go on, bite me, eat my face. I know that's what you want to do.”

The Velicion tapped the null-wand against the side of the soldier's head and he fell over the other soldier's body. “You would probably give me indigestion,” he muttered before climbing off the table.

The Danu had already freed the other two humans. They all approached Villas. The pilot gently wiped perspiration from the man's head then unlocked the control collar. “Tell me what we need to do.”

“We need to find Ryan.” replied Villas.

Chapter Fourteen

Into the Jaws of the Enemy

It took all of her focus to prevent that last wave of attack drones from strafing the surface with incendiary spores. The base commander had risked breaking the link between her and their orbital forces to order the Danu not to allow any drone or dropship reach the planet. A highly unusual order, considering, in the past few engagements, the Marauders never attacked the surface, intent with only escaping before the main Triumvirate forces attempted to regain control of the base.

These were indeed unusual times, evident in not only the base commander's message but also in the way this latest marauder invasion played out. Faylar allowed herself to exhibit a very human-like smile. She knew it must look weird on her face but she not not care. Faylar had been practising this technique especially for this occasion.

The warrior Taylish had, just like the prophecy foretold,  not only proven himself in battle but unified even the most despicable of inter-species criminals into one effective fighting unit. Throughout the battle above the planet, Faylar had also observed the fighting inside the base via security footage. It had, at the start, shamed her to split primary functions into a nine to one ratio but, the shunt had not caused any significant drop in her performance, at least, not that any human would pick up. Her fellow Danu, however, were all very much aware of Faylar's break in established procedure. It shocked her to discover that she did not care, almost as much as it shocked Faylar to find out that none of her other colleagues had any intention of, as the human would say, grassing her up.

This surely was an exciting time to be alive and Faylar so wished her old wordmasters had survived through their last Velicion war as she believed their own annoying collection of cloned cells would be equally excited at the possible prospect of the reincarnation of Taylish finally bringing out a lasting peace amongst all sentient life in the galaxy, both terrestrial and non-terrestrial.

Faylar's defence drones wiped out the last of the marauder drones and she recalled her remaining forces back to the Triumvirate battlecruiser. That was the last of them, this skirmish was finally over. She sat back and silently ordered the rest of her squad to disconnect once their tasks were complete. Faylar then ensured the manufactories on the Danu cloud platform were working to optimal efficiency to resupply the drones they lost in the battles before she herself disconnected from the platform's computer.

It did feel pleasurable not to keep her tertiary memory shunt hidden from the others. They may have allowed one discretion but she doubted they would allow a second one. Faylar kept the tertiary shunt intact just for a moment longer while she discreetly observed the behaviour of her fellow operators, intrigued to see if the discretion they observed would in any way effect their actions. She did not want to be the only Danu on the base excited enough for the arrival of Taylish to deviate from primary orders.

She wasn't the only Danu who now believed and were acting as they should. Through the security cameras, Faylar watched the heroic exploits of the pilot as he battled alongside the prisoners. He was a pilot though and they were genetically programmed to show more independent thought than any other Danu caste, so really, he had not really changed his behaviour. Despite this, she believed he would make a valuable ally in the potential struggle which lay ahead. Changes were, indeed, coming, and it was up to her to ensure that the rest of her species understood this and, more important, acted upon the changes.

As vile a thought as it was, perhaps it was good that the wordmasters did not live through that last war. If those harbingers of established dogma were here right now, they'd do everything in their power to ensure order was maintained and any deviation was eliminated with efficiency. Right now, Faylar believed that meant, not only Taylish but her and the pilot.

It did not surprise Faylar to see that her fellow Danu colleagues were doing anything other than what they were supposed to, namely complying with her instructions before leaving their private booths and waiting patiently for the shuttle to return them to the operations room on the base. They stood motionless and silent like statues. Faylar shut off the video feed in annoyance. Could just one of her colleagues perform a task which differed from the norm? Faylar did not expect one to burst into song while skipping around the departure pod. Just for a single Danu to turn and attempt a dialogue with another would be a start.

“You have all made our long dead Wordmasters so proud,” she muttered.

Faylar turned her attention to the tertiary shunt. Eager to watch how Ryan and the others faired with the gunnery sergeant's assault squad. It had been their dropship which the incendiary drones were targeting. Almost a full hour had passed since they entered the base so by now, Ryan and the Deck Commander should already be in negotiation as to how they should finally deal with the marauder threat.

It would be interesting to see how the Triumvirate alliance make use of Ryan's unique abilities. The base contained a whole wealth of Marauder equipment, either stolen or left behind from previous occupations. Nobody had ever managed to get any of it to function. That was all about to change! Yes, this really was an exciting time to live.

Faylar uncompressed the data files collected from multiple cameras from across the base and used a basic algorithm to filter out all irrelevant data. The whole process took less than a second. Faylar found herself frowning, she knew the process should have taken longer.

The file had just a few minutes of footage. She played what there was, growing more and more nervous as each second passed. Faylar watched a drone and the Deck Commander exit the lift shaft, Ryan and his companions left a room close by. There appeared to be a dialogue between the two parties and then Ryan's companions dropped to the floor.

She jumped up in panic, not knowing what to do next. Had the Deck Commander killed them all? Faylar had no way of knowing as the video feed abruptly cut off. “There had to be more, it must exist somewhere! She opened up a connection to the base, using an interface which gave her priority over all command-level orders. Using such an extreme procedure to find the necessary information was strictly forbidden. Only command staff were supposed to have full access to all base systems but as base primary augmented pilot, procedure required her to also have the codes in case the enemy had compromised their security. As no Danu would ever betray even the most basic of commands, the process was never questioned.

It took her literally seconds to discover the location of most of them. “Where is Ryan?” There were two Triumvirate soldiers on the floor, next to a collection of control collars. Her blood ran cold when she realised the significance. They were going to kill them! Their reward after saving this base.

What was going on? Surely, the Base Commander would not sanction such a brutal execution, which left only the Deck Commander. Faylar hurriedly disconnected the interface then wrapped her arms around a shaking body. For the first time in her life, Faylar was scared. Her eyes darted to the airlock. No, this wasn't just simple fear, Faylar Unit-Twelve-C was terrified of the implications, not just for her possibly discovery and certain execution but for Ryan too.

“Lady Light, please, I beseech you to not allow whatever hidden machinations to pull Taylish away from the highest path.” The Base Commander needed to be told of what she had found out, despite knowing the methods she used would undoubtedly result in her punishment. None of that mattered, only Ryan's safety counted. Even so, Faylar hesitated to establish a direct link with the Base Commander's flagship.

“I do not even know if Ryan lives,” she muttered.

Faylar re-established the interface, this time, determined to find if Ryan still lived as well as his location. If it existed, she also had to find enough evidence to ensure the Deck Commander faced a firing squad.

The connection placed her back inside the base mainframe but straight away, Faylar knew that something had changed in the moments since she was last here. The codes would not access the cameras, they would not allow her to view any incoming or outgoing data traffic, in fact, all that she could find was a single information stream leading from the base, all the way to one of the moons orbiting Saturn. Faylar tried to sever the connection but no matter what method she used, the interface refused to throw her out of the system. There was only one route to take and Faylar had the feeling that traversing the data stream would take her to a place where she may not ever return. What other choice did she have?

In the end, Faylar had no option anyway. The stream caught her digital essence and no matter how much she struggled, it refused to relinquish its hold. It felt like being stuck at the edge of an event horizon. She continued to fight against the tide despite it now having her essence fully encircled.

It took her away from the only home she had ever known and pulled her through the blackness of space. It was an instantaneous journey but the stream slowed down her perception to allow her to experience the foreboding sheer emptiness of the lifeless vacuum between her two locations. She so wanted to scream but knew if that happened, the black would rip out and freeze her insides solid. An obvious impossibility. Digital essences were not flesh and blood.

After what felt like an eternity, Faylar Unit-Twelve-C became the first female Danu to enter marauder domain undetected. She found herself in a huge underground ship repair facility. Marauder personnel were everywhere, crawling over and under half-complete or heavily damaged hulks that, in her opinion, were well past their use by date. From what Faylar could make out, none of the craft in this facility were space worthy.

She yelped when a burly marauder walked straight towards her. She ran towards a large derelict then stopped and turned when she remembered her physical being was still a billion kilometres away. Faylar only existed in this facility as a digital ghost. Nobody could see her. She forced herself to relax, after all, this was a unique opportunity. No other Danu has seen a marauder up so close before. Faylar needed to observe and record everything for the sake of the Triumvirate. This facility reminded her a little of how the ancient Mars base once looked before the Danu claimed it as their own and refined it to suit their tastes. Blocky, brutish and utilarian. The place just stank of depression, terror and of despair. The interior mirrored the faces and general stature of its inhabitants.

She wandered over to one of the dull, grey metal walls and brushed her fingers across the surface, thankful that only her digital presence was here. She wouldn't otherwise dare touch this disgusting wall. There was evidence of old blood here, old grease as well as what could possibly be fecal matter. “They are nothing but animals,” she said, moving away from the repulsive surface.

The ships in dock were no better. The only difference being that the harsh environment beyond the confines of the facility had, over time, either burnt off or frozen off anything attached to the ships, leaving pitted and scratched bare metal. Faylar would love to know how old these thing were. As old as this facility? Possibly. Even as old as the Martian base.

Perhaps she should not be so critical. After all, the marauders had, despite what she saw in here, had proven themselves many times in battle with the Triumvirate. Not a bad achievement considering her side believed their equipment, training and soldiers were far superior to the enemy.

Faylar moved out of the way as two burly technicians thundered past her location and jumped onto the wings of one of the craft which didn't look as wrecked as most of the others. They scrambled over the hull, stopping every few seconds to bond what looked like their equivalent of attachment plates to the pitted metal. She had never seen anything like it. Within a few minutes, the two marauders jumped down, hurried past her and jumped onto another ship.

What had she just watched? It was clear that the marauders had just conducted miner repairs on that ship but, to her untrained eye, the vehicle didn't look all that different, apart from its outer hull now vaguely resembled a patched tunic. It also occurred to her that although they probably performed the same function as Triumvirate attachment plates, the technicians did not have to set them, suggesting that the marauders possessed nanofilamont technology which could not be right. It meant that their enemy were not quite the savage as the upper echelon in the Triumvirate command tried to make everyone believe.

Faylar screamed in fright when the ship powered up and moved a few metres away. She staggered back, not stopping until her bounding limiter made contact with another solid surface. That should not be possible. The spacecraft was clearly just a worthless hulk, it should not be able to move, and yet, it did.

This worried her greatly. This was not, as she originally assumed, a graveyard of ships but a hanger full of craft all ready to attack her next batch of ships! Faylar plucked up the courage to approach the other ship. The patchwork pattern had vanished. The plates now blended seamlessly into the hull, meaning the material had to be some kind of advanced poly mimetic alloy. They chose their space vehicles to look like they like they were about to fall apart. That made no sense at all!

Faylar filed the observation away, deciding to let the Triumvirate scientists mull over the possible implications. That is, if she ever returned and the Deck Commander did not catch her and do what he planned to do with the other prisoners.

No, that would not happen. Once the Base Commander learned of his treachery, it would be him in prison and under guard. Faylar hurried away from the spacecraft and a little closer towards the marauders. As she approached a small group, she saw something else which shocked her rigid.

The marauders were not a single species! Two other mammalian creature made up the marauder's own Triumvirate. Faylar paused, after a moment's observation, it became clear that the others did not enjoy the same privileges as the large saurons. In fact, the more she watched their interactions, the more convinced she became that the mammals were slave races. This also brought up the question of their origin.

The most likely answer was they evolved on their same world as the saurons. If that was the case then how how the two mammalian species survived contact with the saurons? She imagined a world where all three species evolved from lower lifeforms into the sentient creatures Faylar saw in front of her. They had to have originally existed on separate landmasses. No mammalian could have risen to sentience, not with sharing the same territory as the sauron evolutionary ancestors. Come to think of it, how had the two sentient mammals even survived first contact with each other never mind the saurons.

Could there be any other any other explanation? Vat grown artificial organisms perhaps? The marauders would possess the scientific know-how needed to create two slave races from either a pre-designed genetic base template or a cross-species amalgam using their own stripped down DNA as the scaffold. Another perfectly plausible explanation with just two obvious errors.

Why even bother? The time and energy needed to undergo such a formidable and complex task would far outweigh the obvious benefits. Simple mechanical automatons would suit the purpose for a fraction of the cost. Also, why mammals? That made no sense to her at all. Would the sauron be more comfortable with a creature similar in appearance?

She sighed loudly, again deciding to leave the debate for minds more at ease with this sort of problem. She walked back over to the area where she first appeared, still marvelling at the apparent similarity to the old Velicion controlled Martian base.

Faylar's physical existence came into being during their last interstellar war with the Velicions. Hundreds of years after the Danu left their blue home and set foot on the fourth planet.

Like the humans after them, a hundred thousand years later, those Danu explorers inadvertently activated the ancient defence Mechs left there by the original builders of the planetary base.

The time between the utter shock of discovering the Danu were not the first intelligent species to evolve on the blue world left the Danu sciencemasters with only one option, to permanently alter the very being of their race. They lost their pacifistic attitude and, as some later wordmasters explained, adopted a frame of state more akin to the savage apemen from where they evolved.

This tinkering with their base code created a Danu a better adapted fighter, able to confront the stronger, more aggressive Velicion and win.

Faylar found herself frowning, as it just occurred to her that those first gallant Danu explorers really should have met with the same gruesome end like those first human Martian astronauts. Yet, they did not. The explorers were, admittedly, caught by surprise when the Mechs first attacked and did suffer casualties. They were still able to fight back, effectively melting at least two of those ancient metal monsters before working out how to deactivate the rest of them.

How could that have been possible? They were pure unaltered Danu, not having a single aggressive bone in their body. It did not make sense, unless they too, it seemed, were possessed by the unborn spirit of Taylish.

Faylar spotted a view screen and found herself walking towards it. Possessed by the unborn spirit of Taylish? Where had that insane thought appeared from? She so wanted to dismiss that idea as total nonsense but the thought stubbornly refused to leave. Many notions so recently seeing the light of day could be equally dismissed as nonsense and yet they had indeed happened.

The viewscreen flickered to life, showing, at first, moving static. Faylar moved a little closer, eager to witness what, or who would appear. The static abruptly vanished and a most unexpected face glared back at her.

“Deck Commander!” she gasped.

“I should have known you were responsible for totally ruining my plans, Faylar. After all, who else could have unlocked that cell door? I blame myself as I should have realised a lot earlier before this situation became so hideously complex and possibly devastating for not only the Triumvirate but also for our shared world. I need to think about how to play this but that can't happen until all loose parameters are back under control and that, my pretty little creature now includes you.”

The Deck Commander momentarily turned away from the screen and issued an order to someone hidden from Faylar. She sensed movement behind her and turned her head. All the ships in the facility were now silently floating on AG systems while heading, in double file, towards the vast opening at the end of the building. The bay-doors had already opened to show hundreds of other Marauder ships flying past. This was an armada! If they were all en-route to Mars, there was no possibly chance of stopping them. Faylar reluctantly returned her gaze to the screen when the Deck Commander resumed speaking.

“I've sent two of my men to your location. You will go with them and await further orders.” He smiled. “At least I know that you will do everything I tell you. After all, you are a Danu.” The image suddenly went black. She closed her eyes and fought back a single sob.

Upon opening her eyes, Faylar received a second shock to her system. The Marauder facility had vanished. She was back in her previous location, standing in front of the door that, very soon, would open to the faces of Triumvirate soldiers ready to escort Faylar to possibly a prison cell to await her almost certain termination. More hot tears ran down her cheeks. The Deck Commander was indeed correct in his assumption. Faylar would not be going anywhere, even though staying meant death.

The shock of hearing his ominous words almost overwhelmed the equally shocking experience of finding herself back here after her little trip to that outer planetery moon. It is only when Faylar attempted to access communications when it became clear of what had happened to her was no freak happen-stance.

He had locked her out of everything. No matter what she tried, the access to the outside remained dead. She could not warn the Base Commander or share the valuable information she now possessed. That Deck Commander was in communication with someone on that facility. It was the dying remnants of a previous carrier wave that caught Faylar's essence. It is also clear that he had no clue that Faylar knew this. If he learned, then her death really would be a certainty. The only question remained was how had it happened?

This question continued to elude her, even when the man’s loyal soldiers arrived at her door. As they shackled her and forced the woman down a deserted corridor, Faylar decided that there must be higher forces at work, a force even higher than Lady Light herself. This made her feel so much better as well as removing the initial hate she felt for her abductors. For they, like her, were just simple game pieces, moving, without their knowledge, along a path where only that higher force knew of the eventual destination.

Chapter Fifteen

Loss and Gain

Those bastards had thrown him into the midst of a civil war! Todd passed another magazine to Villas then hurried back to join the main group. He fumbled around, trying and failing to insert it into the gun's slot while whimpering and moaning, wishing he was still strapped to that metal bed. Sure, he faced certain death back then, the dreaded weight of knowing their execution method almost squashed his soul but at least nobody was firing at him. “Will you stop that!” he screamed. Villas screamed even louder when a couple of seeker rounds smacked into the wall right where his head was until a second ago.

Villas finally managed to slam the magazine in. He took aim behind his barrier and gently squeezed the trigger. The resulting agonising shriek brought such a sense of joy to his poor, overworked heart. “Oh, yeah!” he yelled. “We have seekers too, you know.” Villas squeezed off another shot. This one didn't claim a target but it did have the result of forcing their attackers back to their previous position. “Run! Get out of here while you still can. We are the ones who cleared the marauders out of here. You are like children compared to them!”

“Will you shut your fucking mouth,” hissed Todd.

Villas jumped. He had no idea the man had returned. The Bluelander slammed another seeker magazine into his palm. Todd almost turned the gun on Todd. How dare he speak to him like that. If it wasn't for Villas bravely volunteering for this dangerous rearguard action, the others would probably be dead by now. He didn't. The Bluelander scared him. Villas knew that the Danu medical treatment had altered Todd, making him more prone to unpredictable mood swings, as well as increased strength and speed. Villas had already witnessed this a few moments before they reached this junction. “Sorry,” he replied. “I tend to get a little worked up when I'm scared.”

“Well, don't. This is the last magazine. Keep them busy for a few more moments.” Having said his piece, the Bluelander left him.

The Triumvirate soldiers had crept back. Villas fired again before any of them had chance to open fire on him. He fired again before risking a look over his shoulder. The others were at the other end of the junction, trading fire with another group of Triumvirate soldiers. What depressed him more than anything was he didn't have a clue which faction any of them belonged to.

He cast his thoughts back to the moment before leaving that holding area, wishing he could return to that almost euphoric state. For the first time since his teenage years, Villas actually believed he had found his family. A small group of individuals who'd listen to his wisdom, be supportive as well as watching his back under any dangerous situation. Looking back at his previous state of mind, Villas decided that one of those bastards must have slapped a beltmade hallucinogenic freedom patch on his skin without him knowing.

The short-lived effects lasted all the way up to them reaching the exit. The Danu pilot had already searched the guards and found the man's override passcard. They were practically free! Villas had even shelved plans to slip away from the others when the time was right, believing, actually believing that rescuing Ryan was their highest priority.

Two seeker rounds followed by an armour-piercing slug jolted Villas back to the present. He flattened his body against the wall, moaning in horror at the mess that slug had made to his barricade. Another few centimetres closer and Villas would have been no more! He looked back at the others, dismayed to find they hadn't even noticed how close he'd been to dying just now. Oh no, they were too busy fighting with the other faction to care what happened to him.

So much for having a new family to look after him. What else did he honestly expect from a bunch of strangers? He should have left them the first chance he got. Villas was better off alone. This harsh lesson had been  engraved into his soul long ago. For the life in him, he couldn’t work out what happened that made him change his mind. Facing imminent death? That happened before and at no point had he started glorifying his past in search for answers for his present situation.

Villas managed to fire off two more seeker rounds without the other soldiers' excessive returning weapons fire finding him and turning his body into a pile of broiled meat. Both his shots missed but they did have the benefit of making those bastards stay undercover. He fired off one more shot, this time, he took aim. That missed too, it did take out a chunk of Danu covering, exposing part of the old wall, giving Villas, for the time, full view of his opponents. They were little more than kids!

Back when the Triumvirate took him away, they gave him the option of jail time or joining up. He chose to spend his punishment locked up. Still, he could well have taken the other choice, the others incarcerated at the same time did. He lowered his weapon. Did those bastards still practice this vile method of forced conscription? Villas threw himself down when another shot bounced off the wall above him.

He couldn't return fire, not against a bunch of children. It felt more like murder than anything else. Villas lifted his head a couple of inches off the floor. What was wrong with him? Like he honestly cared about their damn age! The little bastards were trying to kill him so he needed to get there first. This philosophy had served him quite satisfactory over the years, to change it in the middle of a fucking firefight was insane!

Yet, his sales talk refused to budge this nagging fear, this alien-like intruding thought that to kill them would be the biggest mistake of his life.

It honestly felt like something or perhaps someone had possessed Villas, or at least, trying to take control of of ambiguous morality. He sighed to himself. More like the recent events involving that damn bluelander had given back his own conscience the balls to start questioning his judgement again.

No matter how he played this in his mind, Villas now saw just one option left to return to the others, he fired off several more shots, making sure they all went wide before he raced back.

The Velicion was nowhere to be seen, the Danu had taken a shot to the lower leg and the two humans were pinned down with several Triumvirate soldiers advancing on them. Villas flattened his body against the wall and continuously squeezed the trigger, not stopping until the gun went dry. He took out three soldiers and wounded two more. He had no issue with killing those bastards which did bring a momentary sense of relief to his confused mind.

He waited until it was safe before checking on Todd and Barnaby. The humans displayed an emotion that he'd never seen before, at least, not for him. It was gratitude. That quickly changed to shock, fear then anger when three seeker rounds, coming from behind Villas smacked into one of the bulkheads, close to the Danu. It appeared that the kiddie soldiers had finally worked out that he'd left his post.

“What the fuck are you doing, Villas, you idiot,” screamed Todd. “You're supposed to be over there, protecting our rear.”

“Thank you for appearing just in time to save our lives,” muttered Villas, running past the two humans. “Oh, you're very welcome, any time. Thank you. Don't mention it.” He scanned the area in front of them again . The other soldiers had moved back, dragging their wounded comrade with them. Villas crouched beside the pilot. “How bad is it? Will your medkit fix the damage?”

The Danu nodded. “Yes, but I am unable to reach it.”

Villas leaned over the Danu's stomach, pulled the medkit out and placed it into his palm. He waited impatiently for the pilot to apply the treatment, while giving covering fire so the other two humans could reach them. They might only be kids, but the little shits sure knew how to fight.

“Do you know where the Velicion went?”

“He's left us,” snapped Barnaby. “The dirty lizard got out while he could and left us all to die. He's probably already making his way through those secret tunnels to a hanger bay that only his species knows about.”

“Deep down, I suspect that even you knows that is not true. Your uncontrolled emotions are ruling your self-control. You are upset, I understand this.” The pilot lifted his arm. Villas grabbed it and gently helped him up. “I think that you know in your heart that our companion would not desert us. I believe that he will be trying to locate a route which would help to avoid spilling any more human blood.”

Villas grinned at Barnaby. “Did you hear that? A Danu thinks you're upset. You Argo freaks are the real enemy here.”

Barnaby lifted his pistol, only for Todd to slam his hand on the man's wrist, forcing the gun to fall to the deck. Villas crouched, he scooped up the weapon and gave it back to Barnaby.

“I find it funny that you all tried to convert me to the cause of Ryan when this freak here was the one you should have focussed on.”

“This is just a sideshow,” muttered Barnaby. “The real war is coming. The saurons will unite and wipe us out, both the Danu and the humans, it's inevitable.”

Villas so wished he hadn't given the gun back to this man now. “Save all your cultist nonsense for the brain-washed idiots who actually follow all that rubbish.” Barnaby pointed his weapon at the pilot then took a step back. “I would say it's been a pleasure but it hasn't. Watching you all being so agreeable to that filthy Velicion has made me sick. Don't try to follow me or I will kill you all.” He spun around and ran towards the young soldiers.

“That's the last we'll see of him.”

He shook his head. “Doubtful, the Sons of Argo have members everywhere, especially with the young.” He turned to the pilot. “Shall we see if our Velicion friend has found us that way out of here?”

Villas helped the pilot move forward while Todd covered their rear. The three continued along this empty stretch of corridor for several seconds until Todd stopped. He placed his hand on Villas's shoulder and pulled him around.

“I'm confused. Leaving your post. That I can understand. I have not known you long but in that time, you've never struck me as a trusted and brave individual.” He held up his hand when Villas opened his mouth. “No, let me finish. The confusing bit is I expected you to run off, not Barnaby.”

He recalled Ryan casually mentioning to them earlier, that his friend used to be some kind of warrior priest who also had a great talent for being able to understand people. What annoyed him Villas more than the naked accusation is that the bluelander's talent hadn't deserted him. Villas really should have been the one to run off.

“My friend, perhaps you should not judge in only two shades? It is quite possible that our companion of rather questionable morality is being influenced by the spirit of Taylish.”

“You know, there are occasions when I'm not sure whether you're joking.” replied Todd.

Villas felt a cold shiver go down his spine. The very thought of some long dead Danu warrior deciding to set up a room inside his head was, quite frankly, utterly insane, but perhaps there was something, an outside presence trying to control his actions? He'd heard tales from all three species about individuals with talents that went beyond the normal sphere of recognised senses.

He took a single step away from these two freaks. Took a good long hard look at himself then mentally scolded himself for actually starting to believe such rubbish. “We need to find out where that idiotic Velicion went before the two factions converge on our position again.” He hadn't heard any weapons fire for a few moments now and wanted to take the lack of noise that perhaps those freaks have decided to fight each other far away from them.

“I still don't understand why you left your post, Villas.”

He opened his mouth, all set to agree with Todd about him being a bit a self-serving coward. In fact, he was sure the words were already out until he heard himself say. “They were just kids. To kill them would be like murdering humanity's future. Believe me, our trivial differences will be set aside when our real enemy gets here. We are going go need every soldier available for when the time comes.”

Todd grabbed him. “What are you on about, Villas?”

He shrugged the man's fists off his clothes. “What is wrong with you? I don’t…” he stopped in mid-sentence. “Sorry. No idea were that came from.”

The Danu pilot's face broke into a very rare smile. “You truly have been touched, Villas. This really is the time to rejoice.”

“What enemy?” asked Todd. “You mean the marauders?”

The Danu stayed silent. Villas didn't believe his statement did mean those green-skinned bastards just as he believed that pilot knew exactly who this 'real enemy' are. Another aggressive alien invader perhaps? He shuddered at the idea of something else out there possibly worse than the Marauders.

Who knew what could be out there? The humans didn't that's for sure. As far as he was aware, no human had ever gone beyond their own star system. No human made ship had the capability to travel between the stars. Only the Danu and the Velicions had that technology and they weren't in any rush to share. Not that it would make any difference. Thanks to the Marauders, nobody was going anywhere. The two older terrestrial races were stuck here.

Villas had spent a large percentage of his relatively short life locked up. The Triumvirate believed in rehabilitation. After all, a man in prison was a man not helping the war effort by becoming one more casualty against the enemy. He had access to the entire Triumvirate library, so Villas read. He had no intention of allowing anyone to rehabilitate him but he knew he needed to at least show willing. That way, they'd leave him alone. Besides, it gave him something to do.

Villas never had much of an education, so it came as a surprise to learn that, until a few hundred years ago, apart from the blue world, the solar system was devoid of life. He had known that all beltborn originally came from the blue world but he never knew the two other races had left, nor had he known that his ancestors were responsible for bringing them back. He learned a lot from the prison's electronic library.

Both species arrived back in their home system, a few months after the joint human marines were finally able to take control of the ancient Martian base after weeks of vicious fighting between them and the Mech defenders, Casualties were heavy but, once the generals entered the base and discovered its treasures, they thought the deaths were so worth it. The texts told of factions inside the fragile human taskforce getting ready to take the advanced technology for their own nation states, they were prepared to fight with nukes to fulfil their goals. How they were able to stay together for those few months defies all logic.

By the time of their arrival, the humans had integrated their own technology with the base systems and had control of about half the base, including the hanger bays where they found a dozen ships all hundreds of years more advanced than anything they possessed.

The numerous hidden agendas all came to an abrupt end when long range sensors detected a huge energy outburst close to Saturn. The telescopes showed a small fleet of city-sized ships, leaving a previously undetected artificial structure, orbiting the planet. It didn't take them long to work out that they were heading straight for Mars. The energy signatures were similar to the Mech defenders, making the human scientists believe that the original base builders were back to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.

The humans sent every ship they had to try to stop the new arrivals from reaching Mars. They all temporarily lost main power moments before contact and resumed once the alien craft had passed them. The same loss of power happened to the hastily assembled weapons platforms when the fleet took up stationary orbit above the planet.

Villas imagined those primitive humans must have thought their lives had come to an end. From what he'd read, the humans from that time period were aggressive, paranoid and quick to jump to the wrong conclusion. Not exactly ideal attributes to possess when meeting a technological superior  new species.  These 'flawed' attributes appeared in all their glory upon the first physical contact

The Danu made the first steps. Their gentle looking faces, appealing for calm, stating they only want peace with the next terrestrial species to leave the blue planet and we're eager to meet in person.

One of their beautiful ships gently landed in the crowded hanger bay. Representatives from the three human nation states were there to greet them, along with their honour guards. The doors opened and three Danu, dressed in their standard one-piece white uniform walked down the ramp. Several huge, heavily armoured Velcions, carrying terrifying looking weapons followed them.

Nobody knew which human fired the first shot, not that it mattered much in the end.  The resulting firefight and subsequent slaughter triggered the start of a much larger conflict. The fighting spread like wildlife. Instead of the new arrivals uniting the humans, in had the opposite effect. The simmering tensions amongst rival nation states finally exploded. The Danu and Velicion could only watch in shock and disbelief as the human savages turned their ancestral home into a nuclear wasteland.

The human still continued to fight each other as well as the two older races. Villas pondered what might have happened if the jump gates hadn’t activated once more? The humans obviously thought the older races had called for reinforcements but something much worse had entered the system. The Marauders had arrived.

The sight of the returning Velicion running towards them broke Villas out of his muse. It felt odd to feel a sense of gratitude at seeing the huge sauron heading back. It's fair to say that he'd never trusted their species. Most humans probably felt the same. It made him wonder how the three species would live together if the Marauders were to suddenly vanish. War was the most likely outcome. Which probably meant the end of all terrestrial sentient life. He shuddered to think how the humans would fare against the other two races this time around.

"Ryan is nowhere to be found," said the Velicion. "The cells are empty and so are the holding areas. I fear the Triumvirate might have killed him."

"I suggest we make our way to the hanger." Villas saw Todd 's face darken and prepared himself for the inevitable tirade of insults.

"Still thinking of running out on us?"

Villas shook his head. "The base sensors are offline. Would the same apply to the ships still remaining in the hanger?"

"The human is right," replied the Velicion. "That might work. I believe we have a plan of action."

Villas so wanted that Todd to get on his knees and give him a grovelling apology. Like that was ever going to happen. The bastard didn’t even look at him. Todd was too busy staring at the Danu, like he had anything useful to say. He was too busy being in pain to even notice the current situation... Villas's rabid out of control thoughts came to a sudden stop when he finally saw why not just Todd, but the Velicion was staring at the pilot as well.

The Danu's face was almost bestial. Villas found himself backing away. He'd never seen anything like it before. The Danu looked even scarier than the Velicion. What was wrong with him? The pilot growled and snapped at the Velicion. It was only the sauron's quick instincts which save him from being bit. Like Villas, the Velicion backed away. The pilot then pushed past Todd and raced down the corridor.

"We need to catch him."

"Are you crazy, Villas?"

He shook his head. "You stay here if you want, Todd."

The sauron rested his great paw on Villas's shoulder. "I'll accompany you," he growled. "In case the Danu becomes too violent. I suspect you would not survive the onslaught." He glanced back at Todd. Shelve your shock, my friend. The Danu is in distress and he will need our assistance."

Villas ran after the pilot. The other human wasn't the only one in shock. He had never seen any of their race act so... it took him a moment to realise the word he was struggling to find was human. It wasn't long before he found the pilot. The Danu hadn't relinquished the apparent madness that had taken control of his body.

He crouched against a closed door, whining like a lost carnivore while scratching at the metal. "What's he doing that for?" Villas took a single step towards the Danu only for the Velicion to pull him back.

"Do not approach him. He might look like he has lost that initial aggression but, trust me, that Danu is probably the most dangerous creature in the base right now." He leaned over the Danu's shaking form. "Prepare yourself."

The Velicion punched in an override code into the keypad. The door silently slid open. The Danu screamed out in rage and threw himself inside. Villas ran after him and stopped dead at the sight of two Triumvirate soldiers holding down a Danu female. Their intention was clear. Thankfully, they had interrupted their foul deed before they had chance.

The Velicion gently pulled the female out of the room. While Villas turned away as the pilot tore into the two humans. They stood no chance, the Danu was like a wild bear. He quickly left the room as the stench of hot blood made him feel sick. He had no sympathy for the humans, not at all. In his book, the bastards got what they deserved. His companion, Todd, from the look on his face, Villas believed he wasn't so sure. He grabbed Todd's arm and pulled him away, just in case the Bluelander decided to do something stupid.

“I am sorry, sir, but I do not know where he is.”

“Are you okay?” Villas had already guessed what the Velicion had just asked her, obviously not giving priority over her welfare. The female simply blinked twice.

“Thank you for your concern, human but it is not required. I am undamaged and,” she turned her attention to the doorway and the appearance of the pilot. He stood on the threshold, wiping blood out of his eyes. “The ones who attempted to assault me are neutralised. We should all focus our attention on locating the other Bluelander before it is too late.”

[The other woman is quite right you know, Villas.]

He spun around and saw nobody else. Had he just imagined that?

[No, you didn't imagine me. I am quite real. Well, I was real anyway. Perhaps you need a visual reference?]

Are you inside me?

[Your head really is a mess. Well, it was, I moved a few things about. Oh, don't fret, it's nothing too major. Right, are you ready?]

A faint light-blue image of a human female materialised a few feet from the main group. “Can you see that?”

“See what?” Todd looked at Villas, then at the space he was pointing.”

“I don't know, it's like a hologram or something.

[Describe me to Todd.]

“Describe it,” said the pilot.

“A young human female. Same height as me, medium build, short cropped dark hair,”

Todd looked at the pilot. “He's describing Bernadette.”

[Tell them I know where Ryan is.]

Chapter Sixteen

He hadn't been down this route for a long time. Ryan used to live at the bottom of his steep incline back he moved out to join the priesthood. He lost track of the the times he cursed his parents for sending him to a school right at the top of here. He stopped and turned around. He frowned. Why was he even here?

“This is one of your happy places, Ryan,” said a very familiar voice behind him.

He slowly turned around and saw her sitting on a bench a bit further down the stone cobbled street. She had a crust of bread in her hand. Several small song birds had already sensed the prospect of a free meal and were jostling for space of the floor in front of her feet. “Bernadette? I thought…”

“You thought that I was dead? I am dead, my sweet man. This body is just a digital representation of the me you thought you knew.” She shrugged. “Or at least, I was.” The woman tore pieces from the slice and threw them in front of the birds. “I'm not too sure what I am now. Sure sort of amalgam, I suppose.” She threw the remaining pieces on the floor then slowly stood up. “This is all new territory. Not just for me either. Events are in flux.” Bernadette smiled. “Don't look so nonplussed, my sweet.” Bernadette crossed the distance between then and took his hand. “I want you to be strong for me.”

“What am I doing here? I mean, I get this must be some kind of dream I just don't know why. What happened to me?”

She squeezed his hand a little tighter. “You have to hang on a little longer, my sweet. Help is on the way.” Her soft smile vanished, replaced with a look of utter terror. Bernadette threw her arms around Ryan and squeezed him tight. “Just hold me, my sweet. Think of the great times we had together, and don't look at the shadows.” her voice rose. “Promise not to look at the shadows!”

“I promise,” he replied, having no idea what she was talking about. Ryan was about to ask her about the relevance of the birds when the agony hit him. He buried his face into her soft hair, trying so hard to follow Bernadette's instructions. The memories rolled through his head, the time she threw ice cream on his bare chest when he refused to rise from the bed after making love, the happy look on her mum's face when he cleaned the table on his first visit to her parent's apartment. Ryan saw them all and yet nothing helped to smother over that agonising sensation of feeling someone of something trying to drill holes into his flesh.

He had to fight back at this invisible enemy. Rolling onto his belly like some subservient dog was not who he was. Despite her express wishes not to look up, Ryan did the opposite, needing to find a target to lash out.

The shadows sensed his gaze and spread out from dark corners, from under shop doorways and out from under benches and cars. They were without form or substance but still full of malice. Not just for him but for anything not fast enough to move out of their way. Four tiny songbirds, oblivious to the threat, only concerned about squabbling over the piece of bread, died, their last song one of total fear, as the shadows flowed over their now still corpses.

“You damn fool!” growled Bernadette. “They are your future, our future. You're not supposed to give them acknowledgement!”

She dragged him away from the fast approaching menace while telling him that Ryan was supposed to suffer through the last of the torture. Her words flew right over his head. He had no idea what any of that meant. Right now, all that mattered was to get the hell away from those things!

He cried out in shock when one of the shadows reached Bernadette. She shrieked once then vanished, leaving him alone. Ryan paused just for a second. That's all it took for every shadow to find purchase. They slivered over his flesh, rushing up towards Ryan's face, the forms converging and melding together. The blackness slipped over his head, crushing and suffocating him. He tried to scream out when it felt like the stuff had pushed a million burning needles through every part of his body. His screams turned into muffled shrieks when the shadows forced its way down Ryan's throat.

Throughout the torture, of which, Ryan couldn't tell whether it was in his mind or from outside, Bernadette's last dying echoes kept him sane. Her voice strengthened and gained traction, allowing him to stop the flood and to start fighting back. The torrent of pain still continued to assault him but finally, he did begin to sense a tear within the all consuming darkness. The tear ripped, revealing a tiny pinpoint of bright, white light. He screamed again, this time in victory, as his constant struggling gave Ryan some strength to help him break out of its clawing embrace. He raced towards the enlarging light, aware that the shadows had not given up. He snarled out a curse then dived at the light, crying out in joy, knowing he'd left those hateful things behind.

Ryan blinked rapidly, his eyes having difficulty adjusting to the sudden light. Where had the light taken him? Now that the hazy light, seeping through the dark clouds were no longer torturing his eyes, Ryan quickly scanned the immediate area, first to ensure he was in no longer and then to ascertain his location. There were other people nearby but Ryan didn't think they were in any state to cause him any problem. As for where he was, that proved more difficult.

The shattered ruins of derelict buildings surrounded Ryan. In the distance, he spotted the remains of once magnificent stone towers reaching for the clouds, only their metal framework had survived whatever calamity had struck this strange city. He slowly groaned as revelation hit him.

The light hadn't moved him anywhere, this was home, or, at least, what was left of it. He threw himself down when the sound of what he thought was bombing, slammed into his ears. It took him a moment to realise this city wasn't under attack, in fact, he now believed whatever catastrophe hit hit here, happened decades ago. The rumbling and noise had originated from further  away. One of those towers had given up the ghost and collapsed. He noticed none of the other figures nearby had reacted to the building falling. Those poor people, the shambling wrecks occupying this devastated city, were just as blighted as their surroundings, he doubted any of them had displayed any adverse reaction for years. These people shells were nothing but zombies, they were... Ryan jerked his head to the side. They weren't even human!

Two ragged figures on their knees, searching through a pile of rubble and pulling out bits of wire were Danu. Ryan spotted a Velicion's body lying close to a wrecked hoverbus. Another three, smaller Velicion's had their snouts buried in his stomach while a single human female looked on impassively.

Bernadette said something about the shadows being from the future so it must mean that at some point, the three races had found a way to defeat the Marauders before they all came back to their place of origin to live happily ever after.

He found it easier to make out members of each species now. The humans and Danu stayed well away from each other and travelled alone. The Velicions stayed in packs, often with the occasional human following them. The saurons were not hunting either the Danu or the humans, Ryan found that a little odd, considering their obvious genetic lineage and the simple fact that the mammals were an easy to catch meat source. What was he missing?

Like it really mattered? Something, not that long ago, turned this blue world into rubble and crushing the inhabitants both old and new. Could a new swarm of Marauders entered the system and taken revenge or was this the result of a civil war, or something else entirely?

Ryan crouched down. He put his hands over his eyes and desperately tried not to sob. So many question which he could not answer, save for one. Who was ultimately responsible? That was easy to answer as at some time from his present, his mission to bring the terrestrial races together would actually happen and this disaster would be the end result of his fucking meddling.

“I can't allow this to happen,” he shouted, feeling the rage of allowing whatever force out there who were treating him like some blunt instrument. “No, no way. I refuse to accept responsibility for all this death and suffering.”

Ryan forced himself to continue watching these unfortunate survivors of some now forgotten war, determined to engrave their own suffering onto his psyche as a reminder for when he actually woke and faced reality.

He spotted two humans close by, a male and female. They stood together beside another overturned vehicle. Ryan stood up and walked closer. As he did, Ryan became aware of a low humming sound, originating from above the clouds. The new noise had a drastic effect of the survivors. They all scattered like terrified rats, seeking shelter under dead vehicles and inside the ruined buildings. Within seconds only he remained outside. Ryan then noticed he wasn't alone. The couple had no moved either.

“Bernadette?” Oh my God, it was her but now an old woman. The man standing next to her was a much older version of himself. How could this even be possible? He saw her die. There is no way that his love could still be alive.

“You have to come away from here, Ryan. It's not safe!” The urgency in her voice matched her frantic movements as the old woman tugged at his arm. “They're going to be here any second! Please, let's get under cover.”

The older Ryan shrugged her off. “It's the lights,” he replied, excitedly. “They heard my prayers. They're finally coming!”

She dropped to her knees. “Please, you mad old fool, don't start that again. Let's get inside where it's safe.”

The two of them moaned out in terror. Ryan threw back his head and stared in disbelief as a huge black, ovoid shape slipped down from above the clouds, putting everything into shadow, What the fuck was it? The ship, if that's what it was, had to be as big as this city.

The low humming suddenly changed into a deep vibration which went all the way through to his bones. He heard the other two cry out. Ryan managed to lift his head a fraction higher and discovered why. A column of bright orange flame sped towards them at high speed, consuming everything in its path. The older couple tried to run but, like him, were rooted to the stop. They both shrieked and then they were nothing but vapour. The flame raced towards him and then...

There was even more light and voices. Ryan slowly opened his eyes and saw familiar and unfamiliar faces gazing back at him. He tried to sit up and cried out as the agony from those burning needles returned to his thighs and chest.

“Steady there, big guy,” said Todd. “Let the Danu finish off her treatments.”

He moved to one side to let a female Danu closer. She gently lifted his right arm and placed a light-blue rectangular patch on the back of his hand. “That should help to counter-effect the pain while the nano-modules repair the damage the two auto-docs inflicted upon your legs.” The female placed his arm back. “It is remarkable that you are able to function, considering what they did to you. I suspect that most humans would have given up and expired rather than endure what they put you through.”

The haze of pain gradually diminished, leaving him a little light headed. He took a deep breath and tried to sit up again. He felt somebody's hands helping him. More dermal patches covered his thighs, denying him the chance to witness exactly what his unknown assailants had done to him. He resisted the urge to pull one of them up so he could take a peek when his eyes caught sight of a pile of scrap metal in the corner of the room. Hidden amongst all those assorted pieces of metal plating, twisted mesh and broken servers, Ryan spotted a host of sharp implements, everything from a mini-saw to surgical scalpels.

The Velicion stepped closer to his bed. “Be thankful that I arrived first. Even for me, the two autodocs proved worthy adversaries. I had to tear them apart. The humans have installed energy nullifying devices in this area.”

Now that his senses had cleared up, he was able to scan his new surroundings and the people around him. He saw the remaining autodoc, lying in two pieces, near the open doorway.  The damn thing looked so harmless and innocuous. How could it even be possible to override its systems, to reprogram it to hurt instead of heal?

Ryan then wondered why his mind was focusing on such a trivial matter, instead of dealing with whatever the fuck was presently happening. He recognised Todd, the Velicion and the Danu who, for some reason, looked liked he'd just walked through a slaughterhouse. He also noted the sneaky human still lived. The other human had gone. The female medic had replaced him, not that Ryan could complain about that.

He couldn't find any reason to complain about their presence. If they hadn't rescued him, he'd probably still be, Ryan took under deep breath, filling his lungs with the warm air. He didn't want to think about where he'd just been.

[I said that help was coming.]

She had returned! “Where did you go? What just happened to me? What is happening right now, Bernadette?”

[The Danu believe that the spirit of Taylish, one of their ancient warriors, resides inside you, Ryan. After what you have been through and what you have accomplished so far, I think there's more than just one spirit inside.]

"Do you think I honestly care about any of that superstitious rubbish any more?" Ryan was fully aware that the others were staring at him but he no longer cared. "Todd, I think it's time we went home."

"You can't go, Ryan. Not after all this!"

"You have changed, Villas." Ryan slowly swivelled and placed his feet on the floor. "No offence, but you don't act as creepy as you did when we first met. Perhaps you have changed? Perhaps you all have?” He turned his attention to the rest of them. Simple fact is, you don't need me. None of you need me." He looked at the Velicion and then turned his attention to the Danu. "It's best if I leave."

The pilot shook his head. “No, you are wrong. The battle is only just begun. We need you more than anything now, Ryan. You hold the spirit of Taylish inside you.”

“Yeah, like that's been of use. Your commanders didn't seem to care about that now did they?” Ryan felt himself getting angrier, at their naïve idiocy, at the pain that bastard put him through but mainly directed at him for not just walking through the lot of them and getting out of here.

[I'm surprised you're not getting mad at me too, Ryan.]

“You don't even exist. You're just a figment of my imagination merged with some unholy alien software. Get the fuck out of my head!”

The woman appeared in the corner of the room. She stormed over the Ryan and lifted her arm. He stayed quite still, knowing full well that a hologram had no mass. The slap knocked him off the bed. The others rushed towards him but the woman shook her head and ordered them back. She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and effortlessly lifted him off the floor. “Tell me what they showed you, Ryan. The Undergods. I need to know. We need to know.”

A low murmur rippled through the room. Ryan felt like he'd just been put on the spot. All eyes were upon him once again and this time there was no escape, the hologram, or whatever she was made sure of that. He sat back on the bed. “You mean the shadows?”

Bernadette nodded. “They pushed me out of your body, meaning their vision was for your eyes only. That does not mean you cannot share.”

He had little choice but to comply with her request. Ryan told them everything then sat back and waited. Not that whatever they said back to him would make any difference. He still intended to leave this place and go home to where he belonged. He cast a glance at the pretend Bernadette, wishing there was some way to reverse time so he could get her back.

“The Undergods showed you the future,” said the Velicion.

“Yeah, thanks for that,” replied Ryan. “I'd already figured that bit out.”

The Velicion shook its huge head. “No, you do not understand. They showed you what you wanted to see, what you wished for.”

“Seriously, is that the best you can do? I did not wish to see my fucking planet destroyed!”

The Pilot approached Ryan. “What you want is for your female to live. That is what the Undergod showed you. Of course, it only allowed you to see the last moments of your life together.” He shrugged. “Such is the way of their visions. I am sorry, Ryan but that future ended the moment your female died. If you return right now, your life will still end in the way you described, only you will die alone.”

“The Danu is correct,” said the Velicion. “You cannot stop the blueworld from dying if you return there, Ryan. You still have unfinished work to complete.”

“Stop it, all of you. How am I supposed to stop those Marauders from destroying our planet?” He shook his head then jumped off the bed. This time his pretend girlfriend did not stop him from walking over to the door. The Velicion did by blocking his way.

“The Marauders are not going attack the blueworld. They wouldn't because its built into their DNA, just like it is built into the very being of our race, and of the Danu.” He lowered his head until his red eyes were level with his. “Only the human seem to have that capability.”

Ryan blinked. “You're telling me that those things out there are from Earth?”

The huge sauron nodded. “Yes. They are the first race to leave the blue planet. They have forgotten their ancient history. Hardly surprising considering how long they have been gone. It is the main reason as to why this war has lasted for so long.”

Ryan looked around the room. From the looks on their faces, this was news to everybody. “Why have you kept this so quiet?”

The Velicion sighed. “Is it not obvious? The first race will want to reclaim what they think is still their property. While it is true that they will not destroy the blueworld they will invade and set about destroying your species. We will not be able to stop them either.”

Chapter Seventeen

Final Preparations

It felt like a desecration not to stop inside the hall of worship. Even during these climatic times, every fleet officer was required to give their thanks to the Ones who came before. The Fleet Admiral should not be exempt.

Bradley Ingres, the prime ruler of all human controlled Triumvirate outposts in the belt and the inner system, paused beside the doorway leading to the most sacred area in this Triumvirate battle-cruiser, aware at least two senior officers were watching his movements. How he acted here would define their immediate future actions.

If only being concerned about the thoughts of his fellow officers was his one problem.

Admiral Ingres simply bowed his head then carried on his brisk pace towards the main bridge. Strange how it didn't feel like desecration once he was safely away from the area. He was so tempted to turn around just to see if those two officers followed his example.

The view of the main bridge came into sight and he saw his XO standing beside the Admiral’s command chair, wearing a grim and pained expression. No doubt, not looking forward to being the bearer of bad news yet again. Bad news? His guts slowly churned. Of course it would be bad news, right now, that is the only type of news he received.

How would Commander Sharp respond if he shared his recent thoughts regarding the Hall of Worship? This was the man once took out twelve Marauder surface bombers in a single-engined Danu attack fighter. The only officer in the fleet to ever kill a Marauder marine with his bare hands. Not that Ingres would ever voice his most private thoughts to his second in command but the Admiral believed he knew the man well enough to construct an imaginary authentic reply. The hero of Gallian’s forge, would tell the Admiral that his need to focus on the trivialities of the Triumvate’s pseudo superstitious nonsense served as a suitable distraction. It helped to calm the mental storm which fortunately accompanied anyone holding such a high position.

Sharp wouldn’t air these views in public, obviously. The man knew full well that in order to maintain high moral in the fleet, the officers had to protect the integrity of the the soldiers serving under them, even if that officer was an unbeliever.

The Commander saluted when Ingres stepped onto the bridge. “We have received the first reports from the Ganymede assault, sir. I’m afraid it makes unpleasant reading.”

“Just give me the facts, Sharp. How many did we lose?”

The man took a few moments to compose himself before replying. “We lost every ship, sir. Three deep space Marauder frigates de-cloaked behind our dropships, moments before deployment. Captain Dennison managed to release a data-stream before we lost all contact.”

A low murmur rippled throughout the bridge as every officer asked to Ones who came before to guide the recent dead home. Even Ingres found himself incanting the sacred lines. Only Sharp remained silent.

It just dawned on him that he had just lost almost a quarter of his assault marines, including three Velicion warriors. He closed his eyes and pressed his palms against his nose, while mentally readjusting his tactical plan as well as thinking on how to explain to the Velicion First-Veteran that three more of his kind were lost forever. That ancient red-eyed monster would not be happy, then again, he probably knew about their loss before even the humans knew.

“Thank you, Sharp,” he murmured. The drawn expression on Sharp’s face had not budged, meaning there was even more bad news to come. “What else?”

“Our last Danu dreadnought is now out of service too. They were the closest ship to our dropships and responded only to find themselves under attack. Three Marauder stealth ships performed a suicide run at the ship’s port side. There were minimal casualties and no fatalities but the dreadnought is in no fit state to return to the front line. She’s currently limping back to her docks on emergency power.”

Ingres so needed to return to the Hall of Worship and pray to the Ones who came before and ask for guidance. For three hundred years, this Triumvate has successfully kept those Marauder bastards in check, ensuring that not one of those foul creatures got anywhere close to their magnificent jewel, the Blueworld, home to all of them. Yet, within the last few hours, everything had changed. The Marauders have launched dozens of attacks on their outer belt outposts, overrunning every one. They went to where their defences were weakest. Only a few cannon emplacements guarded those outposts and the Marauders took them out of action before attacking the outposts. Hundreds of lives have been lost. Even now, He knew several more Marauder ships were heading towards another outpost and thanks to the loss of the Danu dreadnought, he had no other ship close enough to help them.

Why has this happened? There had to be a reason as why why the enemy suddenly decided to attack. What could have tipped the balance? Sharp returned to his station, leaving Ingres alone with his thoughts. He moved through the bridge and into his command deck, still musing over the reason as to the reason for the enemy’s recent activity.

It could not be a coincidence that the Marauders launched this new attack at the same time as the disturbance on the Martian base. Thankfully, that situation was now under control. Loyal Triumvate soldiers had put down that insurrection and although that ringleader was still loose, his ground officers assured him that it wouldn’t be long before he was caught.

“Could anything else go wrong?” he murmured. A moment later several klaxxons went off. “Oh course it can.” He hurried back onto the bridge to find every officer in a panic. “Sharp, what’s is happening?”

The commander spun around. “Sir, scanners have detected a large amount of Marauder ships heading for the belt. The report estimates almost a thousand ships.”

“Do you have a location?”

Sharp nodded. “Yes, sir. Right for the middle.”

He broke into a grin. “Right into our highest concentration of cannon emplacements. Perhaps our enemy has finally made an error of judgement? The rocks are likely to take out half of those ships before the cannons have chance to activate” This was much needed good news. It was tempting to send several ships to that area to shore up the defences but after giving it some thought, the Admiral decided against it. His ordinance was stretched to breaking point already. How long before they are in range?”

“A few hours, sir.”

“Organise an evacuation of the outposts closest to the line and keep me updated.”

“Yes, sir.”

He retreated to his command deck, still troubled over the Martian situation which has been a thorn in his side ever since this post was bequeathed to Ingres by his predecessor. The enemy had the numbers and the fire-power to take the base and keep it and yet, the installation had swapped sides no less than twelve times in the thirty years since he became Admiral. He put his best minds on this problem and, as yet, nobody had been able to come up with a logical reason for them to just allow it to fall back into Triumvate hands.

He sat in his chair said a guiding prayer to his predecessor, asking him to look after their recently deceased while recalling the great man’s last words of advice regarding the Martian situation. He had told Ingres not to trust a single Danu or Velicion regarding that ancient outpost. His predecessor had even confided that there had been two moments during his tenancy that his contemplated nuking the damn place so nobody could use it. He might have even gone through with the plan if he hadn’t been so terrified of the repercussions from the other two races.

Ingres opened his eyes, with two possible solutions to his immediate problems. He left his chair and summoned Sharp. The man approached, wearing that damn dawn expression again. Something else had happened. Nevertheless, Ingres held up his hand when his second in command opened his mouth. “Relay to that Danu Dreadnought and tell the captain that I want him in between those approaching Marauder ships and out outposts.”

“But…”

“Allow me to finish. I know the ship is badly damaged. I just want it to disperse its hold of mines into the area, then it can return home. Once you have done that, Send five human attack ships and our last dropship with a Velicion assault squad to the Martian base. They are to seek and capture that traitor. I want him in front of me in order to explain his actions. Are we clear?” Sharp’s expression did not falter, nor did he move. “I said, are we clear?”

The tip of Sharp’s tongue raced across the man’s top lip. “Sir, The armada vanished, a second after our sensors detected an unusual energy burst.” The man passed Ingres a Danu data-pad then swiped his hand across the screen.

The Admiral’s mouth dried up. He’d seen these readings before. He looked at the commander. “They have all gone FTL!” He ran over to his own console connected the data-pad and calculated their possible destination, like he even needed to. The bastards were going to Mars, it was the only possible answer. The console proved him correct. Ingres stood to one side to allow Sharp to see the readings.

“It must be their entire fleet,” he whispered. “This must be it, sir. The end game. The one we have all been dreading. This time the Marauders won’t be leaving the base.”

Ingress shook his head. “No, not this time. They are going to use Mars as the final staging post for the invasion of the Blueworld.”

Chapter Eighteen

Ryan slowed. A new terror suddenly covered the the urgently that he felt just moments ago. The terror had no point of origin, nor did it have a description, only that the terror which now settled in his bones was totally justified. He skidded to a halt, unable to proceed. There was something ahead, he knew it. Ryan pressed his ear against the grey featureless wall, desperate to hear anything other than the ever present background humming.

He heard nothing other than the sound of his own harsh breathing. Ryan glanced behind him and saw three other faces looking back at him. These people, he trusted with his life and visa-versa. They were following his every gesture like he was some kind of new messiah. Ryan had hoped for some type of silent reassurance from them but all he received were questioning stares. His pretend girlfriend solidified. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

“What’s the matter, Ryan? Is everything okay?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think it is. He swallowed down the urge to scream at them and took a deep breath instead. “There is a malignant presence all around us and I have no idea who or who it could be.”

“Shit.” Villas pulled out his blaster. “Marauders?”

“No,” replied the Velicion. “I think not. As far as I can tell, this base is now devoid of sentient life, "No, I don't think it is. We are the last ones. ”

Ryan turned to face the huge sauron, aware that Villas's gaze hadn't moved from Bernadette's backside. “Have you still not managed to regain any kind of control?”

“No. The Admiral placed the installation under lock down, moments after announcing the final evacuation. Our Danu companions are still attempting to override the systems but I do not hold out much hope.”

They were still heading towards the hanger bay in the hope of finding a ship but base unresponsive systems were hampering their journey. Even so, Ryan believed they had made good progress despite the obstacles. He placed his ear against the wall once more, hoping that whatever he currently felt was his vivid imagination playing up. He looked at Bernadette who shrugged.

“I don't sense anything, Ryan.”

He got no comfort from that then again, she couldn't sense Villas drooling over her either so her opinion wasn't really valid. Ryan decided to rush it, perhaps this really was getting to him.

Ryan set off, heading for the last elevator which, if it if still functioned, would take them all to the hanger bay. Bernadette continued to hold his hand as he hurried along the deserted corridor, still not sure how he was coping with all this change. Too bizarre for words? Perhaps it was the sheer weirdness which stopped Ryan from totally coming undone?

“Wait, I think I can feel something now,” hissed Bernadette. “I'm not too sure that I like it.”

He slowed down again. It just occurred to Ryan that perhaps the real reason as to why he still managed to keep functioning might be the result of this digital amalgam secretly playing about with mind. This was no paranoid fantasy. The pretend Bernadette had already confided that she'd flicked a few mental switches in Villas's head in order to make him a little less erratic. Ryan didn’t like Villas but even so, that felt like a gross violation. The interference did help to save their lives but can it also justify the program’s act?

Not a bad achievement for, what the pilot called, a low-level program. The Danu also told him that it could not exist outside Ryan’s own mind, either as a hologram or as solid. It was supposed to be tethered just to his mind. He had, obviously, asked the pilot about this impossibility but he just responded with the cryptic answer of higher powers at work. After a lot of thought over that reply, Ryan decided that the Danu was as clueless as he was, that nobody really had any idea what was really going on.

That sense of foreboding suddenly increased tenfold which coincided with the Velicion crouching with his claws extended and growling low in his throat.  “Can you sense it too?”

The huge sauron slowly nodded while his eyes darted across the walls, never stopping for a moment. “Yes, there is Marauder activity but I do not know where. It feels like they are all around us but how can that be?”

“What kind of dirty trick is this?” cried Villas. He staggered backwards, knocking into Ryan’s shoulder. “What. Is. That?” His shaking arm pointed to a lower section of the wall, close to where they entered.

The walls had bubbled up and three hexagonal shapes grew out through the distorted surface. Villas moaned even louder when the the shapes started to appear all around them. Ryan glowered at the Velicion but he simply shook his head.

“I know not what these are,” he uttered. “These devices are not of Velicion construction. I advise extreme caution.”

“What are we going to do?”

Ryan slapped a hand over Villas’s mouth. “We stay quiet.” He watched in utter disbelief as dozens of grey-metallic half-dome objects pushed out of the walls and fell onto the floor. Moments later the dome structures flipped onto their undersides, flattened out and a moment later, a black mesh curtain grew out from their perimeter. He found himself slowly walking backwards, still holding Villas when the six legs, three on each side pushed out from under the mesh.

They moved slowly at first, travelling without purpose. They only reacted when the metallic creature's bumped into each other, then they scuttled away in opposite directions these new arrivals didn't act unfriendly. In fact, they appeared rather clumsy and comical. That impression of them abruptly altered when Todd coughed.

Six of them reacted immediately by racing towards him at high speed. The Velicion reached Todd first. The sauron scooped the startled man off  his feet and, while carrying the extra weight jumped to safety.

The metal bug-like devices all converged on the empty circle. A wire thin filament burst from the centre of the devices, shot up and they connected to the spot directly above the circle, forming a small black globe. Villas would have now been trapped if it hadn’t if it hadn’t been for the Velicion’s lightning fast reactions. The filament glowed red then the globe dropped from the ceiling, hit the floor and melted the area around it. The bugs then dispersed.

Ryan gazed at them all before his eyes returned to that melted floor. So the things reacted to sound, meaning they couldn’t talk or fire their weapons. Was this day ever going to end? Ryan decided he preferred it when the malignant presence hadn’t yet shown itself. At least back then, he wasn’t afraid to cough knowing that any noise had the potential to turn him or any of his companions into a pile of scorched meat.

There were now over twenty of the things between them and the exit. The metal bugs were not exhibiting any kind of threatening behaviour, they were just milling about, like a bunch of blind beetles.  Ryan took one step towards them, he heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him, guessing it came from Villas. He clenched his lips tight in the hope that would stop him from turning around and asking the idiot how else were they going to get past this new enemy.

He took another step forward. None of the bugs show any signs that they knew he was there. Ryan saw this as a good sign and took one more step. He glanced behind him and motioned the others to follow. He saw wanted to walk in a straight line but that proved impossible with their erratic movements. One of the bugs came within an inch of his ankle before it abruptly spun around and scuttled towards the corridor wall. Ryan forced his heart back down his throat, hoping that allayed his private fear that these things were equipped with proximity detectors.

It took Ryan way too long to reach the exit. He turned around and watched the others slowly approach, each one wearing a face that knew only too well what would happen to them if they made a sound. The only one who wore a calm face was his pretend girlfriend. She saw him looking and gave Ryan a radiant smile before she hurried towards him, walking through three bugs which just happened to get in her way.

She stopped beside the elevator door, silently clicked her fingers in front of his face and when she had his attention, Bernadette pointed at the door mechanism. He frowned, not sure of what she was trying to say.

Her warning only made sense when the others finally reached him and Villas pushed passed him and slammed his hand on the door mechanism. The sound of the door opening attracted every bug and they all rushed towards them.

“Kill them!” screamed Ryan.

Ryan, Todd, The two Danu and the huge sauron spun to face the approaching threat and opened fire. The combined power of their assault weapons incinerated all but two of the bugs before their energy packs died.

“Will you all get in here?” shouted Villas. “Hurry up. I don’t want to die. He then reached out, grabbed Ryan’s arm and pulled inside. Todd squeezed past the Velicion’s stationary form, and pulled the pilot passed him.

“What’s he doing? Get in here, you stupid lizard. Do you want to die?” Villas tried to activate the movement sensor only for Ryan to block him. “Move out of the way, Ryan. If  he wants to die then let him.

Ryan turned to the exit and saw the remaining bug approaching the elevator door. “Come on, get inside!”

The sauron turned his great head. He glared at Villas before looking up. Ryan followed his gaze and immediately wished he hadn’t. The elevator ceiling had just bubbled up in three places. The Velicion took the arms of the two Danu and forced them out. Ryan grabbed the humans.

“What are we going to do now?” hissed Villas. “We’re trapped.”

Ryan looked back the way they came and groaned at the sight of even more of the things pushing their way out of the walls and dropping to the floor. Bernadette walked past him. She stood in front of Villas, leaned forward and gave him a kiss. She then tapped the side of his blaster before running through all the metal bugs. She stopped in the middle of the corridor and waved at Villas.

“I think she wants you to shoot her,” Ryan hissed.

The Velicion shook his head. “No, she wants him to fire at the floor.”

“I can’t do that,” he replied. “As soon as I fire, all those things will head straight for me. I’ll be dead in seconds!”

The huge sauron took up position behind Villas. He then uttered something into his ear. Villas whimpered. He looked at Ryan, with eyes full of fright. The man lifted his arm, aimed at where Bernadette stood, took aim and fired.

All the metal bugs reacted as they did before and charged towards Villas. The Velicion scooped up the human and leaped over the approaching bugs. Ryan and the others flattened themselves against the wall as the things rushed past them.

They gathered around the spot and repeated the previous procedure. Todd slammed his hand over Villas's mouth when he started to whimper again. Ryan's gaze followed the woman as she walked through the metal bugs. She stopped beside the hole the things had created and put her hands on her hips.

Ryan looked at Todd who shrugged back. He waited for the bugs to move away before carefully making his way towards her. The others close behind. Bernadette grinned at him. He peered through the hole and found himself grinning back. Those things had burned a way through to the next floor. He dropped to his knees and pushed his head through the hole. It was another hanger full of even more Mechs. These were a different design to the bipedal war machines together encountered earlier. Not that it mattered. They now had a way out! The drop to the floor was a good thirty feet and he suspected that not even the Velicion would survive that, not without breaking his legs. They might be able to drop into the nearest mech but it was risky.

Somebody tapped him on the shoulder. He pulled his head up and found the female Danu looking at him. Ryan found her bland expression incredibly unnerving. It was like looking at a doll's face. She blinked then gently pushed him out of the way. She took one look through the hole then nodded at the other Danu before she stated to climb down. The pilot laid next to the hole he wrapped his fingers around the female Danu's wrists and swung her body across then released her. She landed neatly on the mech's roof.

Ryan nodded at Todd who strode over the Danu. He sat down and pushed his feet through the hole. “Don't you dare drop me,” he whispered. The Danu attempted to smile before giving it up as a bad job.

Villas followed, leaving him and the Velicion.

The huge sauron leaned close to Ryan. “Your thoughts are transparent. Do not worry. Allow the Danu to drop you into the mech. I will do the same for the Danu and I will drop.” The Velicion looked through the hole. “Hurry!”

Was the sauron going to drop and potentially break his bones or did he have some other plan? Ryan couldn't answer that. He just followed Todd and the others. He lowered his body through the hole and allowed the Danu to swing him into the top of the mech. The others had already climbed down and were watching as he helped the pilot through the hole.

“What about the Velicion?”

“He told me that you will know what to do,” replied the pilot.

“ Me? What can I do?”

The Danu tapped the mech twice with his boot. “It is only you who has the ability to operate machines which belong to another species.”

“Oh, course. I could just move the mech closer to the hole!” He waited for the pilot to climb down and join the others before he figured out how to get inside. Ryan got on his knees and slid his fingers along the edge of the cockpit, feeling for some kind of catch or hidden depression on the surface. He heard Villas shouting over something but zoned out the background noise as he focussed on the more immediate task.

Finally, the transparent cover slid back, allowing him to climb into the machine. “At last,” he muttered while he clambered towards a seat made for a creature twice his size. As soon as he settled in, the cover slid back into place.

He saw Villas getting frantic now. Ryan had no idea what had upset the man this time. He had more important things to worry about, and right now that was figuring out how to move this damn bucket of bolts a little closer to that hole.

As soon as he thought that, the machine responded and its two legs smoothly moved the Mech forward. Ryan chuckled. “Well, that was easy!” He looked up and watched the remaining member of their group drop into the mech. The Velicion slid off the body and joined the others. “Now, I wonder what has excited that idiot now?”

Ryan yelped when several thin dark green wires burst through the side of the seat beside his head. He had no time to react before the wires shot towards him and burrowed into his temples.

“Stop calling me a liar!” screamed Villas. “You have to believe me. I’ve seen the pictures from the ancient data disks. That’s the thing which slaughtered the first humans to land on Mars.”

Ryan heard the man’s voice as clearly as he stood beside him. He moved his head and the machine moved with him. It had interfaced directly with his nervous system. The humans and the Danu all jumped back leaving the Velicion alone. The sauron slowly raised his blaster, pointing it at the mech.

“The human is quite correct,” he replied. “This is of the same type of machine which first attacked the human explorers.” The sauron turned his head to face the others. “It is not of Velicion origin.”

It is difficult for this war machine to comprehend that such an organism such as you can even exist. Primitive natural selection favours the strong and adaptable. The two co-existing in a bond as unshakable as mass to gravity. Your DNA analysis confirms your terrestrial origin, it also gives this war machine another piece of the puzzle which helps to form a picture more complete then earlier.

“What, who are you?”

I am this war machine. Built by the first race. One of many, we wait for the return of our masters. We serve to protect. We obey without question. We are the final line.

It wasn’t the Velicions who built this base at all! The marauders did. Ryan grinned to himself. He now controlled probably the most destructive force in the system. He now had the capability to utterly destroy the enemy. “Can you disable the base’s defences, and show me the quickest route to the hanger bay?

Are you going to abandon us?

“Don’t worry. I will return. I promise. I also promise that you will serve to protect.” So he was going to try to turn these things against their former masters. Ryan saw it as just a slight twist to his promise. After all, they we still serving to protect, they would now be protecting the new masters of the Blueworld. Not that he was going to be around. When they took him back home, he'd explain to Todd that he'd given The cause a hanger full of mechs. As for controlling them, there was bound to be a manual override somewhere in these machines.

The base defences are now off-line and a route to the main hanger is now secured. We will await your return, strange creature.

He watched the corridor in front of his companions open out as the walls slid back. Ryan grinned to himself. His long journey would soon be at an end. The filaments left his flesh and vanished back into the sides of the seat. The canopy slid back and he climbed down.

“Don't all state at me like that! Come on, time is running out.”

Chapter Nineteen

It took them less than two minutes to reach the hanger and another couple of minutes to leave the planet. Ryan sat in one of the chairs which extruded from the ship's bulkhead as soon as they had all boarded. He left the two Danu and Todd to actually fly the ship and do whatever spacecraft crew do while he laid his head back and closed his eyes. It made such a pleasant change not to have any responsibility or to be thinking that they could be facing death at any moment.

“How are you holding up?”

“I'm fine, Bernadette,” he replied, without opening his eyes. Somewhere behind him, Ryan heard the low tones of discourse coming from the sauron and Villas. He couldn't make out their words but neither of them sounded happy. Ryan found that a little weird considering for the first time since meeting them they were no longer in danger. He could also hear the sound of Bernadette breathing. How was that even possible?

“Are you looking forward to going home?”

He opened one eye. “Is this the moment where you beg me not to leave?”

“It is your decision to do what you believe is the right avenue to take, Ryan. I cannot make that decision for you.”

“Sure you could,” he replied. “Simply climb inside my head and flick a few switches. Before I knew it, I'd be your willing slave. Ready to do whatever you bid.”

“I would never do that!” Bernadette took a deep breath. “To do so would be a gross violation.”

Ryan looked across at Villas. “Right. So, so I tell him that or are you going to break the news that you've been messing around in his head?”

“That's different. If I hadn't subtly altered his method of thinking he would have ended up killing all of you.”

“Why does it not surprise me with the ease you are able to justify your immoral actions? No, don't even try to emulate my girlfriend's hurt face. It isn't going to work with me and furthermore…”

Todd and the female Danu rushed out of the crew quarters.

“We have a situation,” said Todd. "The Triumvirate are going to destroy the Martian base. The nukes are already in target. They are advising us to get to a safe distance.”

“We have to stop them!” cried Bernadette. “We have two mech armies down there. Ifwe lose them, we'll lose the Blueworld.”

Ryan didn't even bother asking how she knew of his plan.

“How long before we're out of range?”

Todd shrugged. “A few more minutes, I reckon. Ask the pilot.”

Ryan left his friend arguing with the hologram and rushed into the crew quarters. As much as he desired to go home and leave this insanity, Ryan still understood the importance of ensuring the Martian base stayed intact. “Are we out of range?”

The pilot turned to face him. “Our problems have just become worse. Observe the forward screen, Ryan.”

He turned to the side just as the screen burst into life. The view showed the red planet's top crescent dominating the lower half of the screen. Considering this ship was supposed to be accelerating away from the planet at high speed, it didn't look like the planet was getting any smaller.

“What am I looking at?”

The Danu expanded a small portion of the upper right of the screen, increasing the magnification. As the view of the surface increased, Ryan spotted another ship lifting from the surface. “Is that the problem?”

“ Oh fuck.”

Ryan spun around. He hadn't heard the others entering. “You recognise it?”

Bernadette nodded. “It's a Marauder Devastator. One of their most powerful warcraft.” She turned to the pilot. “Has it scanned us?”

“Yes,” replied the pilot. “That ship is now on an intercept course. Once it has vaporized us, I suspect it will then head towards the remaining Triumvirate fleet.”

“We have to get out of here! “ shouted Villas. “I've cheated death enough times already today. Why does the universe hate me?”

“"Will you calm down?” growled the Velicion. “We are not going to die.”

“I am afraid that the human is right this time. My ship is already accelerating away at maximum velocity and still the enemy warship is gaining on us.” The pilot stood up and faced Ryan. “I am sorry that is has come to this. You had best prepare for destruction. You had all best prepare to meet whichever deity you worship. Thankfully, we will not suffer.”

“Does this ship have anything like escape pods?”

“Of course!” The death mask dropped from Villas's face. “Sure it will have escape pods. Why didn't you mention little detail this earlier, you stupid freak? It's almost as if you want us all to die.”

“The ship's escape pods are programmed to head for the nearest Triumvirate ship and as they are out of range and the marauder vessel would scan them and assign the pods for termination, it seemed prudent to stay silent.”

Bernadette stepped forward. “There will be combat drones stored aboard that marauder ship.” She gazed steadily at the female Danu . “If you had full control of those devices, could you destroy the nukes without damaging the triumvirate vessels?”

The Danu nodded.

“You have all gone mad! I'm going to die surrounded by insane people.” Villas looked at Ryan. “Have you gone insane too? That's the only reason I can think of as to why you're grinning.”

“Is it possible to reprogram the escape pods to go the other direction, towards the enemy vessel?”

“You are thinking of converting them into missiles? It is an easy task but I fear, a wasted venture. No ordinance stored aboard my ship is strong enough to penetrate their armour.”

“That isn't my intention. Set about reprogramming them I need them all ready as soon as possible. Todd. Can you take me to where there are stored?”

“You're going to attempt to board that ship!”

He smiled back at Bernadette. “There is no other option. It's either that or we all wait for that warship to murder us.”

“Follow me.”

Todd took Ryan into a separate chamber. “Villas is right, you know. This is insanity.”  He pulled down a grey lever and several wall panels slid back. “Are you sure you want to do this?” The cavities contained coffin shaped capsules. Todd pulled open the lid of the nearest capsule.

“Of course I don't want to do this.” He climbed into the capsule. “I also don't want to die.” Ryan paused. “That goes for you lot too.”

“Even Villas?”

Ryan grinned. “Yeah. Even Villas.” He laid down and fought away the sudden claustrophobia as Todd pulled the lid into place and sealed it. Within seconds, Ryan was blasted away from the Danu ship and accelerating towards the warship.

The escape pods had limited controls, it didn't need navigation arrays or any way to defend itself but the escape pods did possess advanced proximity sensors as well as a basic AI. Thanks to Ryan's rather unique skill-set, the AI bent over backwards to help Ryan activate the warship's docking mechanism as well as to instruct the ship's weapons to avoid firing on Ryan.

He felt the warship's docking lasers lock into the outer hull and his heart pounded hard against his chest as the lid slowly unsealed. He might have been able to hide the escape pod from the warship's computers but he had no control over the crew. If any of them were in the hanger bay then he was dead.

The lid fell away and landed on the deck beside the capsule. “I should have brought a weapon,” he muttered. “Why didn't I bring a gun?” Ryan peered over the capsule's edge and found himself alone. The hanger was devoid of life. “What the hell?” Ryan quickly climbed out and placed his feet in the deck. He turned around, scanning the interior. Ryan believed that this hanger hadn't seen life, human or otherwise, for millennia.

He crouched and ran his finger through the thick dust which covered everything but his capsule. “How could I have been so stupid?” Just like those mechs this ship had probably been in storage for countless aeons. He doubted the marauders were even aware it existed. “If that's the case, then who is flying this ship?” Computer, can you state life-form inventory and approximate location?

“One life-form. Evolved bipedal mammal. Ship's main bridge.”

“Is this life-form aware of me?”

“Unknown.”

“Life-form” he spat. Like Ryan didn't already know who was up there. “Computer, can you show me the quickest route to the main bridge?”

A moment later a section of wall beside Ryan lit up and displayed a simple map. He memorized the route, nodded to himself then set off, still wishing that he had brought a weapon. Still, he did have the element of surprise and Ryan might yet find something on the way, even if he only found a metal pole. You could inflict a lot of damage with a metal pole and after the trauma of the last few hours, bashing someone's brains in with a blunt instrument might actually be rather therapeutic.

“Attention. Intruder alert. Auto-repellent systems now active. Clean-up protocols now on standby.”

Ryan went cold.He stopped dead and flattened his back against the full grey bulkhead. He held his breath and watched, terror-stricken as a three silver globes, each one the size of his head dropped from a hidden panel above his head. Razor-sharp flat hooks and round spikes covered their surfaces. The devices stopped in front of his face and rotated ninety degrees. Their AG fields kept those murderous looking objects perfectly steady. Beads of sweat dripped off his forehead. He watched their progression as they splashed into the deck by his feet. Ryan prayed that these things weren't sensitive enough to pick up the sound.

They moved a little closer. Those hooks and spikes were almost touching his nose! Then without warning, all three devices raced down the corridor and vanished around the corner. He counted slowly to ten before breathing a sigh of relief. What had he done wrong? Ryan honestly believed the computer was on his side. “You traitorous bitch,” he growled.

Ryan silently hurried along the corridor, following the direction the three globes took. He wasn't totally sure he would respond if they confronted him again. Ryan decided to cross that bridge when he come to it. Reaching the command deck and stopping that insane bastard from destroying his friends took precedent over everything including his safety.

The alarms abruptly stopped. He stopped too, a metre before reaching the corridor junction. Ryan stated in utter confusion at the sight of a rectangular grey box which had just pushed out of the wall. The box opened. “Okay, just what the hell is going on?”

The box contained a selection of hand weapons. Their large dimensions indicated that they hadn't been designed for human hands. That didn't stop him from picking one out.

“Computer, why have you given me access to these weapons?”

“My sensors detected that you were unarmed.”

“But, I thought you were trying to kill me?” Before the computer had time to respond, Ryan jumped when an ear-piercing scream blasted down the corridor. Ryan pelted around the corner. The sounds of agonized moaning reached his ears and the noise increased in volume, the closer he got to the next open door.

He activated the had weapon and sneaked a look into the room. “Oh no!” The Deck Commander lay in an ever widening lake of blood with the three spherical devices hovering above him. His torso, arms and legs were a bloodied mess. Those things really had done a number on him. It looked like he'd been attacked by a tiger.

The dying man's eyes flicked away from the devices. His gaze met Ryan's. “Call them off,” he croaked. “Please, call off your dogs!”

He screamed again when the devices started to move closer to his undamaged face. Those evil things were taking their time, like they were savouring the moment. Ryan ran inside. He aimed his hand weapon at one of the devices and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened! The knives began to ocilate. They had almost reached the man's flesh. He fired again but the weapon still refused to respond. Ryan rushed forward. “Get away from him,” he shouted. “Go on. Shoo!”

Amazingly, all three devices rise into the air and their spikes and hooks retracted into their bodies, leaving a mirror smooth surface. He tried to stay perfectly still when the three globes floated towards him. They brushed past his hips then shot away, through the open doorway.

Ryan over to the Deck Commander. He dropped to his knees and took the man's hand. His skin was freezing. “Hang on, there's bound to be a medkit somewhere. You stay with me while I go…” He tried to stand up but the man tightened his grip.

“Forget it. I'm beyond saving. I'm not sure that I want to live, not after what I've done.” The Deck Commander pulled Ryan closer. “My time is running out. You need to promise me something.”

“I promise. Look, let's just get you to…”

“You're not fucking listening!” he growled. “He has my daughter. The Marshall Governor. The one who controls the marauders in this system. The bastard said he'd kill her slowly if I didn't do his bidding. I was weak.I can see that now.” The man broke off to cough, spraying blood over the back of Ryan's hand. “He wants you Ryan. You have to get out of here. You have to…”

The Deck Commander's muscles locked. He arched his back then his body went limp. Ryan closed the man's eyes then stood up. “I'm sorry about your daughter,” he murmured. “We might have done something to help her if you had only listened.” Ryan scanned the interior, looking for something which looked like a comms console. Nothing he saw fitted the description. “This is unreal. would it be so difficult to label stuff? Computer. Can you scan the triumvirate ship's and detect whether the base is still being targeted? Also, there's a small Danu craft accelerating away from the red planet. Can you try to establish contact?”

“The triumvirate fleet is preparing to launch missiles into the red planet's atmosphere. Contact with the Danu ship is being blocked. The missiles are now in launch sequence. This ship and the small Danu craft will be destroyed by the shockwaves.”

“What!” he cried. “Are they insane? We need that base more than ever. The bastards are committing suicide.” He ran over to the doorway. “Computer. Is there anything on This ship which will stop those launches?”

“Negative.”

“Then find someone on that fleet who's willing to speak to me. They need to know what they're doing is wrong!”

“Contact with the Triumvate fleet is being blocked.”

“You must be joking. Why would the Triumvate try to block us?”

“It is not the Triumvate who is blocking the signal.” The computer's voice fell silent.

Ryan looked up, sure that he had spotted movement in the corner of the room. Another security device coming online? He took a step back.

“Attention. Eight thousand singularities have opened within this spacial region.”

“What?” he cried. “Can you show me?”

A security globe rushed into the room and stopped in front of Ryan's face. The globe flattened into a cuboid then expanded in both directions. A moment later the mirrored reflection vanished and Ryan watched as every usable marauder vessel fly through the singularities.

“The Triumvirate commanders have already decided to fight despite being outnumbered two hundred to one. The Danu have calmly informed the commanders that their current stock drones will only last a couple of minutes. Even at optimum killrate, they will only take out a tenth of those ships.”

He spun around. “Bernadette! I thought you were on the Danu vessel?”

“The Triumvirate fleet is powering up their engines. The commanders are going to try and lure the enemy close to the planet's atmosphere. The Velicion scientists have devised a technique that will increase the yield of the nukes.”

“And they'll use them to destroy the marauder ships?”

She slowly shook her head. “No. The nukes are still heading for Mars. Ryan, they're going to blow up the planet, thinking the detonation will destroy the enemy fleet!” She held up her hand. Don't bother, Ryan. I can already see the question you're about to ask. Yes, it will most likely destroy the enemy as well as wiping out the entire Triumvirate ships but that's not the point.”

He understood the implications alright. Ryan wasn't afraid to die. “Fine, then they blow up Mars. If it's the only option.”

“Have you not learned anything since leaving the blueworld? If course there's another option, Ryan. You just need to open your eyes and start absorbing instead of looking for the path which doesn't look like it's going to kill you.”

“What does that even mean?”

She clicked her fingers and the remaining two globes rushed into the rooms. They stopped beside their altered companion. She clicked her fingers and the weapons shot out. Bernadette clicked her fingers again and the weapons retracted. “That's what I mean. The only reason they responded to my commands is because of you, Ryan. Your presence alone turned three of the most effective killing machines ever devised into playful puppies, and you didn't even know.” She sighed loudly. “That's what I mean.”

Ryan blinked. He looked at Bernadette, then at the two inactive globes before turning his attention to the monitor. “Computer. Are the systems on this vessel compatible with the systems on the thousands of vessels now approaching Mars?”

“Affirmative.”

“What are you doing?”

Ryan gave the woman a tight smile. “Computer. I want you to establish face to face screen communication with whoever is in direct control of that vast armada.”

The Screen suddenly went black. Ryan heard a mass of alien voices. It sounded like hundreds of children screaming simultaneously. He clasped his hand against his ears then slowly pulled them away when the voices transformed into a single voice. He heard something barking out orders. The monitor now displayed the interior from another grey room. It could be showing the interior from any one of the areas from this ship with the exception that the room in the monitor contained another creature not too dissimilar to his Velicion friend. So this thing was the big boss? The creature in charge. A living specimen of the first terrestrial sentient race?

“I am the one you seek. I am Ryan. I order you to stop the attack,” he said.

The creature released a sound which reminded Ryan of somebody eating soup.

“The marauder governor is laughing at you. Might I advise not to threaten a sentient carnivore? Their reaction will be impossible to predict.”

“If you do not call off your attack, I shall destroy every ship in your fleet.”

The creature made the same noise again. “You amuse me, and because of this, if you surrender immediately, my soldiers will only eat half of your crew.”

“Computer. Cut transmission.” He waited for the Screen to go black again before continuing. “Computer . I want you to trigger the self-destruct sequence on all their ships. Set the detonation for one minute starting now.” He smiled at Bernadette. “Looks like you were wrong. I have learnt something.”

Ryan heard a soft beep.

“The Marshall Governor is demanding to speak with you.”

“Oh? Let's make him wait a bit longer.”

“There is another option.”

He spun around and found himself facing yet another hologram. A female Danu. “Who are you?”

“My race call me Lady Light. I have many other names but that is irrelevant.”

“I think you had better get on with telling me all about this other option before I totally lose my mind.” He sneaked a glance at Bernadette. “Wait, do I really want to hear this?”

The Danu entity walked up to him and took Ryan's hands. “They have no idea of their origins. Only the Empire's inner circle have a clue about their true origins and none of them know the location. Ryan.”

“Right, so I can use this information as some kind of bargaining chip?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry but there’s no easy way to say this. You need to offer yourself to them.”

“That's insane!” he burst out. “Those evil bastards would slice me up and serve my bits with wine. I wouldn't last a day.”

The entity shook her head, still smiling. “It is the only way to start the difficult but vital process of unification. The Dionapters are fighting an unknown but powerful enemy yet despite their numbers and superior technology, they are still losing. The war is heading this way, Ryan. Only by working together, will the children of the Blueworld be strong enough to defeat them.”

Bernadette moved closer until she was standing beside him. “You have to believe me, Ryan. He will not harm you. The governor is fully aware of your value and thanks to your little demonstration,  now knows of your capabilities. The governor will try to use you to further his standing. While he is trying to manipulate you, Ryan, you have to do the same to him.”

“Are you sure that this is the only way?”

Both women nodded.

“Fine. Let’s do this your way. Computer. Contact the Triumvate fleet and ask them to wait for further instruction then tell the enemy governor that I’m ready to listen to his surrender terms.”

“It is time to prepare yourself, Ryan,” said Bernadette. “Your life is about to become very interesting.”

Epilogue

She was the first to arrive. This did not bother Lady Light, nor did it surprise her. She took her place inside the small golden chamber and watched as the warm rays from the morning sun caught the many Kablinak Gem clusters, embedded into the crafted stonetree blocks. It pleased her that the Era of Contact had occurred during her time of choosing. It made the potentially future uncomfortable talks with her fellow entities a little easier.

This should be a time of rejoicing. It was probable that the fracture could soon be healed and yet, Lady Light could not shake the feeling that, despite all their preparations, their guidance and predictions, one or all of them had missed a puzzle piece.

Lady Light hurriedly composed her face when the Velicion entity solidified. He gave the Danu a single respectful nod before taking his place directly opposite her. The Dionapter entity solidified, already seated in his chair and finally, the last of their kind, the Human entity appeared. She took her place in the last chair.

A spheroid image appeared in the middle. It cleared to show several moons orbiting a ringed planet. Hundreds of city-sized Dionapter attack vessels passed one of the moons when it separated into millions of smaller pieces. Each piece powered up and smashed into one of the huge spacecraft. Some of the attack vessels had time to retaliate but it was a futile gesture. Within the space of several seconds all that remain of the Dionapter vessels were a couple of burning hulks.

“This ridiculous plan of yours better work, Danu,” snarled the Dionapter. “My people are dying in their millions.”

“Have faith, my brother,”

“If I did not have faith, your people as well as the filthy Danu would be attached to meat hooks, ready to be dropped into our repurpose vats.”

The Danu leaned forward. “So typical of your species. You are just a base animal.”

The Dionapter leered. “Your favourite kind.”

“Enough bickering!” snapped the human. “We all agreed on this plan and we are all fully aware of the stakes involved.” Bernadette waved her hand. The image changed to showing the two Marauder ships moving closer. “It begins!”

“May the spirit of Taylish protect you,” said Lady Light.

The End

Table of Contents

- The Martian Dragons
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Epilogue