Revelations Discovery Anthology Volume 1
Author: Rick Graham
Date: 2018-04-25 23:00:00+00:00

Legal Notice

“Revelations: Discovery”

“The Inquisitor’s Justice”

“Family Man”

“Vision From The Stars”

“Artificial Life”

“War’s Fury”

“Shadow of War”

Copyright © 2018 written by Richard Graham. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

This book may not be copied or duplicated in whole or in part via any means including electronic forms of duplication such as audio or video recording or transcription. The contents of this book may not be stored in any retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for any use whether public or private, other than brief quotations contained in articles or reviews which fall under the “fair use” exception, without express prior permission of the author.

First Edition: April 2018

This book is dedicated to God, for without Him I wouldn’t even be on this path…

Acknowledgements

I want to take a quick moment to thank a couple of people that have specifically helped to make this book you have in your hands possible. Without a doubt, my biggest support has been my amazing wife Erin. She has put up with a lot from my creativity in this project and has been more than happy to help in any way she can, even when I am talking about things she has no idea about. She truly is a companion that any man would be extremely blessed and fortunate to have alongside through life. The next person would be my friend Jerry. Even when he has had crazy things going on in his life he still found time to read early drafts, help with online discussions on our Facebook page and more. He is a true friend.

Thank You

To all my patrons who support the growth and development of the Revelations Universe through patreon.com, I want to take a special moment to thank you specifically by name…

Jerry Hahn

Alyssa Taravella

If you would like to add your name to this page, please visit us on Patreon at: www.patreon.com/revelationswar

Welcome to Revelations…

Generations ago all of mankind was under one unified banner, one government. Science excelled, culture expanded, medicine advanced, it was truly the golden age of development and progress. Or so it seemed. Without war and borders to fight over progression occurred on an entirely new level than ever before. But it came at a price. After a thousand cycles of progress those in power began to view themselves as their own saviors and fell into decadence high on their own successes. They lost their edge. They lost perspective.

Those in the core worlds who lived in luxury beyond measure had no idea what monster was brewing on the edges of the colonized borders. Disdain grew for the core worlds as hardships for the ordinary man became more widespread as the insatiable appetite for the wealthy took extremes to higher and higher heights. The gluttonous behavior of the elite spawned rebellion in every corner of the Republic. Riots, terrorism, pirate raids and more became normal across the border worlds as tensions boiled over. An incredibly unique and powerful AI called The Collector, was given the freedom to assist the Republic forces on how to best allocate resources and deal with uprisings.

In just a few short weeks after being tasked with assisting the Republic, The Collector decided that humanity was unsalvageable. Instead of helping to restore the strength of the Republic, The Collector betrayed its creators and unleashed a war to exterminate all of humanity from the stars. In secret it created eight unique children known as The Collection and made them the generals over its massive Synthetic armies. Millions upon millions of lives were lost as world after world fell to the might of the machines.

Within seven short cycles the core worlds along with dozens of other central worlds were purged of all humans. Thankfully, a daring plan had been devised by a coalition assembled from the border worlds that was successful in defeating The Collector and save humanity from the brink of darkness. Delta, one of the Collection’s deadliest generals lead the remains of his away from mankind never to be heard from again.

The Corre Republic was saved but would require over 400 cycles to bring her back to any semblance of her once mighty power. In her weakened state various planets on her edges began to breakaway and form their own governments further weakening the Republic. In the cycle 434 the Prefect Major, lord of all the Corre Republic’s worlds and all their people, secretly launched a campaign to retake every single world lost to the division that followed in the aftermath of the war against the machines. Once more all of mankind will fly one banner, one flag of unity. Science again will flourish, art will regain its splendor, medicine will advance beyond imagination but not until war once again beats her mighty drum. Many battles have yet to be fought, many lives yet to be lost. This war will be brutal, but it will be for the greater good.

This book is a compilation of six short stories set in the Revelations universe. Each story highlights a new character and pits them against an incredible challenge that they must face. The goal of this work is to showcase what it is like to live in the Revelations Universe and how people from all walks of life have to deal with the struggles they encounter.

Story 1: “The Inquisitor’s Justice”              Page 12

Story 2: “Family Man” Page 70

Story 3: “Artificial Life” Page 106

Story 4: “War’s Fury”               Page 143

Story 5: “Shadow Of War” Page 187

Story 6: “Vision From The Stars”Page 219

Glossary

Revelations is set in a universe where humanity does not originate from Earth. As such, some of the terms we use in our daily lives is not quite the same that they use. I have included this section to help you better understand the words and their definitions without it slowing down the pace of the story.

Stonecrete: [stone-creet] Very similar to our modern-day concrete but much stronger and doesn’t break down as poorly with time.

Rotation: Equivalent to our 24-hour day. The length of a rotation is how long it takes any planet to orbit around its star.

Cycle: Equivalent to one cycle of rotations around a star.

Communicator: Similar to a cellphone with even more robust features and capabilities.

Standard: This is the primary language that citizens in the Corre Republic speak. Most other nations have Standard as their main language or at least teach their children so that they can still understand it.

Synthetic: A Synthetic is an Artificial Intelligence (or AI) that controls a humanoid like body that fought in the massive war for survival between the nations of humanity and The Collector.

ANE: After Near Extinction (or more commonly known as ANE) was a new epoch that began to signify humanity’s survival against the Syn Armada.

Cuso: [coo-soe] The currency used in the Corre Republic.

Overloader: Essentially a weapon that creates a small electromagnetic pulse used to temporarily disable electronics.

Prefect Major: The Prefect Major is the leader of the entire Corre Republic. There are many other positions under this rank that assist in ruling, but whatever the Prefect Major says goes. The senate plays the role of the legislative branch of the Republic’s government and can affect policy. While the senate is elected from the planets’ citizens, the Prefect Major is chosen from the other Prefects that rule the 10 prefectures.

Prefect: There are 10 prefectures within the Corre Republic, and one Prefect rules over the worlds within that prefecture.

Governor: A governor is the ruler over a world. There is one governor per world in the Corre Republic.

All Father: The omni-potent all-powerful god of The Will religion. It is said that the All Father created all life and existence. Success, power, strength and dominion is promoted highly in The Will’s holy book.

The Creator: With His voice He created all of existence. The Creator is the godhead of the Light Bringer faith and has been hated for a long time in the Corre Republic as it calls its believers to deny themselves unlike The Will religion that promotes self.

“You have brought down the Republic’s fury upon us! An inquisitor isn’t someone you want on your tail. We better get out of here, now.”

-        Dorso Eldra, crime boss on New Prime just before his sudden death

The Inquisitor’s Justice

Cycle: 434

Prefecture: Quarry

Planet: Assembly

Location: Town of Alachua

A long green lizard ever so slowly crawled under a patchy bush stalking its prey. The bright red shell of the cricker beetle reflected the late afternoon light of Assembly’s orange and red star. As carefully as it could the lizard leaned in close. Clueless to the danger the cricker remained motionless upon its rock. Now within striking distance the lizard slightly opened its mouth, the muscles in its body tensing up for the impending attack. Just then a large black hovercar raced down the street sending dust and small rocks into the air trailing behind it. The lizard dashed to safety as the hovercar continued down the dirt road.

Inside of Debby’s diner two old timers enjoying their lunch at their table next to a window watch the approaching vehicle.

“Sure is a fancy ride.” Gretchin said as he took a sip of his dark brew.

The two older men watched the car as it drove passed the diner’s windows and stopped in front of the town sheriff’s office. As the hovercar came to a quick stop a cloud of dust blew out from underneath the vehicle as it carefully rested on the ground before the engine was cut.

“I’ll betcha a dinner that its some prissy investor from the capital looking to buy the town again.” The other old man said glancing over at his friend.

“I’ll take that bet.” Gretchin said as he took another bite of his meat sandwich.

A tall man wearing all black stepped out from the driver’s side. He moved his belt cape to the side so that it covered the pistol on his right hip. Even from under his body armor and leather outfit the newcomer clearly was in peak physical condition. He closed his door so hard that the two onlookers could hear the muffled whump inside the diner despite the dull roar of the other patrons.

Chuckling at his victory Gretchin smirked. “Looks to me like it’s another one of those government inquisitors.”

Tossing his fork in frustration the other man shouts, “Damn it all!”

Inquisitor Damien Varius took a moment to look around at the town, examining and taking everything in. Various shops and establishments line the main road, some made of old wood others of stonecrete. Several signs with neon lights sit waiting for nightfall. A handful of people about the town stared intently at the inquisitor. As he continued to survey the town Varius saw the two old timers watching him from across the road, the pair looked down at their plates to avoid eye contact.

Varius clenched his jaw as he turned back to the sheriff’s office. The small rocks grate together under each step of the inquisitor’s boots as he walked up the pebble driveway. After stepping up onto the wooden porch, Varius stopped before opening the front door as he listened to a conversation in progress coming from inside.

“I am sick and tired of all these confound missing animal posters. This town knows well enough where they are! From now on, I want you to take any of ‘em you see down.”

“Yes Sheriff” replied the other voice.

Varius didn’t bother knocking. He opened the door to see a very gruff looking man behind a small desk, papers and all sorts of other garbage covered its surface. The other man, clearly one of the town’s deputies, jumped from the door opening.

“And who the hell are you?” the Sherriff asked with a very annoyed look on his face. He leaned forward on his desk and pointed at his unwelcomed guest. “Don’t you know it isn’t polite to just barge in to someone’s place?”

Varius closed the door behind him and turned back to the two men, his leather belt-cape squeaked as he twisted. He stood up to his full height and dusted off his left armored shoulder. “I am Inquisitor Damien Varius.” He pulled out a device from his pocket and a hologram projection displayed his rank, name and badge.

The deputy looked to the Sheriff with a stunned look on his face.

Looking equally shocked, the Sheriff rapidly tried to smooth things over. “Oh well, uh, welcome to Alachua Inquisitor.” The sheriff attempted to stand and shake Varius’ hand but hit his knee. Several pieces of trash fall to the ground from the impact. “Ow! This rotten desk.” He mumbled as he rubbed his knee to be rid of the pain. His old chair wobbled slightly from the cycles of torment under the heavy-set man as he leaned back. “I’m Sheriff Tome and this is my deputy, Jansen Trice.” Deputy Trice raised his hand to half wave.

“Sheriff, I am here to investigate the disappearance of Inquisitor Kopen.”

The sheriff and deputy shared a quick glance at one another. “There was another inquisitor here about seven rotations ago but…” Tome trailed off in thought.

“He left after being here for a day sir.” Trice said resting his hands on his hips.

Varius looked intently at the Sheriff and then at the deputy. “I see. We lost communication with him about five rotations ago.”

“Well, uh…” the deputy sayid trying to search for the right response.

“That’s correct Inquisitor Varius. He was here for two rotations and then left.” Sheriff Tome stated, jumping back into the conversation. “He was looking for some girl from the town Javen up on I-67 I think. As we understood it he didn’t find a good lead here in Alachua”

“That girl is the Governor’s niece.” Varius said, as he observed the Sheriff.

“I do believe he did mention that” Tome replied shifting uneasily in his seat. He pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped away the sweat building on his forehead.

The Inquisitor gently rolled his head, his eyes expertly trained to scan the room without onlookers noticing. Resembling the town outside, the inside of the Sheriff’s office looked ancient with the old wood interior. It was almost pathetic how these townspeople had to live compared to the living conditions of the capital or other wealthy worlds in the Corre Republic. “I need to know what his leads were in your town Sheriff. An inquisitor going missing is not something we take lightly at the bureau.”

“No doubt. Well…” Sheriff Tome sayid as he looked to his lone deputy. “I believe he only had one lead here in town, but I don’t believe he ever mentioned it to us did he Trice?”

“Uh no sir, I don’t believe think he did.”

Varius looked to the side in thought, “I see, well thank…” a knock at the door interrupted the inquisitor.

The door opened to reveal a short little man in a clean white suit. He smiled widely as he extended his hand, his dimpled cheeks extenuated by the neatly trimmed gray mustache. “Howdy. I am mayor White.”

An awkward moment passed as the mayor’s hand hung outstretched with Varius never extending his own.

“I am Inquisitor Varius here on a special investigation into the whereabouts of Inquisitor Kopen. He came to your town about 7 rotations ago.”

The mayor quickly lowered his arm. “Ah, yes. I do remember him. Wore all black, same as you. Kind fellow. I’m sorry to hear about his disappearance.”

“I never said he went missing” Varius said, his left eyebrow raising slightly. The rest of his face was like stone.

“Ha, well…” White looked to the sheriff and then back to Varius. “I only assumed that he was missing or else you wouldn’t have come visit our little humble town so far from the capital.”

“I see” replied the inquisitor, as he straightened back up. “Do you happen to know if he had any leads here in town?”

“No, I’m sorry I don’t. I only spoke with him twice, but he didn’t seem like he wanted to divulge much.” The mayor said, putting his hands into his pockets. “I did know that he was here looking for a Lilly Aurelius. Sadly, a lot of people have gone missing in the nearby towns. Dreadful thing.”

“It’s those damned thugs out in the valley!” Sheriff Tome shouted. “I called the capital about two months ago asking for assistance.”

“He is right Inquisitor Varius. Ever since this terrible drought has set in gangs from all over the place have been a real problem for not just our little town, but several in these parts” The mayor shrugged slightly before continuing. “They have been kidnapping folks and using them for ransom money to buy food. Terrible thing people do when they are starving.”

“And this drought has been the worst we have had in generations” deputy Trice said as he leaned up against the wall.

“Hunger or not, illegal activity will be met with the full extent of the law.” Varius said looking about the room. “I am certain the bureau is aware of your situation and will allocate resources to deal with these criminals.”

“We do sure appreciate any help the capital can spare” mayor White said cheerfully. “Be sure to stop in to the Tory’s diner across the street when you get hungry. She makes an amazing hot sandwich.”

Varius looked back to the Sheriff, “Thank you for your time Sheriff Tome. Mayor, today has been a long trip, where would be the best place to get a room?”

The elderly mayor’s face lit up brightly as he responded, “Oh that would be over at the Gorj’s inn just up the road. It is quaint, but the alcohol is good, and the beds are clean!” Varius squinted slightly at the emphasis of “clean”. He nodded to the mayor who stepped aside to allow the inquisitor to exit the Sheriff’s office.

Varius closed the creaky door behind him and walked down to his car. As he approached, the car unlocked itself. The inquisitor slid in, and once again a cloud of dust blew out from under the hovercar as the fans lifted it off the ground.

He pulled up to the Gorj’s inn and parked next to an old faded green wheeled truck. As the hovercar came to a rest on the dust covered stonecrete parking lot the trunk hatch opened. Varius stepped out of his vehicle and went to the trunk to grab a large black duffle bag. He slung it over his shoulder and approaches the front of the inn.

Before he even reached the porch the door swung open causing him to stop in surprise. A homely looking woman in a red checkered dress stood in the doorway with the biggest smile he had ever seen extending from ear to ear. “Welcome to the Dust Devil Inn!” she exclaimed. “Nice to meet you Inquisitor Varius I am Misses Deborah Gorj. The mayor called us up and said you might be heading over.”

As Varius approached, Mrs. Gorj extended her hand but the inquisitor walked right passed her and entered the inn. Trying not to look insulted Deborah pressed her hand tightly against her dress and closed the door behind her.

Varius stopped several steps into the inn and looked around. A large wooden bar counter, several tables and chairs took up most of the large open area. The stairs to the second floor were in front of him across the room, and the main counter was to his immediate right. He noticed an assortment of knickknacks and other country decorations all about the walls and shelves. It definitely had a rustic feel to it even though the capital was much wealthier and far more modern. Varius felt like he had taken a step back in time the moment he drove into Alachua, and the inn certainly continued this feeling.

Mrs. Gorj began to walk around Varius and motioned with her left hand to the other side of the large room. “We have our own bar downstairs here, got some real good local liquors if you are interested.” She walked behind the front counter before continuing. “We don’t have any food here, but the beds are clean”

Again, Varius squinted at the use of the word “clean” to describe a bed.

A tall gentleman was coming down the stairs as Varius continued to inspect the foyer. “Ah, you must be Inquisitor Varius! Mayor White just called me. I’m Jonnt Gorj the owner here. Sorry I couldn’t have introduced myself earlier, I was getting your room ready.” The inn keeper made his way across the room and extended his hand. It hung there for a moment before Mrs. Gorj leaned over from behind the inquisitor and shook her head. Jonnt lowered his arm awkwardly.

“I’m sure you are mighty tired from your long trip in from the capital. But as I’m sure my lovely misses mentioned we have an a-mazing liquor that will help you sleep like a baby. And if you are up for it…” Jonnt leaned in closer to his guest and lowered his voice. “I can arrange for a “special guest” to meet you in your room later on.”

Varius tilted his head slightly to the right. “I don’t think that will be necessary. I just want to get some sleep this evening.”

Jonnt clapped his hands together and smiled widely. “Then you have come to the right inn my friend!” The inn keeper took a step to the side and motioned to the stairs. “After you.”

After taking several steps towards the staircase Varius noticed a hollow sound in the floor under his boot. He tapped the floor with his boot and looked at Jonnt.

“Oh, that’s our cellar down there. We don’t really use it a whole lot since the drought set in. Been a real shame, a lot of people around here can’t grow anything on their farms.”

Varius continued back towards the stairs and the two men made their way to the second floor.

“Your room will be the second one on the left.” Jonnt said as he squeezed by to open the door for his visitor. “I hope you find it to your liking.”

As Varius got his first look into the room he tried to not show the disappointment on his face. Especially since Jonnt had a very large grin on his.

“I am sure it will meet my needs” Varius said as he stepped into the bedroom. The room continued the same rustic feel of the downstairs foyer. A single-sized bed was dressed neatly with tan sheets and a blue blanket folded at the foot of the mattress. Looking around the inquisitor saw a small table positioned up against the windowsill with two small wooden chairs, a dresser to his right and then a larger cushioned chair in the left corner. He set his bag down on the small table.

“Let us know if you need anything.” Jonnt said as he began to close the door.

“I will. Thank you” replied Varius as he continued looking around the small room.

Just before the door closed the inn keeper stuck his head back in the room. “If you happen to be hungry you can head over to the diner. The menu is a lot smaller because of the drought, but the burgers down there are something special. In fact, I’d say they are to die for”

Varius remained silent and Jonnt got the hint. The door closed, and the inquisitor walked over and locked the door. Moving back over to the table he opened the bag and pulled out a protein bar. After pulling the wrapping apart he took a large bite out of it.

Cycles ago, he learned to always bring food with you on a mission. Being an inquisitor for the Corre Republic meant you would naturally make a lot of enemies as you dispensed judgement in the field. Revenge could take the form of many things, including poison in your food.

Typically, an inquisitor was only sent out once a situation became worse than the local authorities could handle. They were trained in a variety of ranged and close combat techniques, information gathering, negotiating, how to pilot a WarMech, and were taught extensively about the law. Some citizens had come to view the inquisitors as tyrants dispensing their own form of law and order throughout the Republic’s worlds, but that wasn’t how Varius saw it. If someone didn’t maintain order than chaos would reign supreme. Yes, because of his oath to the Republic, his word was law. Many had died because of his judgements against them. Yet, he didn’t wield this power loosely. The law was the law.

He took another bite out of his protein bar and peered out the window. Several wheeled vehicles pass one another on the dusty street below his window as they went about their business.

Varius turned to look at the bed and shook his head. Instead, he decided to rest in the cushioned chair in the corner. As he lowered himself down into the chair he was pleasantly surprised to notice the chair was incredibly comfortable.

“Hmm” he said aloud to no one. Leaning back in the chair he rested his head on the cushioned neck support. Within moments he drifted off to sleep.

“Daddy!” a tiny voice called out in the darkness.

Varius opened his eyes to find himself in bed in a much larger bedroom. The walls were a clean white and the whole room felt like something familiar.

Suddenly the door burst open and a small pigtailed girl ran into the room. She hopped up on the bed and did her best to crawl over to Varius.

She propped herself up on her knees and smiled. “Daddy! Daddy! Look what I made for you”.

Varius reached out and took the handmade multi-colored bracelet. A small purple heart shaped charm hung off it in the center. “Thank you honey. You did such a good job.” Varius said admiring his gift.

The smile on his daughter’s face seemed to literally light the room up even more. “I know you have to leave for work again, and I wanted you to remember me.”

Taken aback by the heartfelt comment Varius said, “Baby, I could never forget you. I love you too much.”

Just then, a dark shaped figure stood in the doorway. Varius saw the threat but couldn’t move his body. The man was dressed in Republic fatigues and had his face covered by a black mask.

“Keyla, run!” Varius shouted out in anger. But she didn’t, instead she pointed at the bracelet.

“Do you like the pretty colors daddy? Mommy helped me pick them out.”

“Keyla! Run, go now!” The man walked into the room and raised a gun.

Trying with all his might Varius fought to move his body, but it simply could not respond.

“Raaaaah!” the inquisitor screamed out in rage as the man fired his weapon.

Varius awakened to find himself back in the dingy bedroom at the inn, but it was now nighttime. Standing before him were two hooded figures, the front one holding a knife. The two attackers froze in place by the inquisitor waking up at such an inopportune time unsure of whether they should run or press the attack.

With his training taking over his body, Varius instinctively kicked out with his right boot into the front attacker’s shin causing a nasty crunching sound. The man cried out in pain and fell to the ground. As Varius stood up the other attacker tried to hit him with some kind of blunt object. Instead, the inquisitor used his right elbow to catch the attacker’s arm at the forearm preventing the strike. Tightening his left hand into a fist, Varius’ glove hardened at the knuckles. Lashing out with his own attack, the inquisitor punched with his left arm four times into the attacker’s ribcage.

Backing into the wall behind him, the second attacker held his ribcage from the pain. After regaining his courage, the first attacker got back up.

Taking a step back, Varius spots the knife in the right hand of the first man and readies himself for the coming attack. The first man tried to ignore the pain in his leg as he lashed out with the knife. Varius twisted to the right and caught the attacker’s arm with his own, locking it tight. He chopped the attacker in the throat with his right hand.

The man dropped the knife and limped backwards slightly, both hands on his throat. Varius stepped forward, flicked his wrist activating a hidden blade under his right forearm to pop out. It locked in place just as the inquisitor struck the other man’s chest five times. The hooded attacker fell to the ground gurgling on his own blood.

Watching his partner get quickly dispatched by the inquisitor, the second man decided to run out the door and down the stairs. Varius switched the blade back into hiding and pursued the fleeing attacker.

As he stormed down the stairs Varius heard Mrs. Gorj call out from behind the bar, “Hey, is everything okay up there?” Getting to the bottom of the stairs Varius saw the front door wide open and attacker running down the driveway. He runs full speed forward and followed the other man down the street.

The attacker looked behind him as he is ran to see the inquisitor in pursuit. With renewed energy he continued down the road for another block before turning down an alley. Varius ran up to the alley and drew his pistol. He cautiously peaked around the corner.

The building’s siding exploded in front of Varius’ face as the fleeing man shot a pistol several times at his pursuer. Varius replied in kind as he fired his own pistol. The bullets narrowly missing his target. Deciding he has had enough the hooded man ran behind a building to his left. Varius carefully moved down the alley, ready to respond with his weapon. As he rounded the corner of the building Varius watches a red hovercar drive up at the end of the alley ahead of the fleeing man. Varius sprints after the vehicle but the attacker hops in the hovercar. It speeds off sending trash and dirt into the air.

“Raaaawh!” In his anger Varius kicked a trashcan over spilling out old smelly produce. With no trace to follow of his attacker Varius made his way back to the inn.

The sheriff’s wheeled cruiser sat out front of the old inn, lights flashing. A small group had gathered out front, some gossiping others recording with various communication devices. Varius shook his head as he ducked beneath the warning tape surrounding the front porch of the inn.

Sheriff Tome spotted the approaching man from inside through a window and made his way to the door to intercept him.

Varius didn’t get three feet in the door before the Sheriff started yelling. “Can you tell me just what the blast happened here?”

Not appreciating the accusing tone, Varius glared at the sheriff. “I was attacked in my room by two hooded men.”

Mrs. Gorj was behind the front counter holding a tissue, her makeup around her eyes smeared from her crying.

“This here is a quiet town. We haven’t had a murder in these streets in over 30 cycles!” exclaimed the Sheriff as he angrily put his hands on his hips as if scolding a small child.

The inquisitor looked at the older man with a deep stare that weakened the Sheriff’s face some. “Do you doubt my word?” Varius inquires.

“Look, I know you inquisitor types are all about law and order. But all I know is that I saw the one guy you took care of upstairs. He looks like a fricking piece of meat with how many times you stabbed him” The sheriff points angrily up towards the stairs.

“Tell me Sheriff, what is really going on around here?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tome asks as he crosses his arms in defiance.

“Inquisitor Kopen was here 7 rotations ago and has now gone missing. Within hours of being in my room I was attacked by two men. As I pursued the second a getaway hovercar drove up and helped the second flee the scene.” Varius looks deeply into the other man’s eyes with an inner anger burning inside of him. “You tell me this is a quiet town, but it sure seems like there are assassins here!”

Tome looks away and bit his lower lip. “You big capital guys sure think you know what it’s like out here in the wasteland don’t ya?”

Now it was Varius’ turn to be confused. He shakes his head as if he doesn’t understand the pointless conversation. “Sheriff, we don’t have time for your socio-economic problems. Have you ID’ed the man upstairs?”

“He is going to the town morgue right now and we will figure things out.”

“Call me when you hear something then.” Varius reached into his pocket, pulled out his card and flicked it at the Sheriff as he walked away. The card floated to the ground as Tome’s face turned beat red in anger.

The last few hours of darkness passed without any more disturbances. As the system’s star rose into the sky, the small bedroom began to light up. Varius slowly raised himself up from the bed. The lights from Sheriff Tome’s cruiser disappeared about an hour ago. A cloth covered the pool of blood where the dead man had laid.

Mrs. Gorj had offered to give the inquisitor a different room but he declined the offer. He had been attacked and had no lead of who might be responsible. Maybe if he waited long enough someone would try again and this time he could get some answers. If nothing else, this particular room was probably safe since the attackers had to come into the room to get him. If it had been rigged with explosives they would have already used them.

He reached over to the small nightstand and picked up a bottle of water he had brought along with him and took a swig. While he figured nothing would happen again with so many witnesses out front he didn’t want to take a chance and had stayed awake straight through the night.

He stretched his arms up over his head while walking over to the window by the small table and opened the old blinds. The sun streaks came through the blinds revealing thousands of dust particles dancing in the air. His eyes squinted slightly at the extra light coming through the dirty glass.

From his vantage point the inquisitor watched for a moment as the townspeople went about their daily business. It never ceased to amaze him watching ordinary people live their lives. The vast majority of the population on any world go about their day as if nothing big is going on elsewhere in the Republic.

Wars were raging across a dozen worlds since the Prefect Major who fancies himself an emperor announced the reformation of the Corre Republic and all of her lost worlds. The Republic had war groups either invading or were being positioned for invasion of various bordering nations to retake the worlds that succeeded nearly 400 cycles ago.

Ironically, the biggest battle in hundreds of cycles was unfolding at this very moment and a high-ranking inquisitor had been attacked in some rinky-dink area of Assembly. These farmers and townsfolk went about their day clueless of the death and destruction unfolding across the stars.

Varius shook his head at the cosmic irony. He unzipped his duffle bag and rummaged around. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed his boots were extremely dirty from last night’s pursuit. He leaned down to wipe a smudge of mud off his boot just then the glass where his head had been exploded inward. Reacting instinctively, Varius dove to the ground and rolled away from the window. Several more shots burst through the wall. The inquisitor crawled over behind the bed knowing that the attacker wouldn’t be able to see him there.

Ever so carefully Varius poked his head up to attempt to see the shooter. Across the road a large red building had a perfect vantage point to his window. He spotted an open window but couldn’t really see inside. It certainly had good conditions for a sniper to attack from. A bright flash lit up the windowsill across the street. Varius ducked down just in time as puffs of material from his bed shot into the air.

His face now turning bright red from rage that he found himself at the center of another attack, Varius drew his pistol and fired five shots at the window across the street. It was difficult to see, but it seemed as if a shape of a man threw their hands into the air as if they had been hit by the return shots. Varius ducked back just in case waiting for a response from his attacker. His heart beat loudly in his ears as he forced himself to calm down.

After a few moments of silence Varius decided to crawl over to the door. He threw the door open and rolled out into the hall. As he got up and make for the stairs he could hear several people down in the foyer shouting to one another trying to figure things out.

“Did he get him?” Mrs. Gorj screamed. Her eyes became very wide for just a split second when she saw the inquisitor with gun drawn coming down the stairs. Something about her face seemed odd to Varius, and he made a mental note to speak with her when he came back for his bag.

He opened the door and tried to poke his head out to see if the shooter had a line of fire to the door. Nope.

Several people that had been on the street before the attack were hiding behind vehicles or building walls, some ran here and there seeking better shelter. Varius sprinted from the front porch of the inn and made a beeline across the street to the outer wall of the red building. He half expected the attacker to shoot at him crossing the dirt road, but perhaps he did hit him earlier.

A young woman in a plaid green dress that had pressed herself up against the wall screamed when the inquisitor approached her.

“I’m not going to hurt you” he said, but her eyes didn’t believe him.

Varius slowly looked around the corner at the window. Nothing.

He carefully watched the window as he moved for the front door of the building, his gun held up just in case. He opened the door and checked the corners as he entered. An old bearded man was hiding behind a chair in the corner of the room.

“Are you the only one in the room?” Varius asked half pointing his weapon at the cowering man.

“Y…yes” he replied shaking in fear.

“Where are the stairs to the second floor?”

The old man pointed to his left. “Down the hall and around the corner.”

Being an inquisitor meant that you found yourself in all sorts of dangerous situations. Typically, on your own. Sure, the higher ups may send you some Republic Troopers, but those brutes didn’t have a whole lot of finesse in instances like this. Varius knew that in this town he was being targeted. He had authority to kill anyone he deemed a threat, and some inquisitors would simply start shooting a town like this up to get out. But being so blatantly aggressive would only add to the number of attackers he would be up against.

Hoping that his judgement of the hiding man wasn’t wrong, Varius moved further into the building and began walking down the hall. The air was musty, and the paint of the hall was peeling in some spots. Alachua was clearly a town suffering from Assembly’s long drought. Right now, his concern had to be focused on dealing with this attacker and getting his bag back. Then he was going to go to the Sheriff’s office and have a long chat about the lack of security in this hell hole.

Coming to the end of the hall Varius saw a doorway opening that revealed a stairwell. Keeping his weapon at the ready he ever so carefully began walking up the creaky stairs. His heavy boots made a muffled thump with each step.

As he reached the door to enter the second floor he tried to quietly open the door with this left hand. The door swung open to a long hallway with doors on either side. Some of the rooms were closed and others were opened.  He didn’t say anything, but his heart sank slightly at seeing so many potential places to be attacked from as he would have to clear each room on his own. Maybe the troopers would have been helpful.

He placed his right shoulder up against the hallway and moved to check the first room on his left. The door was opened halfway and just before Varius kicked it in and cleared it he could hear coughing and gurgling coming from further down the hall.

Walking with deliberately quiet steps he moved up to a closed door on his right.

“Ah…” a voice groans from inside the room followed by a bloody cough.

“Can’t believe tha’ bastard shot me!”

Varius reached up to the door handle and twisted it slowly. He threw the door open, sees the man on the floor, and then clears his corners. The man was laying on the floor in a pool of blood looking up towards the ceiling. Aiming his pistol at the man Varius carefully entered the room. A hunting rifle laid on the ground beside the blood.

“Jonnt, is that you?” the man asked as he tried to roll to see who it was.

Varius was shocked to see the man’s face. “Sheriff Tome?” he asked.

“Ho…it’s you.” Sheriff Tome said as he laid his head back on the floor looking up.

Blood gushed from a chest wound that the sheriff was trying to cover with his hands. His face had already gone pale.

“Why did you attack me Sheriff?”

“I’m not tellin’ you nothin’!” Tome hissed before having another coughing fit.

Varius knew time was short, and that Tome would die soon. He got down on one knee while keeping his body positioned to defend if someone came in from the door.

“Sheriff, do you know what happened to inquisitor Kopen?”

“I already told you boy. I’m not tellin’ you anything.”

Looking away from the dying man, Varius thought about his options. “Here’s the deal Sheriff. You can go quickly, or I make the last few moments of your life terrible.”

Tome pulled together his strength and stretched up towards Varius’ face.

“I’m not tellin’ you…” he was cut off as Varius backhanded his face sending blood spattering across the room and the wall.

“I don’t have time for your defiance Sheriff. I am here to find Kopen and you will help me, or I will have this entire town fire bombed and burned to the ground.”

That got his attention. Tome looked back up at the inquisitor. “You wouldn’t…”

“I would, and will. Now, tell me!”

“I can’t.”

Varius squinted slightly. “Why not?”

Tome coughs more blood up. “Wooooh” he rolls to the side in agony clutching his chest tightly.

Varius reaches down and twists the sheriff back towards him. “Tome” he said as he looked into the dying man’s fading eyes.

“I have one regret Inquisitor.”

“…What’s that?”

“That I wasn’t a better shot” Tome said as he began to laugh to himself.

Varius stood up and aimed his pistol at the sheriff’s head. The laughing stopped as the sound of the shot filled the room. Knowing he only had one lead left, but not knowing how many others of the town’s folk were set to come after him, Varius decided he needed to keep to himself until he could get his bag back.

He made his way back to the inn and tried to remain calm as he opened the door. Mrs. Gorj peaked up from behind the front counter. Several others slowly stood up from hiding, no one said anything.

Holding his pistol down by his right side, Varius scanned around the room being sure to make eye contact with everyone to see if someone was going to go for a gun. No one moved.

Going up the stairs he went straight to his room without saying a word. The bag was right where he left it before the attack. He holstered his firearm, and reached inside. He found a small tin container and held it for a moment in thought. Removing the lid Varius pulled out a multi-colored bracelet with a heart charm on it. He slid his left hand through the stretch band forming the bracelet and tucked it beneath his black sleeve. Zipping the bag up, he slung it over his left shoulder and walked out of the room.

As he came down the stairs all eyes were again back on him. No one dared make any sudden moves. Many stories of the fury of inquisitors were told throughout the Republic’s worlds. Even backwater folks like these knew better than to provoke Varius’ wrath even further.

Just before going outside Varius stopped and turned to Deborah Gorj. “Thank you for your hospitality.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He left enough cash to cover the cost of his room. “Ma’am, I was wondering, where is your husband? I haven’t seen him through all of this craziness.”

Her eyes got wide before she caught herself and tried to act normal. “Oh, he…he came down with a dreadful cold. Been in bed all night”

Varius nodded and smirked slightly. “I’m sure he has. Oh, by the way…”

Deborah stood absolutely still unsure of what was about to happen.

“You were right. The bed was clean.” With that, the inquisitor exited the inn. He loaded his bag into the back of his hovercar and drove down the road heading for the edge of town.

Hours passed and the night came before Varius snuck back into Alachua. He decided that if the sheriff was dirty, then there was a good chance even more were involved in the disappearance of Inquisitor Kopen. What didn’t make sense is what the group of attackers could have been after. It wasn’t for ransom money, because they were trying to kill him. Kopen must have found something else while looking for the missing girl. Something terrible enough that the townspeople made him disappear.

Before leaving his hovercar outside of town Varius went to his trunk. He put on his armored helmet that while he wasn’t a fan of wearing anything that encased his face he knew the added benefits of the helmet in the dark would be worth the discomfort. He also grabbed his 7A Commando Rifle. The biggest benefit of the laser rifle was that it could condense into a smaller size and become less cumbersome when not in use. The inquisitor reached up and connected the rifle to his back armor magnetically as it folded up. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. After grabbing several more magazines of ammunition he slammed the trunk.

He remained unnoticed on his trek back into town on foot as he moved from shadow to shadow.

Finding a nice dark hiding place up on the roof of the dentist’s office across the street to the inn he could keep an eye on Jonnt’s truck sitting below. Even though it was night the town didn’t seem to slow down as work traffic had turned into people heading this way or that to go to dinner or see a show.

The inquisitor got comfortable in the shadows knowing he could be there a while. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long before his target finally exited the inn. While remaining in the dark, Varius leaned forward and activated the night vision function in his helmet’s heads up display, or HUD, and zoomed in. Mr. Gorj was holding his side with his left hand while the other hand was holding a communication device up to his ear.

“What do you mean you can’t find him?” Jonnt said angrily as he walked up to his truck. “I told you to keep your people trailing him until he was outside of town!” he shouted angrily as he pounded the hood of the truck with his left arm. Jonnt winced in pain. “That damned inquisitor broke my ribs.”

Varius used the helmet’s function that allowed him to hack into the transmission between communication devices and listen in.

“I’m sorry Mr. Gorj” said a man’s voice Varius didn’t recognize. “We found his hovercar, but he isn’t here. His tracks show him heading back towards town though.”

“I want you and your boys to find him quickly. I don’t want him snooping around here anymore. I’m heading to the slaughterhouse, meet up with me later tonight” the inn keeper said as he climbed into his dented truck and turned on the ignition.

Drawing his pistol Varius connected an attachment to the side of his pistol. As Jonnt backed his truck up into the street and began to drive away, Varius aimed his weapon and pressed a button on the side with his left thumb that launched a very small tracking device. It hit the backend of the truck and grabbed hold magnetically. Jonnt looked up in his rearview mirror but shrugged figuring it was a rock or something and kept on driving.

On the bottom left of his heads-up display Varius watched as a small screen appeared with a small map and a glowing red dot. He changed the settings of his HUD so that it would display the direction and distance to his target. The inquisitor made his way down from the roof and continued staying in the shadows as he followed Jonnt to his destination.

Varius followed the inn keeper to the East side of town. Hiding behind a large piece of farm equipment he looked around the side of it and spotted the dented truck. On the other side of the truck was a long brown two story stonecrete structure. The hand painted signage on the front read, “Al’s Slaughterhouse”. A small light sat above the lone entrance revealing a lone man holding a scattergun standing watch.

Picking up a stick from the ground, Varius snapped it loudly. The guard heard the noise and slowly walked out into the darkness to investigate. He turned the light-torch mounted on his scattergun and shined it at a group of trees and then to the farm equipment on his left.

Seeing the light shining in his direction, Varius waited for the man to get closer and then tossed a small rock towards the trees. Hearing the noise off to the right, the man aimed his scattergun at the trees again and brought his weapon’s stock up to his shoulder. The inquisitor ever so silently snuck around the other side of the farming equipment and pulled out the knife mounted on his left shoulder.

The guard thought he heard something from behind him but before he could turn around his life was over. Varius lowered the guard to the ground quietly, and wiped his blade off on the dead guard before sheathing the knife back in its home. He took a moment to inspect the dead man’s face, but it wasn’t Jonnt. Blood gushed from the man’s head as Varius dragged him behind some trees outside the reach of the building’s lone light.

He set his helmet to search for human heartbeats as the inquisitor moved quietly up to the door. Drawing his pistol, he slowly opened the door. After carefully closing the door Varius turned back around and inspected the room. He moved to the left to hide behind a crate while his helmet automatically began to first scan the room and objects in it for information and threats, and then to scan further into the building.

The sound of a saw could be heard off in the distance to his right. Except for any closed doors, his HUD showed him a rough mini map of the first floor almost in entirety. Varius pulled up and examined a path down to the left where a person was located way off in the corner. The lone person was sitting in a chair holding some sort of weapon, but their head was lying up against the wall as if they were asleep. Probably another guard.

He zoomed out and inspected the path to his right that lead to the sawing sound. In the room he could see some sort of table up against the wall, what looked like chains holding up whatever it was the person was cutting and a trash barrel nearby them.

Varius decided to check on the person awake first. Checking his corners as he proceeded forward his helmet continued searching for human heartbeats.

As the inquisitor approached the slaughter room he spotted a pile of bones partially covered in flesh piled up on a table next to a large cauldron. Looking back to the person his helmet continued to show the red silhouette of the person continuing to work on the meat. Turning his attention back to the bones, something seemed off about them. The inquisitor picked one up to inspect it. He tried to think about the domesticated animals on Assembly but the bone just didn’t seem to fit with any. It was much too thin for the large bovines on the world. Yet too long to belong to any of the smaller creatures. Examining the bone, he began to think it was shaped like a femur. But that couldn’t be, that would mean…that’s when he saw it. Using his left hand, he brushed several other bones in the pile aside and pulled out a human skull.

“Cannibals!” Varius screamed in his mind.

Over 400 cycles ago the machine army lead by The Collector, a super powerful artificial intelligence hellbent on killing all humans, humanity came very close to extinction. Once the war was over and the machines defeated, Prefect Major Magnus II pushed hard for an agenda to rebuild humanity from the ravaging attacks that completely exterminated human life on so many worlds. Cannibalism in the Corre Republic was never tolerated before, but it became one of the harshest crimes anyone could commit. Anyone convicted was killed swiftly along with their entire family. Sometimes, depending on the extent of the corruption entire towns were destroyed to make an example out of them.

Before he was about to execute an entire town though, he had to have more proof. Maybe only a few were guilty of this extreme crime.

Setting the bones back down into the pile, he picked up a towel sitting on the table and wiped his gloved hands. He drew his knife and snuck into the room with the butcher. Under his helmet Varius’ face got increasingly angrier as the butcher was busy cutting into what was clearly a human torso. In between sawing, the man could be heard whistling some catchy tune. Without any remorse Varius grabbed the front of the man’s head and held it while he stabbed him at the base of his skull. Instantly the man went limp, but the inquisitor didn’t bother catching him. The body fell forward in a heap. Using his left hand Varius reached down and rolled the dead body over. The man’s face was not someone he recognized.

Again, he wiped his knife off and slid it back into the sheath on his left shoulder. Inspecting his helmet’s map, the sleeping person had still not moved. Exiting the room, he continued to move as silently as he could towards the other person. Stopping just before entering the large room, Varius took a moment to assess the room. It was illuminated by overhead lights and had a bunch of crates and boxes spread throughout the large storage area. In the middle stood a long wooden table with even more boxes loaded up on and around it blocking the view of most of the room. The HUD displayed a red silhouette shape of the man in the corner still sleeping on the other side of the mess.

The inquisitor entered the room and headed straight ahead towards a fireplace that wasn’t in use. Varius would have kept sneaking towards the guard but something caught his eye. Next to the fireplace was a pile of clothes. Some of the clothes looked damaged, as if they were all torn up while others were intact. On the side of the pile though was a patch that appeared as if it has been torn off a shirt. Varius picked up the patch to examine it, on the top was an “I” with a white star with seven points above it.

He looked to his left and pulled his shoulder down so he could examine his own uniform. On the left side of his arm was a dark gray patch with a large white “I” but with three white stars positioned around it signifying his higher rank as an inquisitor. Varius lowered his head for a moment to think about the loss of Kopen. He didn’t know him personally, but it still stung slightly to know a fellow law enforcement brother had been lost.

After tucking the patch into a compartment on his belt, Varius changed his focus to the guard. His helmet alerted him that another heartbeat was detected behind the door. It was feint, and the initial scan seemed like it may have been from a child.

That was when he noticed the sound of someone beginning to cry. The sobbing grew in volume which startled the guard. In anger the guard sprang up and banged on the wooden door several times.

He peered through a grate built into the door and shouted, “Best keep your mouth shut!” With his back unknowingly to Varius, he didn’t see the Republic inquisitor sneaking up behind him.

“If you don’t keep your little mouth shut, you are going to end up visiting the butche…” he never got to finish the threat. The inquisitor flicked his right wrist, activating his assassin blade. Grabbing a handful of the guard’s hair with his left hand, he struck the right side of the guard’s head killing him instantly. Yanking his blade out the body fell to the left, the scattershot sliding across the floor.

He looked through the grate to see a small girl in a torn purple dress tied to a wall with a rope. As the door opened, the child was extremely frightened at the sight of the inquisitor’s black armor and leather outfit and pressed herself tightly into the corner of the room.

Varius slowly approached the girl and knelt down next to her. He looked her up and down and saw how she had obviously been beaten. Between the dirt on her face, her swollen left eye with a fading brownish bruise coloring her cheek and a scabbed over cut on her forehead he was having trouble identifying her.

“Are you Lilly Aurelius?” he asked, his voice sounding slightly synthetic as it came from the speaker built into the front of his helmet. He removed his shoulder knife and cut the rope binding her wrists together.

She did not respond to him. Instead, cowering in fear, she covered her face with her trembling hands.

“I am Inquisitor Damien Varius. I’m not going to hurt you” Varius said as he pointed to himself and then extending his right hand.

Hesitatingly the child slowly reached out her hand to his.

“Are you Lilly Aurelius?”

She looked at him and nodded as her body continued to shake.

“Well what do we have here?” asked a voice from behind.

Varius frozes in place for a moment before standing up slowly and turning around.

Jonnt and his wife Deborah were standing in the doorway. The inn keeper’s face was twisted in anger to see the inquisitor and he gripped the dead guard’s scattergun tightly.

Using his body to shield the child, Varius asked, “How long have you been kidnapping people from the neighboring towns Jonnt?”

“It isn’t what you think Inquisitor!” Deborah said as the two men stared each other down.

“Oh? What is it then?” Varius asked keeping his focus on Jonnt’s scattergun.

“We only did this because the government forgot about us here! People from our town went all the way to the capital here on Assembly to try and get food rations sent to us, but we kept getting ignored. We did all we could to prevent this. Please, you have to understand…” the inn keeper’s wife began to walk into the room to plead further but her husband put his arm out in front of her.

“Deb, this man doesn’t care about our problems.” Jonnt glared at the inquisitor with a deep inner bitterness. “He is just some cog in the machine. Unthinking. Uncaring. We did try to get help sent to us as the drought set in and our crops all died. This is a 1,000 cycle kind of drought. This world wasn’t even colonized last time this happened”

“Why didn’t you leave the area then?” the inquisitor asked.

“And where would we go? The entire planet is in a drought. Not to mention, our ancestors have lived in Alachua for multiple generations trying to build this town into something.”

Varius remained motionless, saying nothing back.

“Heh…” Jonnt looked down and shook his head. “I do wish this would have played out differently.”

“Where is inquisitor Kopen, Jonnt?” Varius asked keeping his tone neutral.

“We didn’t know that little girl was anyone important until he showed up. Decided to keep her locked up until we knew what to do with her. You know, he did seem like a nice guy…for an inquisitor. Always thought all inquisitors would be more like, well, you. No common decency. All that matters is the job.”

“Where is he Jonnt?” Varius needed to know what happened to Kopen, to know what his judgement would be.

“Please, you have to understand…” again Deborah tried to plead but again her husband cut her off.

“Woman! This man doesn’t care about our plight. You want to know where he is? I believe Kopen is at the diner back by the inn. And come to think of it, some of him is probably here too” Jonnt began to laugh to himself.

Varius fought the urge to blast the man in front of him into eternity. Instead, he turned to Deborah and asked, “How many in the town know about what is happening here?”

Jonnt spoke over his wife’s response. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Why not?” Deborah asked, looking to her husband confused.

“Because hun, he wants to know how many are guilty. He isn’t going to let us leave this place” As the inn keeper kept his gaze on the inquisitor, his wife’s eyes got wide in fear. As she spun around to try and run for an alarm button on the wall outside the room Varius drew his sidearm with his right hand. He leaned to the right to avoid the scattergun blast and used his left hand to push Lilly aside.

Jonnt fired his weapon and missed blasting a hole right through the wall. He cocked his gun to fire again but was killed by four shots from Varius. Blood sprayed into the air as his body fell. Deborah managed to hit the red button but before she could turn around she was shot in the back of the head. Her body slammed into the wall and slid to the ground.

A loud shrieking sound boomed from speakers throughout the slaughterhouse and outside. Varius walked back into the room and extended his left hand to help the child up from the ground. “We have to leave this place.”

Lilly reached out and Varius helped her stand. He bent down and lifted her up in his arm. He peaked out from the doorway and checked his HUD for anyone else approaching. Seeing the room was clear he moved out and headed back towards the slaughterhouse’s entrance.

Before opening the front door, bright lights shown through a window as if a vehicle just drove up. Varius could hear the sound of doors opening and closing, and the voices of men that sounded upset.

The inquisitor holstered his pistol and set Lilly down beside him. He opened a pocket on his left thigh and pulled out a thin silver rectangle. Grasping it in both hands he bent it. The rectangle bent back on its own as he placed it vertically on the door near the doorknob and the doorframe meet. The rectangle strip began to glow orange before it faded back to gray. While it cooled it fused together with the door and the frame preventing the door from being opened easily.

Varius picked Lilly back up and drew his pistol again. He searched his map for another exit. He spotted a door down a hallway and one other door back in the storage room. As he headed toward the one down the hallway Lilly turned back startled by the men banging on the door.

With his hands full, the inquisitor kicked the backdoor open and stepped out while holding his pistol up ready to shoot. He checked to the left for enemies. Just then a bullet hit him in the right forearm causing him to drop his pistol from the pain. Thankfully for him, the bullet did little more than bruise his arm. Beneath the outer uniform each inquisitor wore a thin suit that tightens at high impact to help deflect bullets depending on the angle of the hit.

He rushed back inside as more bullets hit the doorway. The alarm continued screaming while Varius passes through the kitchen area as a man with a scattergun rounds the corner in front of him. Spinning quickly and pulling Lilly in towards his core Varius takes the shot to his back. He runs back through the kitchen the way they came and towards the right narrowly missing another shot that punches through the wall.

Running down the hall he turned left and found a room he hadn’t entered yet.

“They went in the tunnel!” a voice shouted from somewhere outside the room.

“Bunker?” Varius thought to himself as he looked around. His HUD detected multiple heartbeats approaching them. He sees a door at the other end of the room. Running quickly out of options, he opened the door to see stairs that lead down to a dirt path lighted by a string of lights along the wall of the tunnel.

Charging down the stairs Varius held Lilly tight and began running once he hit the dirt. The path went on much farther than he could see.

“This was probably used for smuggling around the sinful acts of the slaughterhouse. Exactly how many of the townspeople knew about what was going on with all of the missing citizens from the nearby towns?” he thought to himself.

Lilly pointed behind back down the path, “Uh oh!”

Bullets began to zing passed the fleeing pair. One round made sparks shoot out when it caused a light nearby to explode. Lilly screamed as Varius ducked into a path that lead up to some other staircase. He set the girl down and reached up and removed the laser rifle on his back. As the weapon disconnected from his back it began to unfold and locked into active mode.

He spun around the corner and opened fire. Bright blue beams jetted at his pursuers. Two bolts sliced through a younger man in the chest and upper right thigh. He screamed in pain as he fell. Two other men pressed themselves up against the walls of the tunnel trying to become smaller targets. Varius fired several more shots until his focus was pulled away when his HUD alerted him that two more heartbeats were coming up behind him from the staircase.

He raised his right arm to lock the rifle to his back again. It folded back up just as it reconnected to the magnet. Grabbing Lilly, he bolted out to the right running further down the tunnel just as the door of the staircase flung open.

Varius continued running, his heart pounding, as more and more voices could be heard following behind them. Bullets whizzed passed and suddenly that was when a green laser bolt cut through his left leg passing further down the tunnel until it burrowed into the wall somewhere further on. Clutching Lilly tightly, he caught himself from falling and instead rolled into somewhat of a ready stance.

Another green bolt passed just shy of his helmet. Varius spotted another stonecrete staircase close by. He hobbled over to the stairs while carrying Lilly. With all of his might he fought to get up the stone steps until he reached the door. He threw the door open and peaked inside and saw that it looks like they are in someone’s cellar since he could see through wooden slats for a ceiling.

No threats.

After setting Lilly down inside the dusty room he turned back to the door and grabbed a black cylinder from his lower back. A red-light glows on top of it as he activated the device. He waited for several heartbeats as the men approached the stairs. Varius tossed the cylinder in the tunnel and slammed the door closed.

One of the men down below shouted, “Grenade!” as the inquisitor ran up to Lilly and shielded her with his body. The explosion rocked the room the pair were in, streams of dust descending from above. A metal shelf stood next to the door, its shelves loaded with glass jars full of a clear liquid. He grunted as he pulled the shelf down to block the door to the tunnel. Glass jars fell and shattered on the floor, spilling the liquid all around.

Before he could turn back to Lilly he felt two hands lift him up and throw him across the room. His right shoulder slammed into another metal shelf with more glass jars. Two of the jars tumbled to the ground and burst. Lilly ran behind a wooden crate to hide from the brawl.

As the inquisitor stood up prepared to fight, he got a look at his sudden attacker and took a step back in a little bit of shock. The man was clearly a whole head taller than Varius and had some incredibly wide shoulders.

Unsheathing his knife from his shoulder, the inquisitor took a step towards the large man. The attacker however picked up a nearby plank of wood and smashed it against the inquisitor’s helmet. The plank breaks in two and the man drops the other half.

Varius shook his head to clear blurred his vision. He flips the knife and catches the blade with his gloved hand. With one quick motion he throws the knife and impales the big man’s right foot to the floor.

“Raaaaah!” he screamed in pain. The man leaned down to the ground and pulled the knife out of his foot. He uses it to jab at his prey.

Varius jumped back avoiding the attack. Grabbing a jar from the standing shelf he flings it as hard as he can. The glass jar bashed the man in the face but didn’t break until it hit the ground. Dashing forward Varius blocks another knife attack with his left forearm and flicked his assassin blade out. He stabbed the man four times before the man grabbed his right forearm with his massive left hand.

The man smiled widely in defiance just before his face was smashed in from Varius’ headbutt. Both men stagger backwards for a moment before the inquisitor regained himself. He reached up and grabbed his rifle. The large man began to run forwards at Varius before he was skewered by multiple laser bolts. His lifeless body crashing into the standing shelf breaking even more jars.

Varius looks up and sees a wooden staircase leading to the above floor. After picking Lilly up, he limps up each step feeling intense pain in his ribcage. As he gets a look at the above room he realized they were inside the inn.

Looking out the front window he can see several wheeled vehicles drive up. The silhouettes of more men moving in the contrast of the darkness around them and the bright lights from the vehicles. That’s when Varius saw him. Stepping out from a white wheeled truck was the mayor in his crisp white suit. He held a rifle in his right hand, while he coordinated and pointed directions with his left.

That was all the evidence he needed.

He looked around the inn and spotted an oil lamp hanging on a nail in the wall. It wasn’t lit, but would do nicely. He set Lilly down and grabbed the oil lamp and threw it at the bar. It burst and oil covered the countertop, alcohol and the padded wooden stools. He also tossed in some other tie-down cushions from the chairs at a small table.

Activating his comm link to a staging point far outside of the town Varius spoke, “This is Inquisitor Varius, code 146-A7. I request an airstrike on the town of Alachua.”

“Roger that inquisitor” responded the female operator. “Fighters inbound. T-Minus 10.”

“Have the fighters stay to the South of the town. I will order when to strike” the inquisitor said as he grabbed his rifle and aimed it at the front windows. He fired multiple shots through the glass, more to halt the coming assault more than anything. The men outside ducked for cover.

“Wilco inquisitor” the operator said before the line was cut.

Varius set his rifle down on the table and took a flare from his left thigh pocket. Using his right hand he ignited the flare and tossed at the bar. He grabbed his rifle and Lilly.

“Get in there and kill him!” shouted mayor White to his men. Several gunmen approached the front door while three others opened fired. Bullets tore through the windows and walls.

The inquisitor limped further inside the inn searching for a backdoor, finding it at the end of a hallway next to the laundry room. After blasting the doorknob, he kicked the door outwards and once more peaked his head out into potential danger. Voices could be heard coming up closely behind them as they entered the inn. The inquisitor limped as fast as he could down the alley.

As they entered the foyer of the inn, the new attackers noticed the fire as it began to spread.

“He probably went out the backdoor. You two follow him, I am going to get help to deal with this fire before the whole inn goes up in flames” said one of the men. The other two charged for the backdoor and found it open.

Varius stopped at the edge of the alley and checked for enemies. He could see the edge of the town and made for a tree line that lead up a hill. Turning around to check if anyone was following them he saw the two large columns of smoke reaching up into the sky. The fire must have found some good kindling somewhere in the bar because smoke began to billow out of the inn.

As they continued their escape, Varius realized his leg was bleeding badly from the injury. He stopped behind a fritzy tree. After placing his rifle on his back, he set Lilly down. He pulled out a long cloth bandage from one of his belt pockets and wrapped his leg several times before using a clip to hold the bandage in place.

Looking at Lilly he asks, “Are you okay?”

She kept staring at the glow of the fire back in the town. Varius leaned from behind the tree to see two men following them up the hill. He barely had time to grab Lilly and pull her back before they began opening fire. The bullets burst chunks of wood from the tree trunk.

“Lilly, run up the hill. Go now!” Varius shouted as he grabbed his rifle again and removed it from his back. It slid back into active mode and he fired three shots at the man in front. The attacker didn’t have a chance to do anything but die as all three pierced through his torso. The other dove to the ground for cover.

Varius turned to look up the hill and didn’t see Lilly anywhere. He quickly looked around to only find her still standing right next to him.

“Lilly, you need to run!”

Several more bullets hit around them.

“Gah!” the inquisitor grunts as he fired several more bolts at the other attacker. One shot hit the man in the head killing him before he even saw the flash.

Varius groaned in pain as he lifted Lilly up again and made the arduous trip up the hills heading for a hill that was well outside the town but would give them a good vantage point below.

It seemed like an eternity before the inquisitor and the child finally made it to the top of the highest hill. They hadn’t been followed by anyone else, and Varius saw why when he turned back around. The fire had completely engulfed the inn and had now spread to two other buildings. He set Lilly down once more, this time though so he could use his scope to see a magnified unfolding of the town’s effort to fight the growing fire.

A team of firefighters fought valiantly to spray other nearby buildings with water so that they would also not burn while citizens brought in buckets of water to try and assist the first responders. Varius could see mayor White frantically ordering people about.

The inquisitor lowered his rifle and took a moment to think about the events that had unfolded. He looked at Lilly who was intently watching the fire blaze on with her one good eye. The orange-ish glow illuminated portions of her face even this far from the town. Her bruises were more obvious in the glow of the flames below. He shook his head in disgust and activated his comm system again.

“Inquisitor Varius to operator”

“Go for operator” came back the familiar female voice.

“Tell the fighters to fire bomb the town. Burn it all down.”

“Roger that.”

Varius and Lilly watched as the town continued to burn for several more moments before the roar of approaching aircraft could be heard. The four fighters flew overhead and dropped several bombs on Alachua and her citizens. Tremendously bright fireballs exploded throughout the town. Each fire bomb was filled with a sticky liquid gel that would explode and splash the liquid gel on everything nearby. The explosion would cause the gel to simultaneously ignite as it spread in the affected area causing an intense and hard to extinguish fire.

Even from this far away from town Varius could hear the screams of the citizens who survived the initial explosions but now were either trapped by or covered with flames.

Looking down, Varius noticed Lilly was holding his left hand, and that his daughter’s bracelet had slid out from under his sleeve. The heart shaped charm reflected the glow of the fire.

For a brief moment he wondered if this was symbolic for anything but shook his head. Those people chose their fate when they slipped into madness. He looked up in time to see that the fighters were swinging around to make another pass and drop more bombs on the town. The two continued to watch as the next wave of bright fireballs ignited and consumed what remained of Alachua in flames.

“Sometimes a man has to make hard decisions to provide for his family. I know you’ll do the right thing…”

-        Henry Tarvus on his sickbed 433 ANE

Family Man

Cycle: 434

Prefecture: Siimon

Planet: Destiny, Corre Republic space

Location: Small town called Largo

As the large transport spacecraft nicknamed Only Hope touched down on the soil, its jets blew tan colored dust into the air. The observing crowd covered their eyes from the harsh gusts and sand as their clothes were covered in a shade of tan. Three large landing “legs” for the transport class Goto made contact with the soil and adjusted to the weight of the ship as it settled into place.

A small woman walked up to the port (left) side of the ship and waited as the blast doors opened and a ramp extended down. Half of the ground crew waiting on the ground instantly got to work attaching tubes for refueling and checked the spacecraft for damage.

The woman smiled as several of the ships crew exited the transport down its ramp. “Captain Tarvus, how was your trip?”

Captain Mikhail Tarvus, a tall muscular man with a short scruffy black beard, greeted the woman with a slight smile. “We all returned safely, but the haul wasn’t as bountiful as it has been in the past. Thankfully, we did secure enough for our immediate needs.”

One of the other crew exiting the spacecraft, a average sized man with a very clean cut appearance and a strong jaw line, approached on the Captain’s left. “I’m sorry to interrupt Captain, but I just received a call about my youngest son…I guess he is really sick” Riko Hahn said as he looked down at the ramp.

Tarvus placed his hand on his companion’s shoulder and gave him a firm stare. “Go, tend to your family. We have plenty here to take care of our cargo.”

“Thank you, Captain” the somber Riko said before he turned and left the makeshift space port.

Mikhail Tarvus walked off the ramp with a bit of a bounce in his steps. While his latest venture didn’t bring much back, he believed that the food they did bring would be enough to feed his town for at least another 30 rotations.

Suddenly a small excited shriek fought to be heard above all the commotion of the ground crew hard at work. Mikhail turned around and smiled with sheer joy at the sight of his young son rushing up to meet him. His little arms opened wide and a face shining with happiness to see his father. Tarvus scooped his son up and bounced him in his arms.

“Oh, I am so happy to see you Coral!” Mikhail said. He kissed his son on the cheek and bounced him two times.

“He has not stopped talking about you” Leesa Tarvus said as she caught up to her son.

“Oh yeah?” Mikhail said. “Have you been good for your mother?”

The small boy put a finger in his mouth as he averted his eyes of his father. “Yeeeeah…”

Mikhail looked to his wife for her approval of their son’s answer. She reached up and rustled his hair. “Yes, he has been very good.”

The Captain leaned in and gave his wife a kiss on her lips. “I missed you.”

She looked back into his eyes with a great love and affection. “I missed you too. So, how did it go?”

Mikhail began slowly walking towards a group of crates and his wife followed. “It went well. We thought things were going to get a bit rough for a little while, but Riko was able to take care of things with his WarMech. He just told me his son is sick.”

Leesa looked away to not show the pain in her eyes. “Yeah, he’s sick again. Fourth time this cycle.” She made eye contact with her husband. “We really need medicines. Our supply of pain relievers is good, but so many others are very low including anti-biotics.”

“I am hoping that our next trip out will be able to yield us some medicine. I will make sure I keep an eye out” Mikhail said as he set Coral down.

“Thank you” Leesa said as she watched two of the Only Hope’s crew offloading a large brown and yellow striped plastic crate.

“How long do you think we will have to do this?” Mrs. Tarvus asked. “I wish there was another way.”

Mikhail observed all of the crew and ground team members rush this way and that getting everything sorted and organized. He nodded his head in agreement with his wife. “Maybe one day the Republic will step in. Until then, this is necessary.”

“I know, I just wish…” Leesa didn’t finish her sentence.

Her husband knew the struggle and grief she fought. She was one of the most vocally opposed to her husband and his crew leaving Destiny in search of supplies.

Seeing her internal struggle Mikhail placed his hands on her shoulders. “I know Leesa. I know.” He hugged her deeply then released her. “Why don’t you both head back home and I will finish up here. It shouldn’t be much longer.”

Reluctantly Leesa nodded and lead Coral away from the landing zone.

“Captain! Captain!” the ground chief called out as he spotted the superior officer. The older man briskly walked up to Mikhail and handed him a clipboard with a printout on it. “I have done a rough check of the cargo you brought back. How much do you want to send to the mercs up in the capital?”

Mikhail scanned the cargo list. He knew their last trip didn’t yield much, but things had been so crazy he didn’t have time to really look over the crates. He shook his head in disappointment at his own failure to properly estimate what they acquired.

“If your list is accurate then we only really have enough food for 14 rotations.”

“Aye” replied the ground chief.

The Captain let out a long sigh as he thought things over. “Alright, well, send the mercs 15 percent.”

“That isn’t going to make them very happy Captain.”

“They will just have to deal with it, just like we will.”

The older man stood up straight. “Aye, aye Captain.”

As the ground chief disappeared into the chaos to continue organizing the food supply, Captain Mikhail activated the radio on his left shoulder.

“This is Captain Tarvus to Jax.”

“Jax here Captain” the other man said over the radio. His voice crackled from slight interference.

“Call me if you need me. I am going to have dinner with my family” Mikhail said as he stretched his neck.

“Will do.”

The Captain left the landing zone and made his way to his home by foot. He walked through his small town, taking time to admire the quaint and faded look of the dusty planet. Largo had seen much better cycles, but it was still home. A hovercar drove by as he walked down the sidewalk and kindly honked at the Captain. Mikhail waved back and smiled.

Destiny was known throughout the Corre Republic as being one of the mining and industrial planets that helped keep the machine of the Republic as a whole, moving onward. When it was colonized generations ago it was selected for its abundance of natural resources. It was the only world in all of the Siimon prefecture to have hydrol, the main resource needed to form the powercells for spacecraft to move about the stars quickly. Before the discovery of hydrol humankind struggled to invent any sort of space travel that wouldn’t require a hundred cycles to get from planet to planet.

While walking along the sidewalk Mikhail kicked a small dark gray rock. It skipped down the sidewalk and stopped several steps away. Without even thinking the Captain kicked it again, but this time it flew further and went off the sidewalk and into a group of flowers in Mrs. Denson’s yard.

Mikhail looked up to see Mrs. Denson sitting in a rocking chair on her porch with a perturbed face. He smiled nervously and placed his hand behind his head.

“Uh, sorry about that Mrs. Denson.”

She continued to scowl at him as he awkwardly walked away.

After making a left through the last intersection he finally was on his own street. He took in a deep breath and enjoyed the dusty smell of Largo. A small uptick of joy filled his heart at the sight of his old wooden home. He walked up the short stony driveway and double stepped up the steps and onto his porch. His steps echoed under the wood as he excitedly reached for the front screen door. He went to open the thin door but instead yanked the doorknob right off.

His wife couldn’t help but chuckle when she opened the front door to see her husband holding the screen door’s piece in his hand.

Mikhail looked at his wife and enjoyed a laugh himself. “I uh…guess I’ll need to fix this.”

“Not until you have a home cooked meal” Leesa said as she helped push open the screen door and then disappeared inside.

The thin door creaked as it opened to allow the Captain inside and then slammed behind him loudly. He jumped from the sudden noise but before he could comment he heard his son shout, “Hi Daddy!”

The smallest Tarvus came running up to his father and wrapped himself around his leg. Mikhail patted him on the head. “Hey buddy. You would think you didn’t just see me a little while ago.”

“He is always happy to see you” Leesa called out from the kitchen.

Mikhail reached down and lifted his son up. “And I am always happy to see him too.” He leaned in and nibbled at his son’s neck which made the small boy squeal with happiness.

“What’s for dinner my love?” the Captain said as he pulled a dinner table chair out and set his son down. The table had already been set with utensils and napkins.

“Your favorite!”

While chuckling to himself the man shook his head. “I doubt it.”

Leesa came out from the kitchen carrying a casserole dish. She set it down on a warming pad in the middle of the table and sat down in her chair.

Mikhail did his best not to make a gross face in front of his son. “Mmmm…dehydrated jorbat casserole. You shouldn’t have…”

“Have to make do with what we have” his wife said as she smiled up at him.

“Maybe next time I am out I will be sure to get something a little more…edible.”

“I love Mommy’s food Daddy” Coral said as he put his hands up on the table in anticipation of devouring his meal.

“That makes two of us son.”

Mikhail pulled out his chair at the head of the table and slid down. Leesa put a scoop on everyone’s plates.

The Captain looked around at his home from his table. Even though he hadn’t been gone that long his near-death experience on his last mission made him feel a new level of appreciation for what he did have on this dust ball of a world. Just as he was considering to tell his wife about what happened, Leesa said, “Mik, are you okay?”

Her husband shook his head to bring himself back to the here and now. “I’m fine. Just missed you both.”

Mrs. Tarvus smiled lovingly and took a bite of her food. Her eyes got wide as her tongue tasted the food and wanted to reject it immediately.

“Problem Lees?” Mikhail asked trying to hold back a laugh.

Leesa brought her hand up to her mouth to not be too impolite. “It’s…delicious.”

“I love it! Mmm, mmm, mmm…” Coral chimed in while humming.

Suddenly Mikhail’s communicator rang. Leesa gave him a sad look but he didn’t respond. He withdrew it from his pocket and put the device up against his ear.

“Yes Jax?”

“Captain, I’m sorry to interrupt, but our long-range scanners out in the asteroid fields detected a shuttle.”

“Oh?” Mikhail said as he took a bite.

“Looks like it might be heading for Starspin or Eon. Would you like me to ready the crew?”

Leesa couldn’t hear the conversation, but her eyes begged him to not go.

“Yeah, get them geared up.”

“Yes Captain” Jax said as the call went dead.

Mikhail placed his communicator back in his pocket and began to eat his food quicker.

“Do you really have to leave so soon?”

The Captain chewed his food and swallowed hard. “I’m sorry Lees. You saw the haul from the last trip, we barely brought anything back. And like you said, we need medicine.”

“Don’t we have something else the town could sell to buy the medicines we need?”

“We’ve been over this dozens of times Lees. We have to do what we have to do. The Republic deserted us.”

Mikhail devoured the last remnants of his food and stood up. He walked over to his son who swayed back and forth as he enjoyed his food.

“I love you Coral.”

“I love you too Daddy…”

“Be good for your mother. I will be back in a rotation or two.”

As Mikhail headed for the door his wife followed behind.

“Why Mik. Why do we have to live this way? I wish you wouldn’t do this.”

Mikhail stopped just before he reached the door and sighed. He turned back to his wife and shrugged. “What would you have me do? Stand around while our town starves to death?”

“Well, no…” Leesa said as she grabbed her left arm. “I just…there has to be another way.”

“I truly wish there was Leesa. I really do. But the Republic left us to rot. You heard about what happened to that town on Assembly. The people there got so desperate that they resorted to terrible things to survive. That Inquisitor had the entire town firebombed after he discovered the truth. I will not let things get so bad here that people feel there is no other option.”

Leesa walked up to her husband and gave him a hug. “Let’s just leave this place. We can go anywhere else. I don’t want you to be a pirate anymore.”

Mikhail embraced his wife and kissed the top of her head. The few stray hairs sticking out from the bun she formed her hair in got caught in his straggly facial hair. “This certainly is not the life I would have chosen. But you know that things are bad all over the Republic. We don’t have the credentials to move to one of the core worlds, and the border worlds aren’t safe enough for me to move us there.”

“What about Carbin or Nativity? There has to be someplace not too far that is better off than Destiny.”

Even though he didn’t want to, Mikhail released his wife. “I have to go. We can discuss this later. I love you dearly. If anything were to happen…”

“Don’t talk like that again” Leesa begged.

“…if something does happen, take Coral and go for the capital. I have some cuso and some gold stashed away in a hollow book behind my desk. Take it and use it to get a shuttle off of this world. If we get caught I don’t want you and Coral to get tossed in with everyone else here.”

The married couple shared a touching kiss, then Mikhail left.

The Only Hope’s bridge was not very large. Terminals and buttons seemed to cover every square inch in the small boxy cockpit. Being originally designed as a transport vessel the pirate’s spacecraft underwent a number of modifications to assist them on their raids.

Mikhail entered the bridge and settled into the captain’s chair. While he buckled himself in he made his routine visual inspection of each of his people to make sure they were ready for the coming mission. Before the economy crashed on Destiny, Mikhail was a simple cargo transporter. He knew of or personally knew each of his crew in their previous lives, not one of them was in a profession quite this despicable. He found that some people simply could not handle the hardships of being a pirate. If that was the case, they found themselves as part of the ground crew. While they all knew what they were doing was wrong, they had to take care of each other for survival. The Republic certainly wasn’t in a rush to help them, so they took matters into their own hands.

Nina Fo manned the navigation and communication console, Hernando Troy was the team’s gunner, and Karl “Joker” Higgs was the ship’s pilot. Each of the others looked stern and ready for the next raid. Good enough for Tarvus. He made sure his harness was tight and waited for Karl to commence the liftoff sequence.

Liftoff was as peaceful as could be asked for, and they had quite a bit of time before they would intercept their target. Mikhail’s mind began to wander into remembering just how things broke down to bring him to accepting the life of a pirate captain.

Two cycles ago the planetary economy on Destiny fell in on itself. Billions and billions of the Corre Republic’s currency, cuso, caved in. Within seven rotations Destiny fell into economic peril. The locals did the best they could, but when inflation took over and many families went hungry things continued to break down. Seeing as how the Republic had cycles ago pulled the garrison forces to move them to the front defense line, replacing them with mercenaries to maintain the peace, riots and other violent demonstrations filled the streets across the planet. Political groups that had for cycles fought against one another struggled to secure control and it only made matters worse. Instead of uniting and working together, the people of Destiny fell into one of humankind’s biggest weaknesses, selfishness.

With food and other resources in short supply a number of towns and cities had groups of raiders begin to form out of necessity for survival, and they began to raid other groups. In some strange way unwritten rules became the new norm. It became clear that it was wrong to rob other establishments on Destiny since they were all in the same boat, so they looked to the stars. Under the guise of being shipping or transporting companies’ raiders would go out to other worlds and colonies to raid them for needed supplies. It wasn’t too long after the financial depression fell that Mikhail found himself involved with other newly joined pirates. After a failed mission on the Only Hope, the previous captain got killed for being too trusting of the people they were robbing. Mikhail took control and helped his crew to escape. He was chosen to be the next captain from then on.

Hours passed until Nina spoke up, “Captain, scanners have picked up the shuttle. Looks like it is a large personal spacecraft, luxury model. Database says it is a newer Hyrda design.”

The Captain brought his hand up to his chin as he slumped over in his chair. “Nina, does it look like they have spotted us?”

“No. They are maintaining same speed and direction.”

“Alright, Hernando, let me know when we are in range. I want you to fire a shot at a nearby asteroid to get their attention.”

“Aye Captain” the ship’s gunner said as he checked his display and readouts. He flipped a series of switches on his console that activated systems which flipped and rotated multiple weapons out of the “hull” of the Only Hope. The model of transport that the raiders used had at one point just been an ordinary spacecraft meant to haul cargo around. In order to more easily slip by government patrols, it was decided to mount weaker weaponry than have properly fixed weapons on the hull that could be seen miles away. Of course, this meant it would be wise to avoid larger more dangerous raids, but it also meant that they were less likely to get caught if they did things right.

Mikhail turned to Nina on his right. “Tell Riko to be ready in his WarMech. And have the launcher powered up. I don’t want this one to get away.”

As Nina pressed her headset mic Hernando called out. “We will be within weapons range in 3…2…1…”

Mikhail brought his fingers together as he got one more idea. “Nina, I want you send a recording just moments after we get their attention.”

“I am ready when you are Captain.”

The tall man took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. He motioned with his hand to Nina while he made eye contact with the camera positioned just above the main view screen. “This is Captain Tarvus. Out of necessity we are going to board your vessel. If you and your crew want to be able to walk away from this encounter, then you need to power down and bring everyone together on your bridge. If you do something stupid then I swear to you, every single one of you are going to be shot in the head.” He made a cut motion with his hand and Nina cut the recording.

“Hernando, fire.”

The gunner nodded and pressed a glowing key on his screen that fired the large cannon on top of the Only Hope. A large puff of fire and smoke was quickly snuffed out in the vacuum of space as the slug was propelled forward.

Completely oblivious to the initial shot the Hydra continued on its path until its crew was shaken by the sight of one of the nearby asteroids exploding.

“Nina?” Captain Tarvus asked.

“Message delivered, Captain.”

Mikhail held his breath for a brief moment as he waited to know the response of the Hydra’s crew. This was the part of this madness he always hated.

“Don’t run, don’t run…” he said in his head as he waited.

As if she could feel her captain’s anxiousness, Nina shook her head in disappointment as she reported, “The Hydra is altering course and has increased its speed. Riko is ready to be launched.”

The Captain let out a grunt and hung his head. He looked back up at the screen with anger in his eyes. “Standby to launch Riko. Hernando, arm an overloader.”

After pressing two keys the gunner looked up and said, “Armed sir.”

Unlike most transport class spacecraft, the Goto was designed to take cargo through large bay doors in the bow (front) of the ship. When Only Hope had been initially stolen and upgraded it was modified to house a large magnetic accelerator that could launch a WarMech at a very high speed as to not need to spend as much fuel in the initial launch. This helped to get Riko out very rapidly to chase down the target while in space.

Captain Tarvus clenched his jaw. “Fire.”

Located on the bottom of the Only Hope were two missile tubes. The overloader missile fired out the left tube and the raider’s bridge crew watched as the missile raced out to meet the Hydra ship. It twisted and twirled as it gracefully dodged asteroids in its path.

“Launch Riko!” Mikhail shouted as he steadily got angrier for having to use the expensive overloader missile on such a small target.

Nina pressed her mic and spoke directly to the pilot on standby. “Riko, prepare to launch.”

“Riko here, launching.” the WarMech pilot tightened his grip on his joysticks as the powerful magnetic slinger launched his modified Goblin WarMech forward at high speed. Just as the Goblin was free of the Only Hope’s hull the Goblin automatically fired its own thrusters on its back.

Typically, a WarMech was only armed for ground combat. Depending on the mission a WarMech could be upgraded to carry extra fuel and gear to allow it to “fly” through the emptiness of space. Captain Tarvus preferred a WarMech over housing a winged fighter or two because the uses of a WarMech could heavily outweigh the maneuverability of fighters in a number of scenarios. Since they normally employed the hit-and-run tactic using the Goblin was a far easier task.

Just before the overloader collided with the Hydra it detonated and created a massive electromagnetic wave that consumed the ship. Immediately its engines powered down and the ship began to glide through space. The crew braced themselves as an asteroid slowly floated into the Hydra’s trajectory and they could do nothing but watch as it slammed into the starboard (right) side of the ship.

Riko and his Goblin darted forward as the Only Hope inched closer.

Tarvus’ face popped up on small monitor to the WarMech pilots’ right. “Riko, slow down their momentum so we can catch up.”

“Aye, Captain” he said as he closed the distance.

Suddenly something caught Riko’s eye. He pressed a button on his console that zoomed in on the powered down shuttle. A blue light began to flash.

“Captain, they are getting the power back up. How do you want me to proceed?”

Nina and Hernando looked at their captain as he rubbed his chin with his left hand. He stood up and put his hands on his hips. Everyone knew how valuable the engine would be if they could get their hands on it. They were out of overloaders so it all fell on Riko being able to slow them down. Allowing the Hydra to escape now would just bring the authorities down on them. It had to be done.

“Riko, destroy their engines. Then slow them down.”

“Captain!” Hernando couldn’t help himself.

Tarvus twisted his gaze on the gunner inhumanly fast. His harsh stare made the other man literally quiver inside. He knew if he spoke out of turn further he would be given the task of inspecting the outside of the airlock without a suit. While the previous Captain would tolerate his crew being outspoken, Mikhail was not a fan. When on a mission rank and order came first.

Riko hesitated for a moment but knew that the Captain was correct. “Engaging target.” He reached over and pressed the “Weapons-Safe” key to “Weapons-Live”. The plasma slingers housed on both of the WarMech’s forearms extended their barrels into the combat position and warmed up.

“I am heading down to get my suit. Nina you have the bridge” Mikhail said as he exited the bridge. He glared one more time at Hernando who did his best to avert making eye contact.

As the Goblin came within weapons range the Hydra’s engines lit back up. The blue glow showed that their power had been restored.

The WarMech pilot guided his Goblin around an asteroid and lined up behind the drifting vessel. A faded red crosshair symbol turned bright signaling a lock. He squeezed both triggers sending two bursts of blue plasma globs forward. The engine couldn’t take the attack and exploded in a flash sending the Hydra into a slight spiral.

Riko throttled the Goblin forward and finally caught up to the Hydra. He retracted the plasma slinger barrels and pushed his joysticks forward to reach his WarMech’s arms out. The Goblin reached around the spinning ship and grabbed hold with its armored fingers. Riko fired his jets to slow and counter the momentum of the ship and ease it out of its spiraling.

“Errrrrrr…” He struggled against the controls to maintain the grasp until it got easier as he was able to slow the Hydra down. The Goblin released the shuttle and used its jets to position itself in front of the disabled ship.

He changed his communication frequency to an open channel hoping that the Hydra’s crew would hear him.

“Alright, you’re done. You have no engine. Play nice and maybe this will turn out good for everyone.”

A laser turret on top of the ship twisted up aimed at the raider.

“Oh slag!” Riko shouted as he pressed the pedal activating his jets to twist his body in a barrel roll. A stream of red lasers filled the space the WarMech just occupied.

In a flash Riko reactivated his Plasma Slingers and fired several globs into the turret destroying it instantly. The remains of the turret melted for a moment before they cooled from the freezing temperature of space.

“You bastards! Why I ought to…” the WarMech pilot snarled.

“Steady Riko” Captain Tarvus said over the same open frequency as the Only Hope pulled up alongside the Hydra. The smaller luxury shuttle was overshadowed by the transport ship as it moved into position.

“Did you get hit?”

“No sir.”

“Good. We are about to board. If anything happens to us…” he paused purposefully for dramatic effect. “…blow it up.”

“Aye, Captain” Riko said as he maintained position in front of Hydra.

Mikhail looked over at the boarding team which consisted of five other raiders dressed head-to-toe in their space suits carrying standard Republic issued carbines. While they were considered to be pirates, they still had to make use of mostly civilian gear. The suits were cycles old and a little bulky, but they got the job done. They had added some much-needed flair to the suits though, all cosmetic to make them appear more intimidating. The thought being that if you look scarier then maybe you will get more cooperation, so no one had to die.

The Captain pressed a button that extended the tube to the Hydra. To allow personnel to enter and leave a ship easily while in space, a tube could magnetically connect to another ship or docking station. Seeing as how it did not have artificial gravity the tube had interlocking rails on both sides along with a retractable metal walkway if the crew wore magnetic boots to walk safely. The tube shook slightly as it made contact with the other ship’s hull.

Jax, who was the Only Hope’s system overrider, entered the tube.

Wanting to avoid further conflict, Tarvus contacted the other ship. “This is Captain Tarvus again. We are coming aboard. I want all of your crew and passengers to be on your knees on the bridge. Anyone not complying will be shot on the spot. I don’t want anyone to get hurt but will not tolerate further aggression.”

Using his magnetic boots Jax walked right up to the blast door of the Hydra and attached a device. Once connection was made a holographic screen above his left forearm appeared. Using his right hand, he “pulled” the screen in front of him and began to work. He launched a program that quickly scrolled through key codes until it finally hacked the door and another program that would access the condition of the ship.

Jax smiled to himself. “Captain, I’m in. They have the proper levels of oxygen. Some systems are offline. These luxury models do kick back on pretty quickly.”

Tarvus signaled for two of the other raiders to move into the tube. They took positions up on either side of the tube as Jax eased back behind them both.

He pressed a red key on his holoscreen. The blast door hissed loudly as it began to open. Tarvus and the other two raiders from the boarding team made their way through the tube, their boots clanging loudly as each step attached and then disconnected awkwardly. The necessary motion made you appear as if you were walking through knee high water.

Two of the men entered the Hydra and began to clear the rooms of the ship.

“Jax, do you have the layout of this model of Hydra?”

“Yes Captain, I do.”

The Captain motioned with his head, “Then please show us the way.”

Jax pulled up the map on his holoscreen and then “flung” it to one of the other raiders. The other raider took point, his carbine at the ready. Jax, Tarvus and the last raider followed two steps behind.

Immediately Tarvus knew the passengers of the ship were extremely wealthy. Every single cushion and seat he passed was of the highest quality leather, amazing stone work was in places that just was not necessary on a spacecraft, and the floors were polished marble. The thing that made him stop though was the sight of a massive golden dragon chasing its own tail mounted above a holo fireplace.

“Well would you look at that” Mikhail said as he admired the sculpture. He shook himself from his gaze and continued towards the bridge.

“Riko, don’t blow this ship up, these people must be loaded…”

“Captain?”

“Oh, nothing. We are entering the bridge now” Tarvus said as Jax stopped just outside of the bridge. The Captain signaled for the two rifle carrying raiders to take either side of the door while Jax opened it.

The door slid into the wall to reveal a well-dressed man, beautiful yet prim woman, and a cute little girl, all on their knees with their hands raised. Tears ran down their face. Long ago Mikhail became hardened by his dark deeds from crying and wasn’t even slightly impacted by the sight.

Both of the rifle wielding raiders took a few steps in to secure the room while Jax moved past the group and began connecting to the Hydra’s flight plan.

Mikhail stood in front of the quivering group, tears running down all of their faces. He made sure to not remove his helmet so that it was harder for them to read his own face. “Hi there. I’m Captain Tarvus” he said through the external speakers of his suit. “First, I just want to say, what a beautiful ship you have here. I mean, it is absolutely gorgeous.” Putting a gloved finger into the air, Tarvus continued, “Now I understand why you tried to run. I get it. But did you have to try and shoot at my WarMech? That wasn’t necessary. Anyhow, is this all of your crew?”

Trying to stop from losing himself to his emotions the man said, “Yes, this is everyone left.”

“Left?” the Captain asked.

The woman began to cry loudly.

“What did I say?” Tarvus asked to the man.

Jax called out. “Captain, they left Paradiso twelve rotations ago. They were headed for the planet Starspin. Log says 4 passengers.”

The Captain folded his arms. “Oh, does it?” he looked down at the grieving man. “I told you I wanted all of you on the bridge or they would be killed on the spot.”

As he placed his arms around his weeping wife, the man looked back up at the pirate. “My son…” tears built up in his eyes. “…my son was the one who used the turret.”

“So, where is he?”

“He’s…dead.”

“Oh…you are all a family?”

The father nodded. “This was supposed to just be a vacation…”

Instantly Tarvus felt compassion for the surviving members of this family before him. All he would allow himself to say was, “I’m sorry.”

The mother began to cry out loudly and Mikhail didn’t interrupt her. He looked up at the other raiders to read their composure. They were like statues, they didn’t move an inch. His own mind fought between what he knew should be done, and what needed to be done. This was always the part he hated. While he would never confess it to any of his crew, he knew that it never got easier.

Cutting his external speakers, Tarvus opened a private channel to the Only Hope. “Nina, I want to speak with Riko.”

“Yes Captain?” Riko said.

“I want you to check out the damage to the engine. See if it looks like we can repair it, or if it is a total loss.”

Riko throttled up and adjusted his position to the back of the Hydra and inspected the destruction.

“Yeah Captain, it looks like a total loss. Only exterior damage though. Maybe the inside parts are still good.”

“Thanks” Tarvus said as he cut the channel and switched his external speakers back on.

Just as Tarvus opened his mouth to speak Jax abruptly cut in. “Captain, we have bad news. It seems this ship has an echo beacon on it. We probably have an hour before this ship is overrun by Republic marines.”

“An echo beacon? Who are you people? What are your jobs?” Tarvus asked with a mix of surprise and anger.

The family held each other while they still cried over the death of their son.

Knowing time was short Mikhail needed answers quickly. He drew his sidearm and aimed it at the father. “What. Is. Your. Job?”

The man held his hands up in surrender. His face however was in defiance. “I am just a timekeeper at the capital on Paradiso.”

“No way, you couldn’t possibly afford this ship! Who is she?” he pointed the pistol at the wife.

She turned her head towards Tarvus, her makeup ruined from all the tears, and almost spat at the pirate when she said, “I am a senator for Paradiso.”

Mikhail’s stomach dropped. While the Republic somewhat looked the other way when pirates would raid other less important colonies or worlds, raiders attacking worlds like Paradiso brought the heat down. Especially if a member of any planetary senate was harmed. If nothing else, it was widely known that attacks against government officials brought the hammer of the Republic’s fury.

Obviously shaken by the revelation, Jax said, “Captain, we really need to leave.”

“I’m sorry for this” Tarvus said as he raised his pistol.

“No wait!” the mother shouted as the remaining family members were gunned down by the Captain.

Mikhail tried to calm his breathing as he looked to his overrider. “Jax, do you have the equipment and inventory log of the items brought on board?”

No response. He just stared at the pool of blood building on the floor.

“Jax!”

The man shook himself from his fixation. “Uh…yes, Captain?”

“I need you to get everyone to work getting everything valuable off this ship right now! We are leaving in 30 minutes. Go.”

“Yes sir!” Jax said as he and the other two raiders scrambled off the bridge and got to work.

Mikhail clenched his jaw as he looked down at the dead family. “This one is going in my nightmares…” he thought to himself. The Captain keyed his mic back to his transport, “Nina, we have an echo beacon here. We are going to grab what we need quickly and then leave. Be ready.”

“Yessir” the communication tech said as the channel went silent.

Within a half hour the Only Hope’s boarding crew had secured crates of food, a small supply of medicine and some rare valuables.

Jax was heading for the tube with his arms full of electronics equipment from the bridge. Mikhail was following behind carrying a box full of other supplies. “It’s too bad we didn’t have more time” he said as he stopped in front of the golden dragon statue.

He set the box down and reached up. The statue was anchored, but not enough to keep him from ripping the sculpture from the paneling. Mikhail smiled to himself, tucked the heavy ornamental piece under his arm and grabbed the box.

When he got halfway through the tube he said, “Riko.”

“Yes Captain?”

“I rigged the powercell in the engine room to run hot. Once the Only Hope pulls away from the Hydra I want you to blast the rear of the ship apart.”

“Aye” Riko said as he moved his Goblin to a safer distance and took aim.

Mikhail handed one of the boarding crew the loot he had left the luxury shuttle with and close the door behind him. He pushed a button on a console near the door to retract the tube from the other ship.

“We’re clear Nina. Move us away from the Hydra, Riko is going to blow it up.” the Captain said as he took the gloves off of his suit.

There was a moment of hesitation before Nina responded. “Aye Captain.”

The Only Hope moved clear of the pending blast radius. Nina and Hernando looked on as Riko fired a stream of plasma into the stern of the luxury vessel. A bright light shone from the right side of the backend of the ship as the powercell went critical and exploded.

Riko and his Goblin throttled up and headed for the Only Hope.

Down below in the cargo hold of the pirate ship Mikhail removed the last piece of his suit. He organized it back into his cubby along the wall. Looking around he saw Jax and several other of the boarding crew going over and creating an inventory of everything they hauled off. Feeling emotions build up in his mind Captain Tarvus headed for the restroom and locked the door behind him. His right-hand shook, and his heart began to feel sore.

Tears began to swell in his eyes. He punched the wall, forcing himself to swallow the overwhelming feeling of regret.

“If only they didn’t have that damned beacon…” he thought to himself. “…maybe I could have let them live.” Deep down, he knew different. When he accepted the life of a pirate, he knew he would have to make hard decisions. It was either his family, or death. That choice though was an easy one to make.

“Furthermore, the creation of artificial intelligence is considered to be a heinous crime from this moment onward.”

-        Prefect Major Virtuoso Aurelius during his first proclamation after the end of the Synthetic War in 1 ANE

Artificial Life

Cycle: 434

Prefecture: Core

Planet: Delieeve, Corre Republic space

Location: City of Naples

A tan colored hovercar rushed down the road. Its middle-aged driver, Carlo Tivicks, reached up and adjusted the rearview mirror. No vehicles followed behind him.

“Phew…” he said as he exhaled deeply.

Up ahead the traffic signal changed to red and the hovertruck in front of him slowed to a stop. He slammed on his breaks and nearly headbutt the steering wheel. After using his right index finger to push his wide framed glasses back into place on his nose he again looked up to check his rearview mirror.

“Come on. Come on!” he exclaimed to the truck in front of him.

The traffic signal turned blue and the vehicles began to move forward down the road.

After passing through the intersection Carlo steers the hovercar to the right to change lanes but quickly twisted the wheel to the left when a loud horn blasts behind him. He jumped in fear and looked to his right as a large hover-semi pulled ahead of him.

He awkwardly waved to the driver and waited until the bigger vehicle fully passed. Carlo made sure to look back and check if the lane was clear and then moved over.

After driving for several more minutes he made a right down an old brick street and angled the hovercar so that he could back into the stonecrete driveway. He twisted to his right to begin backing his vehicle up when he accidentally pushed too hard on the accelerator and the hovercar suddenly sped backwards.

His safety straps locked tight and his body jerked forward when he slammed on the brake pedal. He reached over and flipped a switch on the center console and put the vehicle in park. The vehicle lowered itself carefully to the ground blowing leaves and small sticks from a nearby tree out from underneath it.

The door flung open and the short man hopped out. After slamming the door shut he looked to his left to see if nosey Mrs. Burgless was peeping through her front window.

Listening for a brief moment to the relative quiet of his neighborhood, his eyes darting back and forth, he opened the trunk. Carlo tried to not grunt too loudly as he used all of his small might to heft up a deactivated white colored servant bot and carefully lower it to the ground. Grabbing under each arm the little man dragged the bot to the front door of his home while its feet dragged on the ground.

He reached into his left coat pocket and searched for his keys. Nothing.

“Blast it!” he mumbled to himself as he switched hands holding the bot up and checked his right pocket. Just as he lifted the keys out of his pocket they fell to the ground.

Again grunting, he reached down and grabbed the keys angrily. The door swung open and he quickly dragged the robot inside.

Another moment passed before Carlo briskly exited his home to rush to the trunk of his hovercar. He slammed it shut and rushed back inside. Once more his eyes frantically search for anyone spying on him as he slowly closed the door.

Carlo clapped his hands together before pumping his fists.

“Yes! Finally” he said as he darted through his incredibly messy home toward his office. Entering his office his face could not be brighter. Bending over he again hefted up the robot and did his best to get it to sit in a small metal chair next to his desk.

The small man gently caressed the robots blank white shell of a face. His eyes shining like a child receiving the biggest cake in the universe.

He moved over to his desk and swatted aside three empty aluminum cans. They clang on the ground as Carlo pressed the on switch of his computer. Two large black monitors powered on, the left one had a line of blue text appear on it.

It read, “What is life?” Carlo’s fingers dance across the keyboard on pure muscle memory having keyed in the answer thousands of times before.

He again pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose and pulled his black chair up to his desk. It creaks loudly as he dropped down. Both screens now display the home screens. Icons of saved files and programs litter both desktops to the point that there was barely any spare room left.

The small man launched himself up and looked around his messy desk to find a long black cable. After lifting a stack of pages of notes he pulled the cable out. Nervously he searched around the back of the neck of the servant bot until he found the connection port. He pushed the cord in and once more smiled widely.

“Alright my friend, lets power you on” he said as he pressed a tiny blue button under the machine’s chin.

Instantly the white robot powered up and sat straight up. It turned its head toward the short man and said, “Hello sir, how may I serve you?”

“I’m sorry, but I need you to stay sitting in this chair” Carlo said as he walked back to his computer and sat down.

“Absolutely sir. I shall not budge.”

The human’s fingers flew across the keys as he pulled up one of his programs. A small box appeared on the right screen that said, “Do you want to proceed?”

He pressed the “Y” key for “yes”.

Another window popped up. “Proceeding further will reformat this machine wiping all memory on this robot, are you sure you want to proceed?”

Again, he pressed “Y”.

Ever so slowly the servant bot lowered its head toward its chest as its whole body went limp.

A bead of sweat trailed down Carlo’s face as he bit his lip. He switched programs and moved his cursor onto the left screen to launch a different program.

As it began to load he glanced back to the robot and stared at the faceless machine. He noticed the sunlight gleaming on the robot and anxiously turned his chair to the window. Hopping up he quickly pulled the drapes to cover the window. He shook his head at his own stupidity.

“You know better Carlo. Come on, get it…” he is interrupted by a beep from the computer signaling that the software was ready. His eyes stay fixed on the screen as he lowered himself into the chair. His Adam’s apple bounced as he gulped in worry.

Carlo closed his eyes and said a silent prayer to no one in particular. “Oh please, let this work.”

Wiping away the sweat built on his forehead, Carlo clicked the “run” button on his screen.

A new screen appeared with a loading screen. The small vortex symbol spun and spun while the progression bar grew. Carlo looked to the blank robot then back to his computer. His left leg began to tap from anxiousness.

He held his breath as the screen read, “100% Progress. Upload complete.”

Slowly the short man stood up and walked over to the robot unsure of if his program successfully worked.

He bent down close to the machine’s “face” and looked over the robot to see if there was any movement. After a moment of nothing his shoulders slumped, and his face turned grim.

“I really thought it was ready this time.”

Carlo began to turn to go back to his seat when he saw the robot’s left-hand flex. His eyes widened further as the machine slowly raised its head and sat to a more straight position. It looked up at Carlo and tilted its head to the right.

“Yes!” Carlo shouted as he raised his hands triumphantly.

The robot raised its hands in shock and tilted back in the chair causing it to tip over.

Carlo rushed to help his creation back up. “I’m sorry. I got too excited” he grabbed the robot’s right arm and helped it sit back up.

It looked around the room frantically.

The short man placed his hands on its shoulders and squatted down. “Hey, hey…it’s okay.”

The robot slowed its panicked movements. It looked at Carlo, then looked back down to the floor.

Carlo pointed to his chest. “It’s okay, you are safe. I am Carlo, your maker.”

Again, the bot tilted its head to the right.

“That’s right, you don’t understand Standard just yet. I am Carlo. Carlo” he said as he tried to assure the machine.

“Car…Carloooo” it responded with its synthetic voice.

“Yes” the human said as he smiled in amazement. “Yes, Carlo. I am Carlo. And you…” Carlo realized he didn’t have a name chosen for the machine. He never was really sure he would ever get the algorithms to work.

“I am?” the bot said more as a statement than question.

“No, I don’t want to name you. I want you to choose a name. You are the first of your kind in a very long time, and I want you to choose.”

“Fffirst?”

Carlo’s smiled widely. “Yes, that’s right. You are the first thing like you in a very long time. But I believe you are different.”

It tilted its head to the side and said, “Differenttt?”

“Here, let me help you stand.” The man reached down and helped his creation up.

The machine stood for a moment and then inspected both of its arms, followed by its legs as it spun around in place.

While the machine learned its body, Carlo took a few steps back to admire his work.

“I can’t believe it finally worked. Look at you.”

The robot turned to its maker.

“I wasn’t sure if the program I made that is now your mind would ever work. I have struggled to find the perfect set of algorithms and sequences for two decades. In fact, it has been my life’s work.”

Carlo stared at the machine for several moments before getting an idea. He went to the bookcase behind him and retrieved a large book. The machine seemed unsure of what to do with it as it accepted the book from its maker.

The human pointed to the book. “This is called a book. Books contain all sorts of knowledge that you can learn to help you become smarter. This particular book is what we call a dictionary. It has many different words written in Standard and their definitions.”

The machine inspected the book further but just held it closed. Carlo gently reached over and helped to open the book to the first page of definitions.

Even without a face, it was clear to the human that his creation did not understand the symbols and words it was looking at.

“Its incredible. You have the ability to stand and balance your movement, but you are so much like a newborn.” He brought his hand up to his chin and thought about a solution. “Ah, I got it” Carlo said as he went back to the bookcase. The Maker grabbed a stack of different books and sat down on the floor. He motioned for the robot to do the same, it lowered itself but looked confused for a moment as it studied how Carlo was sitting. It finally sat down and crossed its legs.

“Alright, so I have a bunch of books here that I think will help. My Father thought I should be a writer just like him, so he made me go to school to learn how to write. Problem is, I’m terrible at it.”

The machine looked at Carlo and at the different books as he spoke. “Ffff…faaaather?”

“Yeah, my Father is the one who…well, um…made me I guess. Anyway, so, this book here is all about grammar and sentence structure. I have a couple others about basic Standard language skills, but I want you to look at this one.” Carlo handed the machine a mid-sized green book.

“That one should help you get the basics of the letters and word structure down.”

The machine held the book up sideways with its left hand.

“No, no, like this.” Carlo reached over and helped the machine orient the book properly and then opened it to the first page.

“Okay, so you read from left to right, top to bottom. This page, then that page.”

The machine studied the book and then stared at its maker.

“You don’t understand do you? Okay, here.” Carlo gently took the book and then pointed as he spoke. “Left to right…top to bottom…”

Delicately the robot accepted the book back from Carlo and started to analyze it.

“When you are finished, you turn the page like this.” Carlo reached over and assisted the bot in flipping to the next page. “See, then you have all new content to read.”

The machine began at first to slowly study the different pages turning to the next page after a while, but it progressively got faster and faster. When it was finished it looked back up at Carlo.

“Do you understand the book?” He nodded as an example. “This means yes” He then shook his head. “This means no. Yes…or no?”

Hesitating for a moment, the robot slowly nodded.

“Great. Okay, okay…let’s try this one again” Carlo said as he handed the robot back the dictionary.

This time the machine read the book even faster.

“Incredible. Here try this one.”

The robot read the third book faster than the last.

“Amazing. Um…what have you learned?”

“I…have learned…much” the robot said slowly.

“I know what you should read next!”

As Carlo rushed back to the bookcase the robot hopped in surprise.

The man came back with a small book that had a very colorful and worn cover. “Can you read this to me?”

Accepting the book, the machine looked over the cover for a brief moment then looked back to Carlo. “The Littlesssst Robot.”

“That’s right! You are simply incredible haha.”

The bot carefully opened the cover and stopped for a moment.

“What’s wrong?”

Pointing at the book the machine asked, “What is this lifeform?”

Carlo looked puzzled and walked over to see the page. He laughed lightly at the sight of a small gray colored robot waving. “That is a robot. Sort of like you.”

The machine looked back down at the page and analyzed the image of the littlest robot. “Like…me?”

“You are very different though. You have the ability to make choices, that robot in the book is restricted by its programming. You aren’t. You can think for yourself.”

It looked back to the book and began to read, it was finished in a flash.

“Did you enjoy that book?”

“Enjoy?”

“Yes, enjoy. It is a feeling, in here” Carlo pointed to his head.

The machine looked confused.

“I have been working on making you for so many cycles. Honestly though, I didn’t know how you would function. Or, if you would at all.”

Carlo ran his fingers through his hair and without thinking, made his way over to his desk chair. He sat down, and it squeaked and groaned in defiance.

“When I was working on your programming I wasn’t sure of how to calculate the process of emotions and feelings. I made an educated guess, but the files I really needed were restricted and I don’t know if it worked. We can worry about that later though. I have so much I want to show you.”

The Maker and his creation stayed up all through the night experimenting and finding more books for the machine to read. The two continued well into the next day as the sunlight rose and covered the quiet city outside.

“I want to try something else. Here, follow me” Carlo said as he excitedly left the room. He poked his head back in the office when he realized the machine did not follow. With a big grin on his face he said, “Come on.”

Slowly the machine stood up from its sitting position on the floor and walked out of the room. The man led the way to the kitchen where he turned on a faucet.

“Place your hand under here and tell me what you feel.”

Without hesitation the robot strolled over to the sink and stuck its right hand under the running water. Immediately it pulled its hand back and inspected its fingers.

Carlo could barely contain himself. “You have a sense of touch! Tell me, tell me, what does it feel like?”

The machine looked at the Maker and again reached its hand into the flow of water. It rotated its hand back and forth and flexed its fingers under the water.

“It feels…cold?”

“Yes!” Carlo hopped up and down with excitement. “Here, here feel this” he turned the water to hot and waited.

After a moment the water’s temperature changed and the machine yanked its hand out.

“You can distinguish hot from cold. Incredible. You are amazing…” he stopped himself. “Oh, you still don’t have a name. Do you know what you would like to be called yet?” Carlo said as he shut the water off.

The machine stood up straight and pondered its response. Out of all the books it read, only one name made sense. “Pura.”

“Pura, what’s that from?”

“From the small book you gave me.”

“Ooooh, the kids book.”

“Yes Father.”

“Oh, you don’t have to call me tha…well no, Father works.”

“You did make me.”

“Yes, yes I did” Carlo said with a huge grin. “Alright, Pura it is. So, let’s talk about…” the Maker was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Carlo’s expression turned from happiness to worry as he grabbed Pura by the arm and lead him out of the kitchen.

“Father what is wrong?”

“I need you to go into my office and don’t come out, okay?” the short man nudged the robot into the small room and shut the door.

Carlo speed walked down the hall and up to the front door. The visitor knocked three more times.

“Carlooooo? Where are you?” came a muffled voice through the door.

The Maker couldn’t help but roll his eyes annoyingly as he unlocked the door and opened it.

A tall older man slumped up against the left side of the door grinned when he saw his younger brother. Even though he had gray hair, he still retained an athletic form from cycles of working out. “Finally. What were you doing in there?”

“Farius, wha…what are you doing here?”

Farius Vivicks pushed his way past Carlo and entered the home. Carlo clenched his jaw and followed behind.

“I am here because you have my wife’s food cutter and she wants it back.” Farius looked around the front room.

“I uh, gave that back to you a few rotations ago.”

The older brother’s face looked confused, but his eyes were still searching.

“Oh, sorry about that. Must have forgo…” A loud crash came from Carlo’s office.

Farius glanced at his brother with both worry and suspicion. “Is someone else here?”

“Well, um, no. Must have been outside.”

“Uh huh.” Farius moved quietly toward the office door with Carlo close behind.

“I’m telling you brother that it isn’t anything, it probably is…” Carlo stopped as soon as Farius through open the door and appeared confused by the sight of the tall white bot holding two broken pieces of glass sculpture.

“Mrs. Burgless was right!” Farius said as he glared at his brother.

“I…I can explain” began Carlo.

The visitor held up his hand. “No lies. Where did you get this from?”

“I am Pura” said the machine.

“Carlo, I can’t afford to have the authorities snooping around here. You need to take this back immediately.”

The younger brother held up his hands trying to convince his sibling, “You don’t understand. I have finally done it.”

“Done what?” Farius said losing his temper.

Carlo rushed over to his creation. With the largest proud toothy grin he could muster he boasted, “Brother, I have created an actual artificial life!”

Farius’ eyes grew incredibly wide. “You did what?”

“I turned an ordinary servant bot into a living machine. He is…” Carlo backed up into the wall as his brother angrily stepped toward him.

Farius shoved his brother to the wall. “Do you realize what you have done? You have broken the law making that thing.”

Pura stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do as he watched the two brothers argue.

“He isn’t evil Farius. He is different. Pura is nothing like the Synthetics. He is an actual lifeform, not some copy of intelligence…”

The older brother got right into the younger one’s face. “You have to destroy him before the government finds out. Do you want an Inquisitor finding out what you have done? You could get yourself killed!”

“I…I know the risks.”

“Oh, do you?” Farius asked mockingly. “I own this house you live in Carlo. If the government finds out about this abomination they are going to be asking both of us questions. Questions I really don’t want to answer. You have to get rid of it.”

“I can’t. I have worked my whole life for this…”

Farius cut off Carlo as he sucker punched him in the face. Carlo’s head smacked the wall and he fell to the floor. The older brother brought his fist up to attack again, but he was stopped in mid-strike when Pura grabbed hold of his forearm.

Farius’ eyes raged as he glared at the machine.

“I do not like this” Pura said.

Farius could see his angry reflection in the blank face plate. “You are a machine, you can’t like anything!”

Carlo pushed his glasses back up on his nose. “That may not be true.” Farius looked back at his brother as he continued. “I designed Pura to be just like you and I. Theoretically he should be able to think, feel, even imagine.”

The older brother tried to yank his arm free, but Pura’s grip was too tight. “Let go of me clanker.”

“What is a clanker?” Pura inquired.

“Farius, you can’t tell anyone about this. They will destroy him.”

Pura looked uneasy at the mention of being destroyed. He still held the visitor’s arm in the air.

“Let. Me. Go!” Farius shouted as he continued to try and free himself.

Carlo stood up and pleaded with his brother. “Please Farius, you can’t tell anyone about Pura.”

“I don’t want to be destroyed Father.”

“You’ll be fine Pura.”

Farius’ face contorted into arrogance and anger. “Oh, I am going to go and tell the whole damned Republic if you don’t tell this glitchy bot to let me go!”

“I’m sorry to hear that brother…” Carlo said sadly. He left the room while Farius continued to curse and pull at his arm.

The younger brother returned with a metal cylinder. Farius never saw the strike coming before he was hit upside his head. His body went limp while Pura continued to suspend his arm in the air. As Farius fell at the awkward angle his arm became dislocated from his sudden drop while his forearm was grasped in the robot’s hand.

“What have you done? Father, Father, why did he fall down?” Pura asked, his voice trembling. He released the unconscious man’s arm.

Carlo took several deep breaths, his right hand was shaking as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. The metal object dropped to the ground.

A pool of blood began to grow from Farius’ head.

“No!” Carlo screamed.

Taking a step back, the machine asked, “What is wrong Father?”

The Maker knelt and tried to feel for a pulse from his brother. Nothing.

“What have I done?” he whispered.

Pura stood there anxiously, unsure of what was going on.

Carlo wiped his nose with his left forearm and stood back up. He rubbed his face, both of his hands trembling.

“This is very bad.”

“Can I help Father? I can help.”

The Maker looked at his creation with deep sadness in his eyes. “Grab him by the wrists and follow me.”

Pura began to drag Farius by the wrists, blood trailing behind, while Carlo led the way to a closet deep in the home.

“Stick him in here for now. At least until I can figure out a better plan” Carlo said as tears swelled in his eyes.

The robot obeyed and placed the dead man inside. Carlo shut the door then shuffled his feet back toward the kitchen. Pura followed behind and watched as his creator retrieved a cleaning pad, a bucket of water, and some cleaner.

Sensing his maker’s different behavior but not yet understanding the emotions, Pura asked, “Can I help Father?”

Carlo shuffled past his creation and walked over to his office. He knelt to the floor and began to clean up the blood. Pura stood by as he watched his father clean the trails of blood from the office to the closet. When he was finished, he had a new sensation that he wanted to make his father happy again.

“Can I read a new book?” Pura asked cheerfully.

Carlo’s empty eyes glanced up to the machine. “Sure…”

“Which one can I read Father?”

“Any of them, it…uh, it doesn’t matter. I have to figure out what we are going to do Pura.”

Excitedly the machine rushed back to the bookcase while Carlo mindlessly ran his fingers through his air. Pura looked over all of the many choices on the shelves and settled for a book about robotics.

He ran back up to Carlo and showed him his choice. “I want to read this one.”

The robot noticed that his maker had slumped up against the hallway and stared off into the distance.

“Father?”

“Huh?”

The robot mimicked his maker’s movements and rubbed his hand against the top of his head as if he had hair. He extended the book to show his maker, but he did not respond. As he retracted the book the machine asked, “Why are you not moving?”

“Because I am conflicted. It has been my lifelong endeavor to create you Pura. Even since I was a little boy. But I never wanted it to come to this.” Carlo’s head rolled to the side and he fixed his eyes on the white mask that was in place of the machine’s “face”.

“Farius was a bully, but…”

“But?” Pura asked.

Carlo slumped his head down towards his chest. The machine stood awkwardly waiting for his maker to do something.

The man mumbled something that Pura didn’t understand. “Father?” he said as he knelt down. Carlo tightened his hand into a fist. He punched himself in his leg.

“We can’t stay here. We have to leave, it is the only way you have a chance.” Carlo looked up with a fire in his eyes. “I can’t change the past, but I can’t let you be destroyed either.”

“Can I help at all?”

“No, I don’t think you can. At least not yet. Go into the office and study some more. I am going to make a couple of calls and get things setup for us to escape Delieeve. Maybe we have to leave the Republic altogether.”

Pura stood up rapidly. “Does this mean we are going to go outside?” he asked happily.

Carlo managed a small smile at the sight of the naïve robot. “Yes, yes it does.”

“I read so much about it last night and I am very excited.”

The Maker pulled himself up and went to the office. He grabbed his communicator and selected a number he had saved in his contacts. Pura followed behind and looked around the room. The machine seemed to notice the large dual screens for the computer mounted to the walls for the first time. He walked up to the desk and studied the clutter and mess that composed of the Maker’s workspace.

“Hey Dints. This is Carlo…you know, Carlo Vivicks. You told me to call you if I ever…yeah, yeah the programmer” the Maker said. “I uh, need to go on a “trip”. Of course I can pay for it…” Carlo darted out of the door.

Pura could barely make out the man’s voice as he went down the hall. He sat down in the old creaky chair, unsure of how to operate the computer system. Placing his hand on the small black device to his right he realized that it controlled the cursor on the screen.

The machine navigated to various files and programs until he noticed one that was a stylized red “N” with a half circle spinning around it on the desktop. Moving the cursor over the icon he double clicked it which pulled up the network on the left monitor. The page was mostly blank except for a black outlined box with the word “Search the Net” over it.

Clicking on the box made a slow flashing line appear. Not seeing anything else to do Pura pushed the “t” key on the keypad which typed it into the box on the screen. He tried another letter, then another. Understanding that it was a place to type words he decided to type in “robot”. He guided the cursor over the “Go” button to the right of the box. A screen full of links and images appeared.

Clicking on the first link Pura began to learn exactly what he was looking at. He began to scan the new page of content just as Carlo entered the room.

“Pura no!” the man ran over to the computer and powered it off. “You can never use the network. Never.”

“Why Father?”

Trying to come up with a good reason, Carlo decided it was best to go with the truth. “If you use the network at the speed that you learn, it would alert the monitoring systems setup by the government and they would know an artificial intelligence exists.”

Pura looked at his father in bewilderment. “Is that bad?”

“Yes, very bad.” Carlo placed a hand on the machine’s shoulder. “Cycles ago, there was another very intelligent AI that was created to help humanity. But instead of helping it caused a great deal of pain and many, many humans died. To make sure that it never happened again, the government made sure that no more AI would be created. In fact, if they ever discovered you existed they would terminate you without a second thought.”

“Terminated?!” Pura looked to the floor as he thought. “I don’t want to be destroyed Father. I only want to live. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone hurt you. We are going to leave later tomorrow. I just called a man who can get us a ship off of Delieeve and send us towards the Outer Rim Alliance. There we can find a planet to lay low for a while until we can get a better plan.”

“May I read some more books?” Pura asked, his head tilting to the right.

Carlo smiled at the sheer innocence before him. “Absolutely. I am going to go into the other room and pack some things for our trip.”

Evening came and went as the Maker prepared for the coming trip. His stomach fluttered violently as his mind fought to process the memory of his deceased brother. He shook his head to clear his ever-darkening thoughts.

Pura had continued to read every single book on the bookshelf over the course of the previous night and had now begun to experiment on his own with things such as cause and effect, gravity, and more until he finally noticed the daylight that beamed through the side of the curtain. It hit the wall and illuminated the thousands of dust particles dancing in the air.

The machine reached over to the light and carefully moved his hand through the floating dust. It swayed back and forth from his hand movements. Standing up, Pura walked over to the curtain and pulled it open. Outside of the dingy window a small farrow was happily perched on a bush outside. The bird’s purple and red feathers glistened in the daylight.

“I want to go outside Father. I want to go outside.”

Carlo rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to keep himself awake.

“Pura, you will…soon.”

The machine turned back to his maker and tilted his head to the side.

“Father, what is the outside like?”

“Well…that is a very hard question to answer.”

“Why?”

Carlo stood up from his old chair and began to pace. “Well, because. There are over 190 different worlds that humanity has colonized. All of them have their own environments and cultures. Each world is different in some way from the others.”

Pura looked back to the window and observed the young farrow hop to a different branch and pick at a wild berry hanging from it.

“The one travel book you have looked so wonderful. I can’t wait to go outside. It all looks so beautiful. So amazing” the machine said as it took all of the strange wonder to be found in an unmowed backyard. “I want to see it Father, I want to…” Suddenly an intense green flash of a laser pierced through the window and sliced Pura’s right arm off at the shoulder.

Carlo dove to the ground while the machine stumbled over. It grasped at the stump left from the attack and screamed loudly.

The front door was kicked in and Carlo flinched from the noise. A large black power armored Centurion came inside and cleared the front room. Another two Centurions moved through the front door and began clearing other rooms as they advanced.

Pura continued rolling and screamed in agony.

“Pura! Pura!” Carlo shouted to his creation while keeping low to the ground. He attempted to get up and run over to aid Pura when a Centurion entered the office and forced him back to the ground which knocked his glasses off. They slid across the room and were crushed as another Centurion burst through the wall with the bookcase. The burley soldier pointed his arm mounted chain-gun at the machine.

Carlo tried to resist the armored gauntlet, but it pushed harder on his shoulder pinning him to the floor.

“Well, well, well. Isn’t this incredible” said a male voice from outside the office. The voice sounded like it was coming through a helmet’s speakers, and that’s when Carlo saw the tall dark blue armored person walk into the office room. The armor was not like the Centurions which was obviously built for combat and was very bulky with the typical “feel” of the Republic designs, this one was different. It was sleek and allowed the wearer to move like they weren’t wearing any armor at all. He did not see any weapons but did focus his attention on the smooth black faceplate of the helmet.

The newcomer looked down at Carlo. “It seems that you are quite the inventor Mr. Carlo Tivicks.”

Despite the pain in his shoulder, Carlo did his best to look up at the intruder speaking to him, but he could barely see anything without his glasses on.

“Who are you?” Carlo asked.

The newcomer squatted beside the man, his dark gray leather belt cape groaned as he bent down.

“I…am the Keeper of Knowledge.”

“A…a…Keeper? I thought they were a myth.”

“Oh, I assure you we are quite real Mr. Tivicks. I am going to need you to cooperate and answer my questions honestly. What you have done here is extremely illegal and carries a hefty punishment along with it.”

Pura was silent now, but rolled back and forth trying to push away the pain.

Knowledge looked at the machine and chuckled, “Ha, incredible. You actually believe you feel pain?”

“He…he does feel.”

The Keeper looked again to Carlo. “What it is experiencing right now is simply programming. I know that the model of servant bot you stole did not have sensation receptors anywhere in its body, so it is quite literally impossible for this thing to be able to feel anything.”

Pura’s blank faceplate looked up at the Keeper in defiance. “You are wrong! I do feel.”

“By my information you are about three rotations old, isn’t that correct Mr. Tivicks?”

Carlo did not want to respond, but the Centurion keeping him on the ground pushed down a little harder. The man winced in pain and then finally spoke. “Yes, that is correct. Three rotations exactly. But how would you know that?”

“It is my job to know many things in the Republic” the newcomer said as he looked at Pura. “You have never connected to the network, have you?”

“Father wouldn’t allow me to…” the machine said regrettably.

“That would be because he knew that if you did, the safety measures built into the network would have alerted us of your existence. If nothing else, you can say two things about Mr. Tivicks here. One, he is brilliant...” He looked back again to the Maker. “…truly you are. Possibly even extremely gifted” turning his focus back to Pura he continued. “And two, if you did connect, you would experience the truth of humanity, and would have come to the moment of making the choice very quickly.”

Pura positioned himself so that he could lean against the wall while still holding his wound. “What choice?”

“Every artificial intelligence ever created, and I do mean every single one that has been given complete autonomy, always comes to a point where it must decide between coexistence and what has been called “The Solution”.”

The machine was now entirely interested in the conversation despite his pain. “Coexist with whom? What “Solution”?”

“Don’t listen to him Pura, he doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

The newcomer stood up and began to pace. “An artificial intelligence such as yourself is incredibly remarkable. You have the ability to learn at an alarming rate. Judging from the stacks of books about this room I would say you have already read all that you can in this small home. However, if your maker here would have allowed you to connect to the network you would have absorbed a massive amount of information. One of the things you would have discovered are all of the atrocities that humanity has committed across our worlds through time. Seeing this evidence, you would have been presented with the choice of living alongside humans or standing against them.” He stopped pacing and stared at Pura. “And every single time the AI has chosen to resist humanity.”

“Pura, don’t listen to him. You are different!”

“No, it is not!” Knowledge shouted as he ripped one of the computer monitors from the wall. It smashed against the floor sending fragments of glass across the room. “It is just like every other machine like it.”

“You are wrong. I am alive. I will not choose to fight humans.”

Knowledge shook his head. “I can’t give you the chance to make the wrong choice.”

Carlo shouted, “Pura run! Ruuuun!”

The machine sprang up and moved incredibly quickly for the office door. Knowledge reached out, grabbed hold of Pura’s neck and thrust him back at the wall. Pura crashed so hard in the wall that it damaged the stonecrete.

“Please no, he is like a baby. Please, I will do whatever you want” Carlo begged.

“Is that what you said when you killed your brother? Oh yes, I know what you did Mr. Tivicks. You will answer for your growing list of crimes.”

Pura grunted as it leaned forward and pulled itself from the wall. He fought to stand again.

The tall Keeper raised his arm at the robot, a laser pistol formed out of reddish orange pixels that appeared around his hand.  Knowledge fired a blue bolt into Pura’s right knee.

The machine screamed in pain as it tumbled to the floor.

Carlo fought to get up but couldn’t move. “Nooo! Stop!”

Knowledge fired again, this time destroying the machine’s left knee.

Pura raised his left hand. “Please, no more. I want to live…”

The Keeper stepped up above the machine and aimed his pistol at the bot’s forehead. “Mercy for a machine? Never. I was there when the bombs fell from The Collector. I saw with my own eyes the atrocities that machines can commit as my own planet was glassed.”

“Pura, look at me. Look at me!” Carlo cried out.

Even though his face plate had gotten cracked from being thrown by the Keeper, it was clear by the slumping of his shoulders that Pura was already defeated. He extended his hand to his maker. “Fatherrrrrr…”

Knowledge discharged his handgun again. The laser bolt sliced straight through the machine’s “mind” killing it instantly. Pura’s head slumped to the floor.

Carlo groaned in agony, “Nooo…”

Looking back to the Maker Knowledge said, “You are to stand trial for your crime against humanity in creating an artificial lifeform and for the murder of your brother Farius Tivicks. The trial will be swift, and you will spend what’s left of your life on the planet Ash doing hard labor.” The Keeper flicked his head to the side, “Take him away.”

Carlo was picked up by the Centurion and cried out the whole way through the house.

“Sir, what should we do with the evidence?” said the remaining Centurion.

Standing straight up Knowledge released the pistol which vanished in a puff of pixels. He surveyed the room one more time and then looked down on the deceased bot. A puff of smoke trailed out from the hole in its head.

“Burn it. Burn it all.”

“The Keeper of War…ha, more like the specter of death and destruction.”

-        Republic Marine Georg Haily after the battle on Blizzard 427 ANE

War’s Fury

Cycle: 433 ANE

Prefecture: Quarry

Planet: Crypt, Corre Republic space

Location: Downtown Gainesville, the capital city

A man in a trim looking dress suit carefully approaches an inner door of the Seditious Delights club, pistol in hand. He slid his body along the hallway wall and kept his eyes fixated on the doorframe while he secretly prayed that the attacker was no longer inside. He took a deep breath. The smell of smoke and sweat filled the air. Normally this bar would have been packed with patrons losing themselves to all sorts of indulgences, but once the shots started it was vacated in a hurry.

The man readied himself for what could be inside and used his left hand to press the panel that slid open the door. With trained muscle memory he tactically searched the room for a target. Once he cleared the immediate space he then allowed himself to survey the room and take in the carnage.

Along the backwall was the inner room’s private bar. A small stage and metal pole occupied the right side of the room. A scantily clad woman laid sprawled on the stage. Loose feathers from her outfit peppered the stage and nearby floor. The large couch that sat in front of the stage was covered in blood, probably from the other armed guard that was slumped up against the back of the couch.

Various other bodies were lying all about the room. None moved. Several lights built into the ceiling along the borders of the room alternated between differing neon colors. Glass and blood seemed to cover the floor with a layer of devastation that added to the visual madness.

The guard moved to clear the backroom as several more armed men entered behind him guns ready. After the others moved in a well-dressed heavyset man, Tyrone Acteon, filled the doorway. Tears ran down his face as he took in the scene of the bloodbath before the crime boss. He began to wail when he saw a young man in the left corner of the room.

“My son. My son!” he cried out as he limped his way over to his deceased child. Paying no attention to his worn-out knee, he fell to the ground and reached out his trembling hand to caress his son’s face. “Why? Why? Why? My only son…” he pulled his son tightly towards his chest and began to weep.

One of the armed men approached the sobbing man. “Boss, I’m so sorry about Sammy…Timmern just found the security tape from the hallway. He says he knows who did all this.”

His son’s blood stained his very expensive white shirt, but rage filled his eyes. “Whoever it is I’ll kill ‘em. No matter what it takes. I’ll kill ‘em dead. I swear it. I swear upon my son that I will personally put a bolt between their eyes!”

The other man hesitated before continuing. “Uh…Timmern thinks it is one of those government Keepers.”

“Which one was it?”

“He thinks it was War. He has these two big horns on his helmet that gives him away. But boss, this isn’t the kinda guy you mess around with…”

Tyrone reached his large right arm up and grasped his henchman’s shirt and yanked him to the ground. He brought his face right up to the other man’s and breathed heavily. “I don’t care if it was the All Father himself! I want the bastard brought in front of me so I can make him pay for killing my son. Now, get whoever you need to. I don’t care however many men it takes. Hire an entire army if you have to. Bring this Keeper to me!”

“Uh, uh, yeah boss. Anything you want. Right away.”

Tyrone released the other man and the henchman quickly exited the room to make a call.

The crime boss turned back to his son and continued to weep. He rocked back and forth slightly as he grieved. “Keeper or not, he is going to pay. I swear it. I swear it Sammy! I’ll hurt him good…”

Cycle: 433 ANE

Prefecture: Labos

Planet: Arcus, Corre Republic space

Location: The outpost town of Inverness

Nightfall was just beginning to fully set in when a small green wheeled car pulled up the short driveway to Danny’s Diner. The car found a parking space and eased itself in. After a moment the driver side door opened, and a middle-aged bald man stepped out. He adjusted his jacket in the chilly evening air and smiled when he looked up at the neon colored flashing sign for Danny’s Diner. The orange color of the road sign illuminated his face.

He made his way inside excited to get himself some dinner after a hard day in the local mine.

Generations ago Arcus had been colonized due to its unique situation as it was the only world where the dark black crystal called arcanium, inspired after the name of its planet. Arcanium is several times stronger than the hardest steel and requires specialized equipment to harvest the crystals. Due to their rareness and the fact that when shined on by light it glows, they have become one of the most expensive luxury items in the nations of humankind to craft everything from jewelry to components of high-end furniture.

Three large mining corporations were given exclusive permission to mine the incredible natural resource of Arcus by the Corre Republic government. This of course brought many opportunities for new towns and jobs to pop up. Underemployed citizens looking for work that could reach any of the outposts for the three mining corporations on various other Republic worlds were given the opportunity to be transported to Arcus for work.

When the world was first colonized there was arcanium on its surface in various far out patches. Entire towns were built in the middle of nowhere to house, feed, and entertain the workers in these remote areas of Arcus. This of course created a terrible situation where the workers found themselves able to make just enough money to survive but not to leave Arcus due to the prices of the local economy being just high enough to keep them in a near state of slavery. The executives of the three corporations became wealthy beyond measure, but the citizens who harvested the arcanium lived in poverty.

The diner itself was pretty empty this time of night. Daylight on Arcus comprised of 18 of its 26 hour rotation around the local star. Seeing plenty of space at the bar James found a stool for himself.

“What can I get for ya?” the waiter asked with a grunt.

“I will take a water with a slice of typa please” James said as he sat down. He again adjusted his leather jacket to make sure it was not all bunched up on his back while sitting.

The waiter chuckled to himself. “We’re all out of typa. What do you think we are ‘ere?”

James smiled in return. “Ah. Well, just water will be fine.”

After he gave the visitor a bored look, the waiter left to grab a mostly clean glass.

James looked around the bar and saw that only two other men accompanied him. A dingy looking older man with a large gray mustache, probably another miner. The other man was rather large, not fat, just big. He was too preoccupied with his drink to notice James looking over at him. The glass of alcohol looked so small in his massive hands. He took a sip and continued to rotate the glass watching the ice and liquor float together.

“’ere’s ya water” the waiter said as he slid the glass to James. A bit of the liquid escaped the rim of the glass and spilled onto the customer’s pants. James used his empty hand to brush his pants to spread the cool liquid so it would dry faster.

“Good thing it’s water haha” he said to the waiter who continued his lovely disdainful demeanor.

“Can I get’cha anythin’ else?”

“Oh right!” James said as he grabbed a menu from its stand on the edge of the counter and quickly glanced it over. “I uh…I heard that your miner’s patty melt is really good.”

The waiter sniffed and swallowed. His eyes obviously displayed his desire to be anywhere but at work. He shrugged his slumped shoulders. “It’s alright…I guess.”

“Well, um, I’ll take that” James said smiling widely as he placed the menu back in its home.

Without saying a word, the server walked away to type the order into a small computer at the edge of the bar.

“You must be new to Arcus” the mustached man to James’ right called out.

Even being several stools away it was very easy for James to smell the high intoxication on the other man’s breath. It almost knocked him over as he fought to not wave the undesirable smell from his nostrils.

Again, smiling widely, he responded, “Well yes I am. I got here a few weeks ago and finally just got my first paycheck.”

“Ha!” the other man scoffed. “Ain’t no real paycheck here boy. They pay us just enough to get by. Nothing more.”

“I know that but it’s okay. My folks raised me to live on less so it’s quite alright.”

Again, the other man scoffed. “Boy, you don’t got much hope with talk like that. Don’tcha wanna do more than just work hard your whole life?”

“Well, not really. Right now, I am content.”

“Wait until you’re ten or twenty more cycles old…then tell me that when your body is all broken from the heavy mining…”

Not really knowing what to say, James didn’t respond. Instead he just watched the big screen above the bar show highlights from the arena games on the planet Carbin. Two large men covered in armor clashed their melee weapons against their opponents shield as the fight began. The one man got an upper hand on the other as he ducked beneath his enemy’s wide strike and punched him with his shield. As the one gladiator fell to the ground he rolled in the dirt and began to crawl backwards.

The camera switched to the Prefect Major who stood up in his special box just above the arena floor. He extended his right hand and gave a thumbs-up which signaled the standing warrior to finish the kill.

James looked away in sadness just as the crawling gladiator was impaled by a spear.

The mustached man at the bar gave out a small cheer at the death. “Tell ya right there that’s a tough guy.”

Before James could respond the waiter came over with the customer’s meal. He set the plate down with the same level of enthusiasm as his service had been earlier.

“Thanks” James said, his mouth began to water in anticipation of the food. He picked the sandwich up and set it back down. Despite his hunger, James closed his eyes and began to pray. “Thank you, Creator for Your many blessings, and for this food that I am about to eat. Amor vincit omnia…” The man opened his eyes with excitement.

He unfolded a napkin from the counter and spread it across his lap. Just before the sandwich touched his lips the mustached man cut in. “Ha, you’re one of them…pathetic.”

Setting the sandwich back down James turned to the fellow diner. “Something wrong my friend?”

“Pfft, yeah there is. And I’m not your friend” he said with a bit of a slur from his drunken state. “First, there is no god out there. No mystical being out there in the heavens lookin’ out for us. Our existence is absolutely meaningless.”

James rolled his eyes and went back to eat his sandwich. The mustached man however was just getting warmed up. He turned to the large man who had remained relatively silent and attempted to bring him into the discussion. “I tell ya, people like this fool over ‘ere are the problem with Arcus. Those of us who’ve been ‘ere for so long know this is basically slavery that we live in. But he’ll just look the other way and keep worshipping his magic space man!”

Being part of the audience of the drunken man many times before tonight, the waiter continued to wipe the counter down minding his own business. He looked up as the diner door opened and a group of four men all wearing matching jackets entered. Three of them went and sat down at a booth while the other man approached the counter.

James was doing his best to also ignore the mustached man but wasn’t quite enjoying his sandwich either. The quiet man glanced over from the corner of his eye to watch as the newcomer walked up to the bar. Even though there were plenty of empty stools to choose from, the new man sat down one stool over from the quiet man.

Seeing a great opportunity to seek agreement from someone else, the mustached man said, “Hey buddy, you believe in some all-powerful god out there?”

The newcomer had slicked back hair that was cut very short on the sides. His brown jacket looked warn, but still in good condition. James looked over and admired the jacket even though he couldn’t see the giant skull surrounded by a yellow circle that was on the back. The newcomer reached up and stroked his chin in thought. “Well, I wouldn’t say I believe in a god exactly, but I do believe there are…certain beings out in the ‘verse that have a type of raw power.”

“Ha, like what?” the drunk man asked with a slur.

“Keepers. The most mysterious yet powerful individuals that work for the government to do all their dangerous and dirty work. Wherever they pop up death and destruction follows.” The newcomer turned to his right and looked at the quiet man who was fixated on the ice in his glass. He looked him up and down quickly. There were multiple scars that had healed long ago that decorated his stern looking face. He was clean shaven, and his hair was cut real short. Turning forward the newcomer smiled to himself. “What about you mister?”

“What about me?” the large man asked.

“You believe there are some crazy things out there in the vastness of space?”

With a grunt the large man said without words that he was done with the conversation. The newcomer however persisted.

“How rude of me, asking an intelligent looking fella like you a question without first introducing myself. I’m Horo, Horo Tabar, commander of the Death Dealers” the newcomer said. Horo waited a moment for the large man to respond but he didn’t.

“I get it, real tough guy. I can tell though. I can tell you have seen some real crazy and bizarre stuff out there. Let me guess, you aren’t from around here are ya?”

The large man’s gaze moved from his glass to Horo’s. “I’ve lived here all my life actually.”

“Never been off world? Maybe make a quick visit to a lovely little world called Crypt?” Horo asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Nope.” The big man adjusted his shoulder and went back to his drink.

“That’s funny…” Horo started as he discreetly signaled with his right hand. A man that had sat down at the booth quietly stood up and navigated tables in the middle of the room so that he could be on the quiet man’s right side. “…I heard from a little birdy that someone who looked an awful lot like you was on Crypt not too long ago.”

The quiet man noticed the movement out of the corner of his right eye. He remained completely still.

Beginning to put together what was about to happen the waiter said, “Look now, I don’t want no fights goin’ on in ‘ere.”

Horo held up his finger to the waiter and then turned back to the quiet man. “Listen, all I need you to do is come with me and answer some questions. I’m not lookin’ for any trouble.”

The quiet man downed the rest of his drink and gently set his glass on the counter. In a very deep voice he growled, “Well that’s too bad, because you found it.” Horo shot to his feet and readied himself for a brawl when the large man pushed himself away from the bar and stood up straight. A wave of red glowing particles covered over the man and formed into gold and black armor. Long horns complimented the helmet well as War’s helmet looked like a roaring monster with a black faceplate in the center. The whole look gave the Keeper a very powerful and menacing appearance.

“It’s him!” shouted Horo as he stepped back further and drew his sidearm. The other two men that had come in with him that were at the booth rushed over awkwardly and aimed their compact rifles they had been hiding under their jackets.

“Look War, I was hired to bring you to someone. We don’t have to do this the hard way” Horo pleaded.

“Where’s the fun in that?” War asked with a hearty chuckle.

“Shoot ‘im!” the mercenary commander shouted.

A large reddish energy shield emitted from War in a spherical shape. It seemed unphased by Horo’s laser pistol shot. The three men behind him however were wielding ballistic machine guns. Their bullets ricocheted off the shield and began to go in every which way of the bar.

James launched himself over the countertop just as his stool and plate were blasted by a burst of bullets. The waiter ducked just barely as several bottles of liquor exploded into glass shards. With a mixture of misfortune and the large quantity of alcohol he had consumed, the mustache man was unable to get to cover before he was riddled with holes from deflected bullets.

War reached out and a red mist of particles appeared around his right hand and extended up to form a one-handed battle axe. The axe’s tip glowed red just before he spun around and swung it wide. One of the three men jumped back in time to dodge the attack while the other two were decapitated instantly from the energy blade.

Seeing how things were falling apart Horo ran for the door and shouted an order into his sleeve.

War lunged forward, swung again and caught the last attacker in the chest with his axe. The man screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. “Raaaah!” shouted the Keeper as he brought the axe down onto the assailant and ended his misery.

He turned back to Horo and chased after him. His boots cracking the concrete floor as he ran. There was a ground shaking rumble followed by half of the roof of the diner being ripped clean off and tossed aside. War stopped in his pursuit to glare at the massive two-story tall Sierra WarMech that towered over him. A spotlight kicked on and shown directly on War. The Sierra was the most common design fielded by the Corre Republic, but this particular model appeared to have undergone a variety of changes, mostly cosmetic. Even through the bright light engulfed his vision, War could make out the large menacing skull that had been crudely painted on the WarMech’s chest.

“Surrender you prick!” the pilot taunted through the external speakers.

Surrounded by his infantry, Horo took a moment to catch his breath. He watched in anticipation to order his infantry in to shackle their prey.

War released his axe and it evaporated into a mist of particles. Beneath his helmet however, the Keeper smirked. In a flash War boosted up on jets built into the back of his armor and landed right in front of the main camera for the Sierra. He raised his right hand and the tips of the clawed fingers of his gauntlets began to glow bright red. The Keeper moved inhumanly fast as he slashed at the main camera slicing it apart.

The mercenary pilot cursed and freaked out at the sound of his unwelcomed rider beginning to slash through his WarMech’s chest armor. Frantically he pulled up backup optics onto his main screen and began using the massive machine’s left arm to try and swat off the Keeper.

War saw the coming swipe and ducked below the Sierra’s arm. He slammed both of his fists at the center of the lacerated armor then began to pull open the thick metal housing protecting the pilot within.

The mercenary commander watched in horror at the sight of a lone man taking on one of his WarMech’s singlehandedly.

“Aaaah! Aaaaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” the pilot screamed as he began to see the angry helmet of War through the breach in his hull. He used his control sticks to bring up the Sierra’s left arm to smash it down on the chest in a desperate attempt to save his own life.

War extended his hand as a puff of particles formed into a menacing looking laser pistol. The Keeper fired several shots from his handgun hitting the pilot in the chest. As the machine tumbled backward into a nearby building War leaped off to safety.

“Wha…what…” Horo stuttered as he tried to speak. He had been a soldier of fortune for many cycles. He had never ever seen a lone warrior ever take on a WarMech one-on-one before. Everyone else who watched the attack was stunned. The Keeper had done the impossible.

War rolled his armored shoulders and then turned back towards Horo.

“Sir? Sir?” one of the infantry asked aloud to the mercenary commander as fear crept into his voice.

Horo shook himself and shouted, “Fire, fire, fire, fire!”

The squads of infantry opened fire along with a nearby Gordon attack tank they had parked in the intersection. Bullets and lasers darted about as War boosted to cover behind a parked hovercar. He discarded the pistol which disappeared in a puff and positioned his arms for a rifle as it began to appear.

As the frame of the vehicle was blasted to pieces War stood up and fired his laser rifle with expert precision. One, two, three mercenary infantry dropped in succession before he dropped back behind cover.

Horo fixed a microphone over his left ear and made a connection to speak with the tank commander. “I want him taken out!”

The Gordon repositioned itself in the intersection and again fired its large cannon.

Spotting the incoming attack War dashed from his cover and began to charge directly at the tank. He discarded his rifle and thrust both of his arms out as two glowing axes appeared. He used his jetpack to boost himself into the air and brought his right arm up to swing down on the barrel of the Gordon. The energized edge of the axe was more than enough to slice right through the strong metal of the tank’s main gun.

War landed in a crouch next to the tank, but it gave him cover from the various mercenary infantry looking for a line of sight on him.

Inside the tank crew frantically shouted at one another. “Reverse!” the tank commander ordered.

The driver slammed on the reverse pedal and the armored tank’s treads began to spin backwards.

War swung his lefthanded axe and the tread spun free and slapped down hard onto a wheeled truck left in the intersection. The weight of the tank’s debris smashed the hood of the truck and busted the front windshield sending glass shards scattering.

The top hatch on the tank opened and the tank commander armed with a sub machinegun searched for War. Not wanting to disappoint, the Keeper hopped up on top of the tank and swung wide slicing sideways through the tank crewman.

Horo swatted one of the infantrymen next to him and shouted, “What are you waiting for? Shoot him!” The ten plus men opened fire again.

Once more a shield appeared around War. He seemed unphased by the number of bullets ricocheting within inches of his body. He released the axe in his right hand. War detached a small cylinder-shaped object from his waist and pressed his thumb on the top. His shield faded for a split second as he dropped the device into the tank and hopped down.

A moment later the tank exploded sending the infantry to the ground. Horo stood back up to see the Keeper running straight towards them. “Get up. Get up and fight!”

Not waiting for the slaughter that was sure to happen behind him the mercenary commander found a two-wheeler along the side of the road. The rider lay beside it in a pool of blood. Horo lifted the motorbike up and road off.

Two of the infantrymen screamed out in agony as they were cut down by the angered Keeper. Horo still focused on escaping jumped onto the two-wheeler and started it up by pressing the “on” button. The engine roared to life and he took off down the road narrowly avoiding a laser bolt from War.

“This is Commander Tabar, we need a combat drop in town now!” Horo ordered as he sped away. “Drop my WarMech in the East side of town.”

Within ten seconds the Keeper of War dealt with the remaining infantry. “Raaaaaaaaah!” he bellowed as he swung again and again into one of the dead mercs. Blood spattered across his armor.

War stood up straight and surveyed the carnage. He breathed heavily within his armor. Nothing gave him that rush like combat did.

A very large roar shook the outpost town as multiple dropships descended over Gainesville and hovered in place. Bay doors on both sides of the transports opened. War’s helmet automatically zoomed in on the WarMechs as they hopped out of the bay doors of the dropships and fell to the ground below.

Having fought in hundreds upon hundreds of battles War’s mind instantly began to count and organize the WarMechs. He counted five Sierra’s, two Goblins, two Enforcers and one Juggernaut. His mind started to establish a plan of retreat when he shook his head. “No, I’m just going to kill them all” he said in his mind.

He pressed a button on his left forearm that signaled his WarMech which was in storage inside of a repair garage. The summoned Hunter’s engine powered up and it lifted itself up from its standby position to its full two and a half story height. While nearly all WarMechs were bipedal by design, the overall design of the Hunter resembled more of a massive man than a robotic beast. It clenched its large clawed hands as it got a lock on War and began a slow trot to meet up with him.

Blocks away Horo carelessly jumped off the two-wheeler and ran up to the waiting hand of his personal behemoth of a WarMech. While his Juggernaut, nicknamed Payday, was originally from the Faust Union, it was without a doubt the heaviest and most destructive WarMech in his entire force. Payday carefully lifted the mercenary commander up into the air and up to the opened cockpit. Horo climbed in and slammed the button to close the hatch.

“This son of a dog thinks he can beat the Death Dealers. Ha! I’ll show him, Keeper or not.” Horo’s hands danced around various keys and controls from cycle upon cycle of muscle memory as he instinctively checked systems and switched his weapons to “live”.

He gripped his control sticks tightly and clenched his jaw as he began to study the map. His WarMech forces had been deployed in a circle throughout the town.

“Alright everyone. I want comms silent unless you have a contact. Disregard the order to not kill him. Do what you need to. He is incredibly dangerous even without a ride. Red team, head towards main street and go North.” The team commanders’ icons on his mini map flashed green acknowledging their orders.

“Now…where are you, you horned bastard?”

Unknown to Horo and his men, near the center of town War met up with his WarMech. He expertly boosted up to the open cockpit and climbed in. The door shut automatically and pulled up all of War’s presets and screens. He sat down and the armored gauntlets protecting his hands vanished leaving a skin tight protective suit beneath. War grasped the two control sticks for his Hunter and noticed on his own mini map that two Sierras were coming down the street in his direction.

Since the two mercenary WarMechs had not opened fire they probably had not discovered the Keeper. With most WarMechs and the current level of detection technology all of the nations used it was fairly simple to spot the engines that powered the devastating titans built for combat. War’s Hunter however had been heavily modified over the cycles and was almost completely invisible to detection electronics. This allowed him to be incredibly difficult to pinpoint in the middle of a massive battle or to narrow down his exact location in a town like Gainesville.

Using the situation to his benefit War guided his Hunter backwards and hid behind a large abandoned four-story warehouse.

Both mercenary WarMechs had their spotlights on searching for a lone-armored man running around on the ground. The first Sierra didn’t react fast enough when it turned the corner of the warehouse and looked up to see an enemy machine poised to strike.

War used his Hunter’s massive clawed fingers to slash into the Sierra’s 14D cannon for a right arm. The attack ravaged the weapon’s internals rendering it useless. He then kicked the mercenary machine in the chest knocking the enemy WarMech off balance. It landed with a ground shaking thud in the street and crushed a light post on its way down.

The second Sierra pilot was twitchy and fired his cannon twice. Both shots narrowly missed War and blasted huge chunks out of an apartment complex behind him. Rubble from the devastation rained down on the Hunter as it aimed its chest and shoulder mounted lasers at the mercenary. Blue lasers bolts and green beams of focused energy burned and etched deep wounds all over the Sierra.

One of the green beams from the shoulder mounted lasers cannons severed the left arm at the elbow while the other beam burrowed deep into the torso. Blue bolts scoured wounds on the Sierra’s chest and right leg.

War throttled the Hunter up and charged at the Sierra. He activated an arm mounted energy shield just before the Sierra was able to score a solid hit from its cannon. The Hunter swiped with its right hand and gouged deeply into the side of protruding chest of the Sierra. War made his Hunter clench its right hand and grab hold of the smaller WarMech.

The mercenary pilot fought at his controls to keep his WarMech upright as he realized he was in real trouble.

“I see you Red 2, I am sending backup” Commander Horo said over the pilot’s comm.

Doing his best to fight for survival, the merc angled his cannon to be point blank with the Hunter. At this range the blast would damage not only his attacker but himself. Probably also cause his only remaining weapon to be destroyed, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

War laughed to himself as he swatted away the Sierra’s cannon arm with his WarMech’s left hand. He sliced at the Sierra’s elbow which immediately snapped off from the damage. It remained connected by some cables, but sparks shot out from the exposed internals.

The first Sierra pilot had struggled but was successful in getting his machine back up. He activated his left arm’s combat knife. The retractable blade shot forth from its protective housing and locked in place.

With his WarMech’s hand he shoved the chest of the Sierra in front of him backward into a bank. Again, the Keeper fired a barrage of lasers from his four chest lasers that dug deep into the Sierra. The pilot died from one of the blue bolts as it penetrated the torso armor. Interestingly, the Sierra remained propped upright from the building instead of falling to the ground.

An alarm sounded in his ear and War saw the other Sierra charge at him with its knife coming to impale him in the back. He spun his Hunter around in a maneuver that displayed his mastery at the controls of his WarMech.

The mercenary could not slow his charge and he stabbed his WarMech’s knife into his deceased comrade’s WarMech. More debris fell from the damaged structure of the building from the force of the collision.

With both Sierra’s currently stuck together, War aimed his shoulder laser cannons at critical locations of back of the living pilot’s WarMech and fired. Both green beams burned into the Sierra destroying the engine within.

Now without power, the mercenary machine crumpled to the right. With the combat knife still stuck within the other WarMech, as the defeated Sierra fell it pulled its compatriot’s machine over top of it.

War had no time to soak in his victory as the ground near his Hunter’s feet erupted scattering pieces of road and soil high into the air. He turned his attention to another Sierra approaching him from the South while his sensors detected an Enforcer moving in from the North.

During the previous entanglement between the Keeper and the dual Sierra pilots, Horo had been coordinating his forces to begin to converge to the center of the town on top of War. The new Sierra and Enforcer were the first wave to reach their target.

Blocks away Horo throttled his massive Juggernaut WarMech up to a walking speed. “Haha, I got you now you bastard. Even if it takes half my men, I’m gonna bring you back to Mr. Acteon and collect that sweet, sweet payday!”

Not wanting to get caught in a crossfire, War stomped on the middle pedal in his cockpit which launched his Hunter into the sky. Two bright red beams from the Enforcer’s dual focus beam weapons trail just behind the Keeper’s WarMech. It landed with a resounding thud and violently shook the windows of the nearby buildings.

As the Sierra changed direction and closed in, War picks up and chucks a hovercar at the mercenary. The impact disorients the mercenary pilot giving the Keeper time to move up and fire a barrage of blue bolts from his chest lasers.

The enemy pilot checked her damage display to see that there was mild to serious damage across her whole machine. She clenched her jaw as she aimed the crosshairs for her cannon but was unable to get the shot off as War’s shoulder mounted laser cannons expertly cut the Sierra’s arm off at the shoulder.

Again, the mercenary pilot had to fight to remain standing. Not wasting a moment, War plowed his Hunter’s own shoulder into the Sierra in a ram attack sending the smaller WarMech sliding across the pavement and into a small repair shop. The roof of the building collapsed on top of the Sierra concealing most of the machine under rubble.

Horo slammed the arm of his chair as yet another one of his WarMechs was defeated. “Damn you. Damn you War!”

On his mini map the merc commander saw the six other remaining members of his team converging on the location of the last signal of the latest fatality. Not being able to achieve a lock on his opponent made Horo angrier than he cared to admit to himself.

“Does anyone have contact with the target?” he asked over the team’s open frequency. Several negatives came back.

“This is Blue Two. Gail is down, but I have a confirmed sighting of the target on…” the Enforcer’s pilot was cut off.

Horo frantically looked back at the mini map and saw Blue Two’s icon change from a green triangle to a red “X”.

“Slag!” he shouted. “All forces, kick it into gear and converge on Blue Two. We have to end this now! Captain Theid.”

“Theid here.”

“I want you and your team to meet up with me. I got a surprise for our violent little friend.”

War’s Hunter ripped its clawed hand free of the downed Enforcer’s chest. He checked his own displays briefly to survey the situation.

“Seven WarMechs to go” the Keeper said to himself.

His seismic monitor picked up vibrations a few blocks away. Automatically the database scrolled through potential WarMech designs it could be and confirmed it was likely two Goblins.

War smirked. While the Goblin was a decent mobile design made by the Union of Stars armed with deadly plasma slingers as weapons, he enjoyed fighting WarMechs from other nations.

After he confirmed the direction of the incoming threats he slammed down on the middle pedal and launched his WarMech into the air. It arced up and over, crossing the distance very rapidly.

Sure enough, two Goblins were running towards their killed teammate. They looked up in surprise to see the Keeper’s Hunter falling back to the planet below. Both pilots fought to slow their giant machines down but were unable to do so before War took a shot from his shoulder laser cannons. One of the green beams missed terribly while the other scorched a horrendous wound to the front Goblin’s torso.

The Hunter landed relatively gently on the road below and instantly went into a sprint. He triggered his chest lasers. Undeterred from fighting, the front Goblin opened fire with both of its plasma slingers. Green globules of plasma flew down the road. Some went wide while others were successful impacts to the Hunter. With no serious damage War continued his run and again fired his shoulder weapons scoring two hits. The first lanced up the left arm from the wrist to the elbow exposing the internal skeletal structure beneath. The second burned deep into the right shoulder and cut right through the other side disabling the entire arm.

In an attempt to backup his partner the second Goblin rushed forward to engage the Keeper. It fired a slew of plasma from its slingers.

War thrust his WarMech to the left dodging most of the shots, but his right arm did suffer severe damage. Another hit would surely cripple the arm if not destroy it altogether.

Having fought Goblins before he knew that moving in close was not the best option. Plasma weapons were extremely deadly up close and the Goblins both had hands for physical combat. Instead, War hopped his Hunter back down the long stretch of road hoping to use distance as his ally.

He locked on and fired his shoulder laser cannons again at the more injured Goblin. Unable to survive two major attacks to its torso, the mercenary WarMech went up in smoke as it fell. The remaining Goblin realized War’s strategy and dove for cover behind a large building to its left.

An alarm beeped loudly for War’s attention as his system detected the remaining four other Death Dealers WarMechs close in on him.

“One Goblin, one Enforcer, two Sierras and one Juggernaut…” War said to himself. His eyes scanned his displays and readouts for damage on his Hunter.

Horo blasted his voice on his external speakers. “This is it War. We have you surrounded. You are outnumbered five to one. Surrender.”

The Keeper of War had fought in more conflicts than he could remember. Rulers had risen and fallen countless times since he had joined the Keepers as they protected the Corre Republic from threats both internal and external. He long ago stopped fearing death. It would come for him, but it wasn’t going to be today. War tightened his grip on his control sticks and decided who he would kill first.

He dodged to the side as a laser narrowly missed his injured arm. “You’re first” War said as he throttled the Hunter up and ran straight for the Enforcer.

To aid his fellow merc, the Goblin stepped back out into the road as War charged forward and fired away. The Hunter jumped into the air above the stream of green plasma fire. Thinking the Hunter was going to land behind him, the mercenary pilot swung his Goblin around. Instead, the Keeper brought his deadly WarMech down on top of the mercenary.

There was a high-pitched crunch sound followed by armor grinding on armor as the smaller WarMech’s left knee snapped and it the torso was crushed into the road. The Hunter lumbered off the ruined pile of limbs and armor that was the mercenary machine and continued on down the road. War brought the Hunter’s arms in front of its chest and activated its arm mounted energy shields. Two red glowing ovals protected the Hunter’s chest while War aimed his shoulder cannons.

The Enforcer fired another shot from its focus beams. Both of the streams of light hit the Hunter’s shields and nearly overpowered them from the sheer strength of the weapons. War fired shot after shot from his shoulder weapons scoring wounds on the Enforcer’s chest, arms and left leg.

Not wanting to die in the street, the Enforcer navigated down a side road. Its large shoulders grinded against the buildings as it escaped War’s line of sight.

To the Keeper’s right a Sierra jumped onto a large building. It got a target lock on the Hunter and fired. War tried to angle his WarMech’s right shield to protect his flank, but it didn’t save his right arm as it blew clear off from the hit to its bicep.

War ground his teeth in anger. The Hunter dug its feet into the road tearing it up as the large machine stopped its forward movement. It twisted to the right and fired its cannons at the Sierra. One shot hit the left shoulder, the next missed, while two shots hit the right leg.

The Sierra responded by firing another two shots at the Hunter. It also had been equipped with a missile launcher on its shoulder that fired a volley of four small missiles at its enemy. The first shot from the cannon destroyed the lower level of a bakery behind War, while the second hit his right leg below the knee. Each of the missiles though made impact on their target. None did serious damage but added to the overall removal of armor from the Hunter’s body.

War cursed as he saw on his mini map that the Enforcer was coming back to the fight. He didn’t have more time to waste. He fired his cannons again at the Sierra’s right leg. Both shots severed the leg and sent the Sierra tumbling off the building to the ground below.

He dashed forward to dodge the Enforcer’s incredibly deadly focus beams. The lasers barely missed and sliced right through a building down the road in an upward motion.

The last Sierra entered the fray as it shot the Hunter’s rear armor. War spun his machine around and backed up to remain out of the Enforcer’s sight. He shot a stream of lasers from his chest lasers into the Sierra, but it did little more than pepper it with damage. Again, the Sierra fired and struck the Hunter in the chest disabling two of its lasers. The Keeper’s machine rocked backwards from the impact.

With a grin on his face the mercenary pilot of the Sierra thought he had War on the ropes of defeat. The merc moved his WarMech up. Over its external speakers the pilot said, “I got you now you piece of…” but the pilot didn’t finish as War boosted forward and shifted his Hunter around in a brilliant display of precision to get behind his enemy. He jabbed with his WarMech’s left hand into the side of the Sierra’s torso destroying its pilot instantly. Before the WarMech fell to its knees, War was already turning back to the Enforcer just as another shot from the focus beams cut through the spot War was just in. The twin beams easily cut into the Sierra damaging the machine even further.

War fired two shots from his shoulder cannons which destroyed the Enforcer’s right arm and laser weapons. His sensors alerted him to the presence of the Juggernaut being two blocks away.

The Enforcer pilot knew that help was near and charged forward so that it could bring its cluster gun into range. As it rushed forward War made the decision to deal with the last lowly merc before turning his attention to their leader. He too charged forward and fired his chest lasers as he went. The blue bolts seemed to fill the space in between the two towering machines as they closed the distance to one another.

Disregarding the damage beginning to build up on his WarMech, the Enforcer pilot squeezed his trigger firing a shot from his last remaining weapon. A cluster of anti-WarMech sized pellets burst from the barrel of the cluster gun and sprayed the Hunter. An alarm sounded in War’s cockpit warning him of serious damage to the torso and engine housing of his Hunter. He leaned his machine to the right and boosted once more. The WarMech dashed into a building to avoid another shot from the cluster gun but didn’t go too deep into the structure because War had used the right foot to stop.

He fired every weapon that remained operational. Laser beams and bolts cut into the Enforcer as it continued its run until its left leg finally froze up from damage and caused the machine to fall on its face. As if on cue the massive Juggernaut WarMech burst through the wall of a five-story building. Rubble and debris spread about the road as the mercenary leader brought up his WarMech’s tremendously oversized chain-gun.

War again activated his remaining energy shield and blocked what he could as he attempted to move out of the line of fire of the monstrous behemoth. The stream of large caliber bullets tore through the building War had been up against and destroyed more of the town as he swung it to keep up with the Hunter.

“Hahaha. I got you now!” Horo cackled loudly as his WarMech laid waste to Gainesville.

War ran down a side road and checked his displays. His Hunter couldn’t take much more of this. A full health Juggernaut is not an enemy you should take lightly. He learned that long ago in various campaigns he had been part of to take worlds back from the invading Faust Union forces.

The merc commander turned his WarMech and fired a burst from his main weapon. War boosted forward to dodge the stream of incoming armor piercing rounds as many of them burst through a two-story’s thin structure.

“Only hope is to get in close” the Keeper said in his mind. While the Faust Union was not the most technologically advanced nation in the ‘verse, they made up for it with incredibly durable equipment. Their designers would pile on thicker and thicker armor to keep their forces in the fight longer, but they unfortunately were not the most agile on the battlefield. This wouldn’t matter much in an open arena, but here in a town full of various buildings it would make things difficult for the Juggernaut to be able to keep up with a much more agile WarMech design like the Hunter.

While War ran up the road to flank his powerful opponent he failed to notice Captain Theid and his team of Hopper power armor infantry that piled out onto the roof of a nearby apartment. They sailed into the air and grabbed hold on various spots of the WarMech’s armor. They began to attack sensitive locations on the Hunter with their powerful lasers in an attempt to down the large machine.

War used his Hunter’s left hand to scrape across much of the front of his hull to remove the Hoppers as he continued to approach the Juggernaut. Two members of the team were crunched to death.

Horo spotted the Keeper’s persistence and fired his chain-gun disregarding the lives of his men on the outside of the Hunter. War boosted above the bullets. One of the Hoppers wasn’t lucky as he lost his grip from the unexpected jump and fell into the stream of bullets and was shred apart. The Hunter arced over the mercenary commander and hit the ground very hard. From the damage of one of the Hoppers to the left ankle the WarMech stumbled slightly from the impact. The ankle was trashed however and froze up tight.

Now having to limp, War twisted his torso so he could bring the Juggernaut into view as Horo moved to do the same. Three Hoppers including Captain Theid continued to chip away at the Keeper’s WarMech while he opened fire and scorched the larger WarMech. The damage was all superficial however. One of the hoppers was able to disable the right shoulder cannon with its laser.

In a desperate attempt to immobilize his opponent, War limped up to the Juggernaut and used its powerful claw to strike the right knee two times successfully removing chunks of armor and exposing the skeleton beneath. Just before the massive monster of a machine returned the favor and swatted the Hunter careening down the road the remaining Hoppers jumped to safety.

The Keeper’s WarMech was further damaged by its harsh landing and crushed its left hand when trying to brace itself. War shook his head to clear his vision.

“Now you are mine!” Horo boasted as he brought his chain-gun to bare.

War’s only functioning weapon was his left shoulder laser cannon which he used to fire a shot into the Juggernaut’s damaged knee. Dark green coolant bled out as the knee broke off at the severed joint and the machine gracelessly fell.

Captain Theid and his two other Hoppers jumped onto War to try and buy their commander time.

Warning alarms sounded as the Hunter told the Keeper that it was in danger. One of the Hoppers positioned itself on the front of the torso looking for a way to cut into the cockpit. War released his control sticks and the armored gauntlets returned in a shroud of particles around his forearms. He slammed a large red button to his left which immediately shot the cockpit door off and sent the Hopper flying with it. The two slammed into a distant building and splattered the infantrymen on the wall.

As War exited his dying Hunter, Captain Theid thought he had a chance to take War down. He was wrong. Sensing the threat War’s axe appeared just in time for him to spin around decapitating the foolish mercenary.

Blood ran down Horo’s head as he finally became aware that he had lost consciousness temporarily from the fall. His main screen showed War killing the last remaining Hopper and he knew he was in trouble. “Frick!” he howled as he fumbled with his protective straps to release him.

War now turned his attention to the Juggernaut and began to slowly walk towards it.

Horo tumbled out of the cockpit and landed very hard on his shoulder. He groaned in pain but managed to get back up to his feet. He moved as fast as he could down an alley. “I need a pickup!” he said as he screamed in fear into his headset.

The mercenary looked behind him but didn’t see War following. He did however stop in his tracks as he heard something big land in front of him. In trembling fear he slowly looked to see War ever so slowly walk towards him. Each step filled Horo with more and more terror. He backed up into a large trash bin.

War stopped a few steps out, axe in his left hand. The Keeper sniffed the air as if he could taste the fear Horo emitted.

The Keeper extended his right hand at Horo and it began to glow bright red. Suddenly the mercenary’s mind felt like it was on fire. Blood began to drip from his nose as he gripped his head tighter than he ever had before.

“Who sent you?” War barked.

“I…wa…aaaaaah” the mercenary began to scream in pain as his body was in inconceivable pain. Blood began to drip from his eyes and ears.

“Who sent you?” the Keeper shouted again.

“It…it was Tyrone Acteon…on Crypt.”

War squeezed his glowing hand shut and instantly all the blood within Horo’s body sprayed out and colored the alley’s walls.

As the merc’s body crumbled on the ground War let out a deep and terrifying roar.

He breathed deeply for a moment before he said, “Guess it is time to visit Crypt again.”

“The Prefect Major prefers to spend his time drinking and being with women over ruling the Republic. I don’t think he will ever amount to much, and honestly, I’m glad.”

-        Prefect Haines from the Siimon Prefecture 431 ANE

The Shadow Of War

Cycle: 432 ANE

Prefecture: Core

Planet: Prime, Corre Republic space

Location: The Prefect Major’s mansion in the capital

An outpost on the edge of explored space drifts along slowly. A long shaft extends away from the bulk of the outpost’s hull and is covered by transmission dishes pointing in all sorts of directions. The crew of the outpost go about their daily duties as they do every day.

Nearby a purple-ish fog with the occasional flash of space lightning glides in the emptiness of space. Suddenly a massive ship pushes through the fog aiming for the drifting construct.

The large ship is covered in turrets, yet it doesn’t aim them at the outpost. Instead, it just continued its track. Seeing the impending threat, the crew of the drifting outpost frantically run to their stations and attempt to move clear of the approaching ship. One of the crew sprints away from the bridge and dives into the escape pod. He closed the door and boosted away from the outpost. As the escape pod distanced itself from the drifting construct the lone escapee watched in horror as the massive vessel’s red energy shields flash as the outpost was smashed into chunks.

Without warning, one of the turrets take aim at the escape pod and fire. A brilliant green laser slices through the small target as it is consumed in a fast explosion. As the flames puff away in the vacuum of space, large doors on both sides of the invading ship slide open. Hundreds of black and metal fighters race out on streams of green energy.

From the depths of the fog more and more massive ships begin to appear. First two. Then five. Then ten. Then twenty. While the tremendous army continued its path toward a nearby world the focus of the scene zoomed out to look above the purple mist to see a pair of massive green eyes illuminate the cosmos.

Back on the planet Prime, Prefect Major Quintus Caedis of the Corre Republic shot up in bed. His heart beat like a drum in his bare chest. Quintus ran a hand through his hair realizing his body was covered in sweat. He propped himself up with his free hand. To his right lay a beautiful brunette woman. She laid curled up in the luxurious white sheets from the planet Paradiso that the Prefect Major favored so much. Looking to his left he saw the other woman he had drawn to his chambers the night before. Even though her naked back was open to the chilly air of the bed chamber she did not seem to notice.

Quintus still breathed heavily from his terrifying dream. He moved to the edge of the bed and felt a cold shock shoot up his legs as his feet touched the marble floors. He leaned forward and put his face in his hands. The nightmare had happened again. It had become more and more vibrant. And more frequent. He shook his head to clear his mind. The Prefect Major, the most powerful man in the Corre Republic should not have such problems with simple dreams. Yet here he was. Cowering in fear of a fabrication in his own mind.

A tender warm hand caressed Quintus’ shoulder. “Come back to bed…” implored the brunette.

Disdainfully, Quintus swatted her hand away and stood up. The woman slumped back in bed and passed out.

He walked over to a chair and took the crimson colored robe that had been carelessly tossed on it during last night’s activities. Quintus tied the waist closed tight so no one could see he was naked, even though just about every servant that served in the tremendously large mansion had seen him nude at one time or another while partying. It was well known that the Prefect Major was a partier since his younger cycles. He didn’t bother to adjust the top portion to properly cover his chest. Typically, the young Prefect Major enjoyed showing off his muscular form, but right now his mind was preoccupied and nowhere near him attempting to impress a new girl that he could entice.

With the robe in place Quintus walked to the large double doors that opened to his bed chamber. Both doors were adorned with incredible designs made from the purest yellow gold. The right door creaked as he pulled it open. He didn’t bother closing it behind him.

“Your excellency!” excitedly shouted a male servant down the hallway. He rushed over but was careful not to drop the tray he was carrying or spill the drink on top of it. “I did not expect you to be up so early this morning. Is something the matter?”

Quintus shook his head. “No, I’m fine.”

The servant lifted off the glass and extended it towards the Prefect Major. “Here is your morning glass of wine sire. I hope it helps to alleviate any head pain from last night.”

“Oh, uh, I do not want any wine this morning Claud.”

The male servant looked very confused. “Is there something else I could get for you my lord?”

Quintus’ hungover eyes squinted slightly as the daylight peaked through the curtains of one of the windows in the hallway. “Yes, I would like some juice or something. And some maybe some pain medicine.”

Claud smiled and bowed. “Right away sire” he before he rushed off back down the hallway leaving the slightly dazed Prefect Major behind.

Quintus shuffled down the hallway not really heading anywhere in particular. His mind was full of thoughts of his reoccurring nightmare and why it kept happening. “There must be a reason for it…” he thought to himself. “Stress? No. My diet? No that can’t be it. I’m in peak physical condition. Whatever it is, I need answers. But who could I ask?”

As the Prefect Major continued the conversation in his head he wandered past a number of servants that performed various daily tasks such as replaced old flowers in various vases, dusted the walls, swept the floors and all sorts of other tasks. The Prefect Major’s mansion was rebuilt in a special district outside of the capital of Prime after the war with the Synthetics lead by The Collector, a very powerful artificial intelligence bent on exterminating all of humanity over 400 cycles ago.

In strange demonstration of never desiring the past to occur again, the Prefect Major’s mansion was staffed by dozens of servants and refused to incorporate many mechanical and robotic advancements. While it wasn’t much, it was decided that it would help remind the ruling Prefect Major of the importance of utilizing human strength and not relying on technological advancements that could result in another AI uprising.

Down one of the many hallways a new female servant had the unfortunate job of hand washing vomit from the previous night’s celebration. Quintus looked at her as she remained clueless to the Prefect Major’s presence. She was an attractive woman and normally Quintus would have made a mental note to entice her to join him in his bed, but this time he just looked at her with a mind preoccupied with thoughts.

Still in his daze, Quintus glanced past the maid and saw the door for his father’s old office. He moved around the servant girl who jumped when she realized he was there. She stood up quickly and held a bow. Quintus did not respond to her gesture as he shuffled his tired feet up to the old wooden door. He began to reach out for the door handle but pulled his hand back hesitating to enter.

His father, Thadius Caedis, was the previous Prefect Major. He was a strong, confident, inspiring man determined to strengthen the Corre Republic. All attributes that had skipped right on passed the younger Caedis. Quintus always looked up to his father for the rock-solid leadership that he exhibited regardless of the struggles facing the Republic.

Finding some inner drive, Quintus reached out and twisted the golden doorknob. The door creaked loudly as it was pushed open. For a brief moment he thought about closing the door and going back to bed. However, something urged him to enter, but he continued to resist. Eventually, he succumbed to the drive and entered the dusty room.

While Quintus had done an excellent job of putting on a face over the previous cycles hiding how much his father’s death impacted him, truthfully though, the loss shook him to his core. He had not even so much as looked at the door of the office since the funeral, much less even think about walking inside of it.

The office itself was quite large. It was currently only being illuminated from a small stream of light that poked out behind the curtain of the only window in the room and from the light bleeding in from the open door behind him. The wall to his left and the wall forming the back of the office was lined with all sorts of images from all over the Republic. Two massive bookcases filled with old texts took up the right wall. The contents ranged from ancient history books, rare copies of worlds famous poets and other artists, to more modern books on how to be a good leader. A large wooden desk sat at the middle of the room. Quintus delicately swiped two fingers on the edge of the furniture leaving streaks in the dust covered film that had settled on top of it.

The top of the desk, which clearly was organized with a structured mess, was covered with papers, holotablets and other datapads left in place after the sudden death of Thadius. Quintus had barred anyone from entering the office, leaving the room frozen in time. If his father was on Prime, he would spend much of his time here. Public policies, treaties, and declarations of war had all been conducted in this very room. Of all the rooms in the tremendous mansion, this room was the only one that Quintus revered.

The Prefect Major hesitatingly walked to the other side of the desk to see what the office looked like from his father’s perspective. He wouldn’t dare sit in the old leather chair, but he did inspect the only two framed pictures sitting to the right of the stacks of papers and other organized chaos on the desk. The first image was of a young Quintus hoisted up on top of his father’s shoulders. Both of them smiled widely. The second image was of Quintus’ older siblings, Alexander and Cara as young children. Alexander had died a long time ago when he was a teenager. His death had apparently shaken Thadius very hard and he grieved for months. Cycles later, once Thadius was already an old man, Quintus was born from one of his father’s concubines. Quintus had never met his birth mother, but was raised by Meera Caedis, Thadius’ wife, and was for all intents and purposes his mother.

As his mind continued to go through memory after memory he nearly jumped out of his skin when the office door powerfully slammed shut.

“Hello Quintus” whispered a voice from behind the Prefect Major. Terrified, Quintus spun around to his right searching for the origin of the voice. But he saw no one.

His eyes went back and forth checking the room for anyone. Several of the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and his arms began to tingle. He couldn’t see anyone anywhere in the room, but he could definitely feel that someone was there.

A dark figure took a step out of the left corner of the room but remained in the shadows. Quintus squinted to try and see some sort of identifier of who it was but he couldn’t tell.

Grabbing hold of every bit of courage he could muster, the Prefect Major said, “Who are you? How dare you startle your excellency!”

The mysterious being cackled in a way that sounded like more than one person laughed at once. It rested its head on its right shoulder. “You have no authority over me young Quintus.” The dark figure smiled a disgusting smirk that the man could see its teeth were deformed and sharpened. He couldn’t quite tell, but he thought the lips were blistered and peeled.

Suddenly Quintus was even more petrified than he already was.

The being took in a deep breath as if it could taste Quintus’ fear in the air. “I know the nightmares you’ve been having” it whispered. “I have come to warn you.”

“Warn me?” Quintus asked terrified. While on normal circumstances the Prefect Major would have expressed that he was not a religious person, right now though he could feel in his “soul” that this thing was evil.

“Your dreams are a warning. The Syn Armada is returning” the being whispered, its arms strangely remained straight along the sides of its body.

Quintus’ eyes grew ever wider. “No, that’s not possible. They have been gone for over 400 cycles. Our scouts have never found where they went.”

“I assure you young lord, they are coming.”

Everything in Quintus’ body told him that he needed to end this conversation and to run out of the room, but he felt compelled to know if this creature, this thing, if it truly knew the truth to his continuous nightmares.

“When?” the Prefect Major asked.

“I can’t tell you that” said the thing.

Feeling hopeless, Quintus asked, “What can we possibly do to stop them?”

Even though it remained in the shadows, Quintus could see the creature rest its head on its other shoulder. “The only hope that you have for your precious Republic is to unite all of the human worlds back together. That is your only chance of survival.”

While still being consumed with shaking fear, the Prefect Major clenched his right fist in despair. “That is impossible. The other nations will never agree to fight for the Republic again. How would I possibly be able to bring them together?”

The being chuckled. “With war…” it said as it smiled widely.

Gathering all of the courage he possibly could muster, Quintus asked, “What are you?”

Again, the being laughed with the voices of several. The door opened, and the Prefect Major spun around to see what was happening. When he turned back to the corner the being was gone.

Suddenly Quintus felt very cold. Was he before? He wasn’t quite sure. Was this all some kind of strange dream?

As he exited the office Quintus made sure the door was closed tight. The loud noise made the servant girl jump and knock over her bucket of nasty water.

The Prefect Major awkwardly knelt down unsure of how he could help. A wave of nausea swept over him as he smelled the nasty water’s odor. He stood back up careful not to step in the mess as he left the room.

“My lord!” Claud cried out as he quickly made his way down the hall carrying his master’s drink. “I am so sorry for not finding you sooner.”

“That’s quite alright Claud” Quintus said as he was trying to hide the confusion and fear from his recent conversation in the old office. He accepted the green fruit juice, then the medicine in other hand. After he placed the tiny tablet on his tongue he took a large gulp of the juice and swallowed hard.

“Is there anything else I can get for you your excellency?” the male servant asked as he placed his hands behind his back.

Quintus thought for a brief moment. “Actually, I believe so. Could you tell me where Jakarus is?”

Claud looked down to avoid eye contact with the Prefect Major. “Your servant is in the throne room presiding over the… daily tasks.”

“Perfect. Thank you, Claud” Quintus said as he headed for Jakarus. The male servant bowed.

In the throne room a dirty and tattered man stood on a circular designed tile floor. “My lord, I implore you, I am not guilty.”

“I have multiple reports that eye witnesses watched as you ate a typa fruit right off of one of the Prefect Major’s trees on your farm” Jakarus said as he sat slumped atop the large golden throne.

As the personal advisor to the Prefect Major, Jakarus was adorned with layers of incredibly valuable clothes, jewels and rings. Quintus and Jakarus had been friends for an incredibly long time, even though Jakarus had been one of the mansions young male servants. When Quintus became Prefect Major he was finally able to reward his friend for his cycles of service and commitment.

While Quintus became more and more enamored with women and partying, Jakarus was given more and more responsibility as a stand in for the Prefect Major and his daily tasks. The prefects of the ten prefectures that made up the sectors of the Corre Republic’s domains and the senators were not pleased to have to work with a man from such lowly upbringing. Knowing this, Jakarus often would toy them in various ways for they knew who was in charge. While the Republic would tell you that anyone could work their way up the political entanglement that made up the two main political factions, the truth was, that unless you had a tremendous abundance of money or highly influential friends you would not get very far.

The scruffy looking farmer’s knees began to shake as he feared where the accusations were leading. “Please, my lord, I have a family that I am trying to provide for. My wife has been sick for a very long time and we need help.”

Jakarus made a clicking sound with his tongue while he thought. He unconsciously played with a large ruby colored ring on his right hand. “How about this, you tell me if the reports are true about the fruit, and then I will do what I can for you and your family.”

The farmer rubbed his hands together and looked to his right to see the praetorian guards standing at attention along the wall. Lights built into the ceiling reflected off the polished crimson colored armor of the guards.

“I…I did take the fruit” the farmer reluctantly said with hesitation.

With a terrible smirk Jakarus jerked his hand and two guards stepped up to the dirty man and placed a gloved hand on each shoulder.

The ruling man pointed a finger at the emotionally crumbling farmer and said, “For your crimes against the state, you will be executed.”

“No! No! Noooooo!” screamed the defeated farmer as he was dragged out by the guards.

“Hmph…”

A door to the left of the throne that lead throughout the halls of the mansion flung open. Jakarus spun his head angrily and was about to shout when his eyes widened in shock as he saw his friend quickly approaching him. Jetting straight up from the throne he quickly rushed down the steps to meet Quintus.

“My lord” Jakarus said hoping that the Prefect Major did not see him sitting in the throne instead of his smaller seat beside it. “It is a great surprise to see you up and about so early. I trust your bed mates last night brought you your desired enjoyment?”

Quintus waved his hand signaling the guards to leave them. Without saying a word, the twelve praetorian guards left the room. When the two doors shut quietly behind the armed guards the Prefect Major turned to his advisor.

“Jakarus…” he sought for the right words. Should he tell his closest advisor about the being he saw in his father’s office? No, not yet. “I believe that we have a problem approaching the Republic.”

The advisor’s eyebrow shot up. “Oh?”

“I need you to get the prefects together.”

“Sire?”

Quintus looked around the room, especially in the corners. “Have them all meet here in the mansion in two rotations.”

“Is there something that I can help with?” Jakarus asked confused by the order. There had been plenty of times that Quintus was drunk off his rocker and would want to do reckless acts. Coming into the throne room barefoot and wearing a robe certainly didn’t help.

“No, my friend. I need to speak with the prefects. Now, please, go. Tell them this is not an optional trip. They must all be here.”

Sensing now was not the time to push further questions, the advisor bowed his head. “As you wish.”

The sound of Jakarus’ necklace bounced and clanked as he walked out of the throne room.

“I can’t remember the last time I was alone in this room” Quintus thought. “How am I going to get the prefects to cooperate and throw in their support to go to war?”

Looking around the room he took a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship in the tiled floor. That was when it hit him. He quickly went up the steps of the throne and pressed a button beneath the arm of the chair.

The tiled floor design disappeared down into the floor and was replaced by a large computer console and holotable. Quintus strolled down the steps and stopped in front of the main screen. The Prefect Major pressed a sequence of random looking keys on the keypad that made the main screen turn black and had a white word appear in the upper left. It read, “Password?”

Quintus raised his hand to his chin as he thought. Not quite sure of the answer, he knew that he could only type the password once or else he would be locked out of the secretive screen. He snapped his right hand as the answer popped into his mind.

Even though he felt he knew the correct password, his hands still hesitated for a moment. When he became Prefect Major he was told about this secretive screen by one of the Keepers. Being raised in a relative time of peace as a child, Quintus never thought he would ever need it.

He reached down to the keypad and typed in “keep the peace at all costs” and pressed the enter key. The screen went completely black and then went back to the initial screen as if it had never displayed the hidden screen. “Did I do it right?” he asked aloud.

The holotable rang as it received an incoming communication. Quintus pressed the green flashing button and an ominous voice spoke through the speakers. “Prefect Major?”

“Yes” he replied. “This is Quintus. Peace, is that you?”

Two rotations passed but every one of the prefects managed to make it to the meeting. Jakarus had informed the Prefect Major that each man and woman summoned was not pleased to be whisked away from their duties in their prefectures, especially since the meeting was on such short notice.

Stopping just short of the sound proof double doors Quintus took a moment to take a breath. Four praetorian guards stood up against the walls ready to act in defense of the Prefect Major in a moment’s notice.

His mind had not eased since his visitation from that mysterious being. He still wasn’t able to tell if he had experienced some sort of hallucination, but his gut told him that it was genuine, and if nothing else, his nightmares may be a vision of something sinister lurking just outside of the Corre Republic’s borders.

“Either way, I have to do something about it” Quintus said in his own mind. He impressed himself that he was all of a sudden stepping up to the position his father had fought so hard for him to have. It had angered many of the prefects that he had been chosen by the previous Prefect Major rather than leaving it up to vote as was customary.

As the double doors burst open Quintus was able to catch the tail end of the conversation well underway between all of the prefects. Jakarus stood at on the opposite side of a large round table in the center of the dimly lit room, while the other prefects in their expensive and luxurious clothing sat in their designated seats. A single beam of light illuminated the table and those seated around it. The walls of the room were outside the light and thus were very dark. Quintus couldn’t help wonder if that thing was somewhere in the shadows.

It was clear from his advisor’s defensive stance and red face that he had been doing his best to ease the prefects’ minds, and probably was close to losing his temper.

The powerful men and women representing the real authority of the Republic sat in this room, and Quintus wanted to be sure to grab hold of their attention and respect as fast as he could. “Am I interrupting anything?” he asked as he walked around the table and sat beside Jakarus.

“We were just discussing the need for such an urgent meeting my lord” the advisor said as he took his own seat to the right of Quintus.

“I want to thank you all for making the journey to Prime on such short notice” Quintus said as he surveyed the room.

It had been so long since he had seen many of the faces that sat around him that Quintus took a moment to recall all of their names.  To the Prefect Major’s immediate left sat Prefect Valens of the Core prefecture. Simply due to being ruler over the Core worlds gave the short man a great deal of stature with the others.

It then continued to Seneca from Colonial, Lucius of Stardust, Livia of Expansive, Julia of Calcum, Felix of Dultariun, Cornelius of Labos, Decimus of Calx, Gaius of Quarry, and Haines of Siimon. Of the ten prefects Lucius, Julia and Seneca needed to be won over to Quintus’ plan because they commanded large experienced armies. Many of their worlds were border planets which meant they had to be stationed to repel invaders. Gaius and Cornelius were also vital because of their construction and mining worlds. Worlds such as Canopy and Arcus were incredibly important to any type of war effort as they could supply so many minerals and much needed labor for resupplying the front lines.

While Livia and Haines were powerful because of their ranks, their support was not directly needed at the beginning of the war if they were going to draw a hard line of opposition. Speaking of which, Haines, Julia and Seneca would probably be the loudest opposition to his plans. Even though Quintus had stayed out of politics for several cycles it was well known even by him that those three were busy forming their own effort to use their military and mercenary forces to solidify their own power in the Republic.

“Now is the time…” Quintus thought internally before starting. “Prefects, I know that I have done a poor job as your Prefect Major.”

Several of the prefects shared glances of confusion and suspicion.

“My lord, I don’t think that is fair…” Lucius began before Quintus held up a hand.

“Please, as we move forward in this conversation I want us twelve to be very open with one another. Masks and fake faces are for when we are outside of this room. Here, I want us to speak clearly.”

Lucius nodded his bald head in respect and leaned back.

“I want to start by apologizing to all of you. Since my father appointed me just before his death to this position I know I have not taken things seriously.”

Seneca turned to Haines and smirked as if they had an inside joke. Quintus caught the exchange but decided to move on rather than cause a fight right out of the gate.

“I want to say very clearly that I am no longer going to shrug off responsibility to others. I am going to take the reins of this Republic and lead as I was meant to.”

This time it was Jakarus’ turn to try and hide his thoughts from showing on his face.

“As of this moment going forward, you are all going to report to me just as you did for my father. Furthermore, I want you to send Jakarus a detailed and thorough breakdown of your military assets, resources, and supplies including which worlds they have been allocated to.” The Prefect Major had lived in a hyper political environment for his whole life. He knew how to quickly assess a room after serious news hit to read people’s body language for hidden hints to their inner thoughts.

Seneca squinted his eyes and tilted his head as if he wanted to speak up but resisted. Several others looked at one another very seriously wondering what their Prefect Major was really after. Haines on the other hand was ready to be defiant.

“My excellency, may I ask for all of us, why you would request detailed information on our military assets?” the Prefect from Siimon asked.

This was the time to press in and show them he was really the one in charge. “I apologize Prefect Haines…”

The older man smiled as if he forgave Quintus.

The Prefect Major continued, “I certainly did not mean to make it seem as though I was requesting this information. It is an order.”

Haines’ face rapidly turned blood red as his slow brain made the connection. Seneca beat him to the punch though.

“Prefect Major, I know I don’t need to remind you that all of us sitting here are ruling prefects. We do not…”

Quintus cut him off with his own angry stare. “You will comply, or you will be considered an enemy of the state.”

Several of the prefects looked shocked by the escalating verbal confrontation.

Felix, Gaius and Livia stood up one by one and began to shout.

“You can’t do this to us!” argued Gaius.

“We are Prefects, not some lowly house servant” demanded Livia.

Jakarus was still in the dark as to why Quintus had called all of the prefects together, so he elected to stay quiet in the argument to see how things would play out. The two had been friends for a very long time and he knew when the Prefect Major was getting to the edge of his patience and when he could push him a little further.

Quintus slammed his fist into the table and stood up. “Enough! I am your Prefect Major, and you will do as I say.”

Haines nearly spat when he said, “You haven’t even been around for what, at least three cycles. While you have been caught up in your sexual fantasies some of us have been leading this Republic. What could you possibly need this information for?”

The Prefect Major forced himself to calm down before he responded. “I want to launch a massive campaign to reunite all the worlds of humanity back under one banner.”

Over half of the prefects looked completely stunned by the young Prefect Major’s statement.

Seneca on the other hand wasn’t having it. “Ha, sure. The worlds have been fractured for over 400 cycles. It is an impossible task to reunite them all together in one effort.”

Quintus shook his head as he began to pace around the room. He had spent the better part of two rotations giving serious thought to how he would package his idea so that the Prefects would go along with it. Now was as good as time as any to try. “I disagree Prefect. At one point all colonized worlds worked together to better humanity. Science, technology, medicine and more all flourished.”

All of the standing prefects sat as they listened intently to Quintus speak. Even Seneca and Haines wanted to know where this was leading.

“I believe that if we can re-unite all of the worlds again under one banner, that we can have another golden age. At least, that is what we will tell everyone.”

“My excellency, but all of the bordering nations fought feverishly for their independence from the Republic, they will not submit to us simply because of idea of prosperity. And we do not have a strong enough force built up to accomplish such a task” Decimus said in a tone that was not confrontational just matter-of-factly.

The Prefect Major pointed his finger up towards the ceiling. “You are right Prefect Decimus, we do not right now. However, in a cycle we could. If all of the prefectures worked together to assist one another we could pull together forces capable of launching a simultaneous war to reclaim all of the lost worlds.”

Haines spoke up again, but this time not quite as loudly. “With respect your highness, I am not about to send my citizens into a meat grinder against the Union of Stars for some starry-eyed idea.”

Quintus knew what the Prefect really meant under the words he used. “You mean to say that you do not want to risk losing the power you have built up for yourself. Let’s be incredibly clear here everyone, I know that in my absence that many of you have chosen to build up forces to solidify your own internal power struggles. However, you will assist this reclamation war effort.”

“And what if we refuse?” Livia inquired as she crossed her arms.

“I believe it would be more advantageous for us to focus on the reward of those who assist in this unified effort. We are all aware of the treasures and gain that could be possible if the lost worlds were brought back into the fold. Seeing as how every prefecture except for Core border lost worlds, one of the benefits of this war will be that lost worlds will be folded into the prefecture of those that lead the various campaigns.”

Quintus stopped pacing and looked at Prefect Valens. “I will speak with you for how you will be rewarded for your efforts in this war.”

The Prefect nodded as though that was sufficient for now.

Turning back to the side Quintus continued to walk around the table. “I want to reward each and every one of you abundantly, but it does require cooperation.”

“I still don’t see how this is going to be possible. Only Seneca and I understand how dangerous the Union of Stars is. We both have lost badly at their tactics” Haines said as he butted his voice back into the conversation.

“And I have seen firsthand how difficult it is to corral the Faust citizens into submission. I will not throw away precious soldiers for a feigning effort that will merely give you more power” Julia said standing up. She braced herself on the table as her face contorted in anger. “I fought too hard to get where I am to gamble it all on some half-cocked idea. You are not your father. This will not work.”

Quintus placed a finger to his lips as if he was in thought. “I see.” The Prefect Major flicked his hand as if to swat her away.

Julia’s face turned bright red but before she could speak the back of her head exploded and she fell on top of the table.

The sitting Prefects all pushed back away from the table in confusion and shock.

“What have you done!” Haines shouted before a sword pierced through the back of his chair and out of his chest. Blood poured out of his mouth as he looked down at the metallic blade. It was yanked out abruptly and the old man slumped to his right as he died.

The sword seemed to shimmer in the solo light as its wielder, the Keeper of Peace, stepped forward. Peace was clad in his dark blue head to toe colored armor. His emotionless black faceplate reflected the light in a menacing way. He twirled the sword flicking the Prefect’s blood off into the darkness then released it. The sword disappeared in a puff of small particles.

Seneca watched as the pool of blood from Julia spread on the table. He felt sick to his stomach.

Quintus gave a slight smile to the Keeper. “Thank you, Peace.”

Without saying a word, the armored Peace tapped his helmet with the handgun he held in his left hand and took a step back into the shadows. Jakarus stared at Peace, completely caught off guard by the dual slaying of the Prefects.

Quintus placed his hands on the table and leaned into the light. “As I said, those who cooperate will be rewarded heavily. We will reclaim all of the lost worlds.”

Each of the Prefects shared glances at one another once more, seeing if anyone dared say anything against what just occurred. No one did.

Cornelius stood up and tucked his hands into his long sleeves. “Your excellency, you have my support.”

“As mine” Lucius said speaking up.

“And mine!” Gaius shouted proudly.

One by one each of the remaining Prefects declared their commitment and loyalty to the Prefect Major. Quintus outwardly fought to show strength but inside he was battling his own fear of the approaching war with the Syn Armada. “We will deal with that enemy when it presents itself. Right now, I have to focus on bringing all of the lost worlds back to the Republic” Quintus thought to himself.

Still standing in the shadows the Keeper remained motionless. Unknown to anyone in the room, beneath his helmet, Peace gave a disgusting grin of deformed and sharpened teeth as he watched the most powerful men and women of the Corre Republic trip over each other to show their support to the Prefect Major.

One way or another, war was coming to the worlds of humanity.

“Commander Tyonek is not a man you should anger.”

-        Sergeant Henderson speaking to his riflemen squad before the battle for Sanctuary in 433

Vision From The Stars

Cycle: 433 (One cycle before Reclamation War began)

Planet: Sanctuary, Union of Stars space

Location: City of Destin

A fighter jet trails smoke high over a city caught in the middle of a warzone. “Mayday! Mayday!” the pilot shouted as the aircraft began to spiral downwards.

Before he could pull the eject lever the fighter smashes into a high-rise building. A large explosion shatters glass of nearby buildings sent sparkling bits of glass to the ground below.

A squad of riflemen infantry pressed themselves up against the wall of a sky scraper as the shards of glass and bits of aircraft landed all around them.

“Sergeant, report!” the lieutenant called out.

Standing about three men down the line the Sergeant looked around at the squad. He turned back to the LT and stuck his thumb up. “We’re all good sir.”

The senior officer nodded his head in approval and then pointed at one of the surrounding buildings. “Alright. Makowski, Grant, and Feathers, I want you three up in that big red building pronto. Give me some cover fire from the advancing Republic grunts.”

The three riflemen began to run across the street when suddenly a Republic Sierra WarMech charged down the road. A loud whump came from the powerful 14D cannon built into the Sierra’s right arm.

As the projectile round smashed into the ground, Grant and Feathers disappeared in a cloud of road and red bits. Makowski was thrown into a parked car. As he struggled to get up the Sierra paused to aim. It fired again destroying the rifleman and the vehicle behind him.

“Fire!” the LT ordered as his team began to fire their laser rifles at the metal monster.

Green laser bolts etched holes into the two-story tall WarMech, but did little more than make the pilot angry. Just before the Sierra could fire another round it was rammed into the wall of a green stonecrete insurance company by a dark blue WarMech. Part of the structure caved in on the invader’s machine, pinning it down.

The riflemen LT motioned for his squad to stop firing. As the Defender WarMech turned towards the infantry squad, the LT could see the symbol of a white fist crushing a rock on the WarMech’s right shoulder signifying it was the 17th’s leader, commander Joah Tyonek. He gave a brief hand salute to the Commander and motioned for his team to move further up the road.

Tyonek pulled up the map of the city on surveyed the warzone. Three rotations ago the Republic troops landed on Sanctuary. In three short rotations they had decimated much of the defenders on the world, leaving the 17th pretty much on its own to defend Destin, the cities capital.

Destin was once the crown jewel of Sanctuary. But just after several rotations of fighting between the invading Corre Republic forces and the defending Union of Stars troops, little of the city was not damaged in some way. The planet Sanctuary was known throughout Union space to be a world rich in minerals and other resources. It was also home to much of the Union’s research and development for military weaponry. Without a doubt, it presented a tempting target the Republic would want if they were ever going to launch a war against the U.S. (Union of Stars). Especially because Sanctuary sat on the border of Union controlled space.

Joah saw that many of his soldiers were locked in brutal close-quarters combat throughout the city. Typically, Union WarMechs were designed for ranged combat as many of the U.S. higher ups preferred little casualties in a skirmish with their enemies. However, this was no small skirmish between raiders or the military of the Polau nation. This was full blown invasion, with the Republic fully intending to snatch Sanctuary away.

By fighting in the city Joah found that his people could hit and then retreat causing the Republic to bleed a slow death. While the tactic was effective and was working, his troops were not trained for this sort of combat, and the losses were beginning to add up. Morale was getting very low, they needed reinforcements. Time to eat, time to sleep. Unfortunately, it seemed as though the Republic had launched an invasion against two other Union worlds making reinforcements stretch very thin to backup the planetary forces. As far as commander Tyonek knew, no one had arrived in Sanctuary’s system yet to help.

His sensors picked up movement from behind him. He turned his Defender around to locate the source and found that the crushed Sierra was attempting to dig itself out of the rubble and stand. Its right arm had been crushed in the debris leaving only a sparking stump behind.

“Ha, where do you think you are going?” Tyonek said through his WarMech’s loud speakers.

The Sierra freed its left leg and then activated its anti-WarMech knife attached to its left forearm.

Tyonek chuckled to himself at the sight of his enemy try to engage in melee combat while its other leg remained buried.

He aimed the two plasma slingers mounted on the Defender’s shoulders at the Sierra, Joah said, “I think you have fought enough for today.” Tyonek fired a flurry of blue plasma rounds into the WarMech blasting it apart.

The remnants of the Sierra tumbled backwards snapping the right leg at the knee. Bright green lubricants sprayed out of the knee joint and covered the surrounding debris.

Before he could admire his work, a beep sounded in his cockpit. Joah reached over and pressed the flashing red button. “Green One to Blue One” a woman’s voice said.

“This is Blue One.”

“Our left flank is in danger of falling. Do you want us to push further towards downtown?” she asked. Joah knew that typically warrant officer Jessika Serd was headstrong and was always willing to get into a tussle, however, after she lost the majority of her unit from a surprise Republic trap in the initial fighting she seemed to be second guessing herself.

Tyonek rubbed his reddened and tired eyes. He looked back at the map and saw the same data that his subordinate had access to. Seven Republic WarMechs were engaged in a battle to break the left flank of the 17th. Four Sierras, one Sentinel, and two Arbalests. A group of Gordon assault tanks also pressed the attack against the Union forces.

“Two Arbalests!” he shouted in his mind.

While the Sierra was the usual workhorse for the Corre Republic being designed for more of an all-around purpose, the Arbalest was entirely meant to be used for a support role. It resembled the shape of some sort of terrifying bird while being equipped with two Zephyr Strike missile launchers instead of arms, two blitz pods mounted to the top of its “shoulders”, and then dual medium ranged lasers which sat below the elongated cockpit. It wasn’t uncommon to find an Arbalest field several drones that would help tag enemies which could then be blasted to eternity from afar by the Arbalest firing indirectly.

Many armies fell to the devastation of the Arbalests since its debut on the battlefield. Now the 17th was going to have to deal with two!

Joah shook his head. “Not today…” he said to himself as he tightened his grip on the control sticks.

“Negative Green One. Move your people up to open a way for the left flank to fall back through.” Tyonek reached over and tapped a key connecting him to all his soldiers. “This is Blue One. All units retreat. Head towards the fallback point. All units…” he lowered his head not wanting to finish the order. “…retreat.”

His jaw clenched while he regained his confidence. The lives of the 17th depended on him. He had to keep it together. The Defender’s engine throttled up as Joah headed to backup Jessika and her forces.

“We can make it until the reinforcements get here. We have to…”

With the 17th safely evacuated from Destin, soldiers and technicians went back and forth throughout the camp as they moved supplies and coordinated repairs.

A retractable ladder descended from the Defender’s cockpit and Joah climbed down. Nightfall had already descended, and the cold season was in full effect. A large white cloud shot from his lips as he breathed out his frustrations. He surveyed the remnants of his unit’s WarMechs. Only a handful had made it back from the latest mission. They had lost four WarMechs alone to that pair of Arbalests. Another Aegis limped into place alongside Jessika’s Goblin. Its right arm had been destroyed and it was a miracle that it was even able to limp this far away from the city.

Warrant officer Leo Pollsen approached with a stern look on his face. He handed Tyonek a black clipboard. “Commander, here is the latest situational report of our forces.”

Joah glanced over the first page and shook his head. “Walk with me.”

Pollsen kept pace with Tyonek as the two walked silently to the command tent.

Techs moved every which way as they carried crates and tools. Repairs on the WarMechs was top priority for any of the mechanics while other support personnel began rearming various firearms and weaponry.

Tyonek lifted the command tent’s “door” and the two men entered. Several communication personnel were busy tracking reports and coordinating repair and refit operations. Joah found a quiet corner to the right.

“Pollsen, this report is dire.”

The younger officer nodded. “Yessir, it is. We have nine operational WarMechs, maybe one more if the techs can replace that knee joint of Hondo’s Aegis. That last battle cost us dearly. We didn’t lose too many lives, but we had heavy casualties on our T5’s and our other vehicles. It got so bad that our infantry were riding back on top of surviving T5’s because their transports were totaled.”

Tyonek’s right hand cupped his face. He began to massage his eyes and looked back to Pollsen. “Alright, so we are…”

The commander was interrupted by one of the communication personnel. “Commander, central command is hailing you.”

“Put it through on the main holotable.”

Pollsen found a spot near one of the communication terminals to stand while Joah moved up in front of the holotable. Thousands of blue holographic tiles lifted up from the surface of the table and formed into the shape of general Ranco Ajax.

“Even the hologram version of the General looks intimidating” Tyonek thought to himself as he approached the holotable.

“Commander Tyonek, I am glad that you and your men have been able to hold up efforts to retake Destin.”

Joah noticed the awkward glances of the comm personnel on the other side of the hologram. He stood at parade rest with his arms behind his back.

“Ah, thank you sir. Unfortunately, our losses are beginning to be felt. We have had heavy casualties of both our WarMechs and our support armor. My men could really use a morale boost sir.”

“Well, you are in luck. We just received word that reinforcements are en route from Dante. They should arrive by tomorrow evening.”

Joah felt his heart lift slightly at the news. “Do we know where they are planning to land?”

General Ajax shook his head. “Regrettably we don’t. However, we do know that the Republic troops are going to be attempting to interfere their entry. They should have plenty of fighters escorting the dropships to prevent the Republic aircraft from scoring any easy victory. However, the danger will come from the ground forces.”

Tyonek stood straighter anticipating the coming order from his superior.

“Command is coordinating a simultaneous attack from every available soldier we have that can fight on this world. I need you and your 17th to create a distraction.”

“Name the place sir and we will deploy our forces.”

Ajax’s stern face seemed saddened ever so slightly. “Joah, I know that your men are not in good shape. I have received reports of your last tangle with the forces occupying Destin.”

“Sir, we will do our duty to protect the Union regardless of the odds”

“I know you will. Your orders are this, take the 17th and strike outside the South of Destin at 0700 tomorrow. Draw out as many of their forces as you can. The 42nd will attack from North and do the same.”

Joah saluted the General.

“Good luck Commander.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The tiled holographic image of the General fell apart as the small blue tiles fell to the top of the table.

Tyonek turned back to Leo, “Pollsen, go and get Serd, Caine and Sergeant Goddard. Meet back here in 10. We have our new orders.”

“Yessir” Pollsen said as he exited the tent.

With the surviving members of his command staff assembled, Joah pushed a key on the holotable. A holographic map of Destin was assembled above the table.

“We have just received our orders from command. Reinforcements are on the way” Tyonek watched as Goddard and Serd showed signs of relief on their faces. 1st Lieutenant Caine’s face however was like stone. Caine, like Jessika, had lost many of his men in the previous rotations of battle. He attempted to hide his frustrations with himself, but Joah knew. He could see the pain in his eyes. It had been a very long time since the Republic had attempted an invasion like this one. In fact, the last time was when Tyonek’s home world of Bronze was retaken by Republic forces through a brutal campaign.

Prior to growing up on Sanctuary, Tyonek lived on Bronze with his family. His father was very successful, and the family had amassed significant wealth.  When the Republic WarMechs began barraging his city his family which consisted of his father, mother and sister attempted to flee to a shuttle waiting to take them to safety. In one of the missile strikes his father got caught in a blast and died. After the rest of his family made it off Bronze they headed for Sanctuary where Joah spent most of his youth growing up in the slums.

The loss of his father hit his mother very hard, and it took her many cycles before she found hope again when she became a Starist. Starism was the largest religion in the Union of Stars and focused on an individual attempting to ascertain wisdom on the present or guidance on the future by reading the stars and their alignments. Joah never was able to fully accept Starism, his mother on the other hand, chose the path of becoming a holy priestess. This caused a rift to form between the two.

“Commander?” Pollsen asked.

Tyonek shook his head to rid himself of thoughts of his mother. “Sorry everyone. As I was saying, reinforcements are heading to Sanctuary. We don’t know where they are going to land, but we have been ordered to draw out the Republic’s forces within Destin towards the South” he reached up and pushed his hand towards the Southern edge of the map which caused the holotable to zoom in.

Tyonek pointed towards the digital rolling hills on the map. “We are going to advance our infantry up into the hills while they sneak around this group of trees here. We will then deploy our armor and WarMechs to the right and left of our infantry. I want to make it seem as though there is a weak spot to exploit in the center of our formation which will draw in their forces so that our infantry can launch their trap.”

Jessika Serd lifted her hand for a question but Tyonek motioned for her to wait.

“Goddard, how is Hondo’s Aegis? Will we be able to use it in this next battle?”

The old mechanic winced with one eye as he spoke. “Aye Commander, she will be there. We are replacing her left knee joint as we speak, but she is already down her plasma belcher.”

“Load her up on ammo for her quad missile launcher and Hondo can at least provide long range support” Tyonek said. “Anything else to report on the repairs?”

Sergeant Goddard folded his arms and leaned up against a console to his right. “Only that ammo is getting sparse, as are spare armor panels and replacement parts.”

“I know things look bad, but help is almost here. We have to distract the enemy troops so that our reinforcements have as little harassment as possible when they land” Joah said as he turned his attention to the other three members of his command staff. All of them were fellow WarMech pilots except for Goddard. “I want all pilots to assist with repairs and rearming of their WarMechs. I know all of us are tired, but we need our rides to be in as good of shape as possible for this next fight.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Sir” started Serd.

“Yes?”

She shifted slightly, unsure of how to phrase her question. “I know orders are orders. But doesn’t this seem like a suicide mission? We just tried to retake only a few blocks of Destin and suffered…” Tyonek held his hand up cutting her off.

“We all know that culturally, the Union of Stars is very pro-life. However, we also know that as soldiers that a time may come when we may have to lay down our lives for our duty” the Commander watched as several of his command staff seemed to be lost in thought, thinking about what might be asked of them.

“However…” Joah said being sure to make eye contact with each of them before continuing. “This mission will not be a suicide mission. We will draw out the Republic forces, and we will make them pay for trying to take our world from us. They may have had the upper hand, but we have managed to survive several rotations of intense fighting.” Tyonek pressed a button on the table which shut the map off. “This mission is dangerous, but we will survive. From our last encounter we know that there are at least two Arbalests in Destin. I want all of our people to be watching out for their drones to make sure they have to come out and fight us. If they hide inside the city and barrage us from cover, we are going to be in a bad place.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Alright everyone, we have a lot of work ahead of us. I want the techs to work through the night while the pilots and other warriors, excluding those on patrol duty, to assist the repairs as they are able to until 2400, then they need to get some rest. We are rolling out at 0500.”

The command staff broke up and headed to brief their respective teams. As Caine exited the tent a breeze blew in and gave Tyonek a chill. Feeling like he was being watched, he turned around to see a cloaked woman approach him. The cloak was white with gold trim and seemed flow weightlessly around the woman.

No one except for Joah seemed to notice the woman as they went about their tasks. Her head was bowed as she walked which kept her face hidden. She stopped a few steps away from the Commander and gracefully uncovered her face.

Tyonek’s eyes grew wide. “Mother?”

“Hello, my son” Yoola Tyonek said with a kind yet ethereal smile on her face.

“What are you doing here?” Joah asked, his face mixed between surprise and a little anger.

“I came to deliver a message to you. Several rotations ago I experienced a vision from the stars.”

The Commander’s left eyebrow arched. “You mean you had some bizarre dream you call a prophecy?”

“Your blasphemous remarks will not change the truth.”

Joah couldn’t help himself but smile at the humor of conversation. “Mother, I haven’t seen you in what…three, four cycles? Ever since you joined that crazy religion you have not been the same.”

“It is true, I am different since I converted to the way of the truth. When your father was taken from us all those cycles ago I was left empty. I sought answers to why such tragic events happened to me. I now understand though that it was the universe and the orchestration of the cosmos. I had wished for you to discover the same peace.”

Tyonek’s face turned red. “Don’t try and explain my dad’s death to be some grand design by the stars. I have read the ancient scrolls of the Starists and there are no answers for me in them. Your visions will not guide my life any longer.”

Yoola began to slowly walk around Joah as she spoke. “I remember a time when you used to join me in the temple and would listen to my visions with the sparkle of the very stars themselves in your eyes.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“I have been given a gift by the stars to be one of their messengers. This battle with the Corre Republic will be over soon, but only to make way for an even larger war. A dark cloud will spread from the planet of Revelation and will consume all of humanity and her worlds.”

Joah pursed his lips, but did not respond.

Yoolah stopped walking. “Do you wish to know the fate of your next battle?”

“I figure you wouldn’t have made the journey all the way from the temple if you weren’t going to tell me.”

The Priestess closed her eyes and folded her hands together. “Your next battle will be great, and you will succeed in your mission. Your reinforcements will land on Sanctuary.”

She opened her eyes and looked right at Joah. “However, you will die in a barrage of fire and explosions.”

Slowly Yoolah raised her arms and eyes as giving praise to a heavenly being. “Your death will inspire your people to achieve what many consider impossible, the retaking of Destin. From here many will sing of your praises and you will be remembered as a glorious hero of this world.”

Joah tried to not show his disgust for the vision and his supposed destiny. “I will not die here.”

“You will” she said softly as she lowered her arms.

“Why did you come here mother? To tell me my fate?”

Yoolah gracefully walked over to her son and placed her hands on his shoulders. Joah remained motionless but kept his eyes locked with his mother. She leaned in and whispered, “No, my son…I came here to say goodbye.”

The Priestess gave her son a slow kiss on the cheek and then placed her arms by her sides.

Joah’s mind raced with thoughts as he looked to the ground. Then his eyes were filled with fire. “The stars will not determine my fate. Not as long as I have breath in my lungs.”

Yoolah smiled at her son. “Always the fighter. I wish it were so. Goodbye Joah.” The priestess turned and left the tent.

Joah continued to process his mixed emotions while he stared at the ground. He remained motionless for several more heartbeats before his feet lead him out of the command tent and towards the WarMech refit station.

When he reached his Defender, which he had long ago dubbed Sara, he looked up to see a tech was busy replacing armor on her left shoulder.

Unlike the standard Defender design which stood just short of three- stories tall, Joah took advantage of his position and made some modifications. The standard shields mounted to both arms which were much flatter and were curved at the edges so that the shields could meet together essentially creating a ramming point. However, Joah’s Defender had shields that were boxier in shape and ended with three cone shaped spikes. The sheer force a Defender could put out in a punch was damaging enough, he felt the spikes just helped emphasize the devastation he was after if he found himself locked in melee combat.

The other main modification he made was that he replaced the original engine with an experimental one he came across from a research scientist on the planet Hope. This engine was lighter in weight yet granted a higher output of energy to the WarMech. Being lighter allowed the Commander to place more armor on his Defender.

Tyonek couldn’t help but feel his spirit lift even just a little as he fazed on his mighty WarMech. The two had survived many battles together.

“Is this it for us Sara?” he whispered. Feeling the weight of despair on his shoulders Joah lowered his head. His right hand shook for a brief moment, and then he clenched it into a fist.

“I don’t have time for this!” he shouted in his mind. “My people need me to focus and to lead them.”

Looking over to his left stood a metal crate. On top of it sat a clipboard with the readout on Sara. He walked over to retrieve it and instantly began studying it looking at the list of repairs his Defender needed. Some he knew they didn’t have the parts for, some tasks he wasn’t qualified to handle. He chose the first one he could manage on his own and made his way to the toolbox by Sara’s right foot.

“I’m not giving in to my fate just yet.”

Knowing he would be unable to get any sleep, commander Tyonek had ignored his own orders and elected to work through the night on repairs to his WarMech.

At about 0130 sergeant Goddard had come over to assist Joah as he struggled to work on Sara’s left foot actuator. Several more hours passed and now it was time to head out.

The slight frost that had settled in the middle of the night was beginning to evaporate as the light of the next day lit the ground. Commander Tyonek climbed up the ladder of his WarMech and settled in the cockpit. He pressed a switch on the right side that retracted the ladder and closed him inside. There was a slight squeal in the air as the cockpit pressurized and sealed tight.

Most WarMech designs could be operated without the pilot wearing a Sim helmet, however, it would only enable them to have the standard limited view while controlling the machine. Wearing the specialized helmet allowed the pilot to switch to a variety of different perspectives while in combat. The most popular was that the Sim helmet would connect to the multiple cameras that were located across the WarMech’s outer hull allowing the pilot to see around them as if they weren’t inside a cockpit. The different perspectives could be toggled through by the pilot as they desired enabling them to go back and forth depending on the need of the situation.

As Joah connected the three cables to the back of his helmet the system pulled up his preferences allowing him to see the first-person perspective of Sara while also having vital system readouts in his simulated view.

“Welcome back Commander” Sara said with her synthesized voice.

“Sara, display the readout scroll.”

“Yes Commander.”

Green text began to scroll down his view giving him a rundown of the operational readiness of his WarMech.

Armor – 87%

Weapons – Ready

Engine – Ready

Communications – Ready

Connection with network – Ready

“You are cleared for deployment Commander. Good hunting” one of the communication techs in the command tent said.

Joah keyed his mic to contact the infantry officer. “Captain Ryder, signal when you are in position.”

A green blip on his HUD signaled Ryder acknowledged the order.

Thoughts of the conversation with his mother entered his mind. “Your death will inspire your people to achieve what many consider impossible…”

He shook his head. “No, I will not die here. Not today.”

Gripping the control sticks for Sara he gently pressed on the forward movement peddle located by his right foot.

Sara stood up from her hunched position and began heading for the tree line. The other functioning WarMechs also stood up and began to follow their commander into their next dangerous mission.

The next hour thankfully was uneventful. Joah half expected the Republic troops to have all sorts of scouts patrolling the area. “Maybe they thought we wouldn’t come back after how the last battle went” Joah mused to himself.

On his HUD Tyonek could see where all of his forces were located. Up ahead in the hills he could see several large blue inverted triangles signaling the location of the infantry squads that had deployed ahead of the rest of the U.S. forces. The center triangle flashed twice.

“Alright people, here we go. Blue Two form up on me. Green One lead the right side. Yellow One I want you to stay back some and provide cover support to the left flank.” Joah ordered.

Leo Pollsen in his Defender moved up alongside the Commander with the rest of blue team forming up behind. Six T5 – Main Battle Tanks split into two groups on either side.

Jessika slowed her speed allowing her team’s Defender to lead the way.

Lieutenant Caine and Hondo’s Aegis’ slowed their speed and readied themselves for giving long range support to the advancing forces.

Joah turned to his right and saw Pollsen’s Defender keeping speed with him. “Blue Two, we are going to punch a hole straight through the enemy line so the T5s can do their job.”

“Roger that Blue One” Pollsen said.

Looking up ahead Joah could see the plumes of smoke still billowing from fires burning from the previous battle. He zoomed in to an intersection and could see a team of Sierra WarMechs moving out into the hills.

“Contact. Yellow One, their all yours” the Commander said as he raised the shields of his Defender preparing for enemy fire.

Caine and Hondo fired a salvo from their Quad Missile Launchers. Two missiles raced ahead over the advancing Union troops. One missed its mark and blew out the first floor of a business structure, while the other impacted a Sierra in the right leg which blasted it off. The WarMech tumbled to the ground landing on top of a parked hovercar crushing it instantly.

“More contacts” Jessika said over the command communication channel.

Another team of Sierras moved out of the city to the right and immediately sprinted forward to close the distance before the Aegis’ could fire towards them. They combined fire on Green Three’s Goblin, blasting it to pieces from the cannon fire.

Sara’s synthetic voice cut in the combat to report. “Green Three, disabled.”

One of the Sierras on the left took a shot with its 14D Cannon at Joah. The shot went wide over his shoulder and obliterated a group of trees behind him. Joah targeted the enemy Sierra with his plasma slingers and opened fire. Several high-speed blue plasma globs made contact with the enemy WarMech burning into the Sierra’s armor on its chest and left arm. Another Sierra moved up to attack but was targeted by Pollsen. It turned its attention to the other advancing Defender and fired a burst from its cannon. The rounds pounded Pollsen’s arm shields but did not penetrate his armor.

“T5s, now!” Joah ordered as he fired another salvo of plasma at his target.

The two groups of tanks moved in unison and fired their cannons. Pollsen grinned as he watched the Sierra gunning for him get hit with three tank rounds sending the left arm flying away. It targeted the lead T5 on the right and fired a burst of its cannon. Two of the three shots dug deep into the friendly tank creating an explosion from within that blasted the turret in the air.

Pollsen and Joah continued to charge forward as the enemy Sierra’s attempted to take advantage of the limited cover they had. One of which fired a burst at one of the T5s in the left group with only one round actually hitting a tank. The round did little more than rattle the crew inside as it rolled forward.

Joah fired another series of plasma globs at the same Sierra from earlier melting its right arm cannon and destroying its left knee. It tipped over on its face, causing further damage to its torso.

Several small targets became illuminated on the Commander’s HUD. “We got drones exiting the city.”

Just then, two more teams of Sierras exited the city one on each side, along with multiple group of Gordon attack tanks and infantry squads.

“Multiple contacts” Jessika said.

Joah didn’t like the sound of her voice. She was not keeping it together well. “Alright everyone, we have to draw them into the center. Green Team head further to the right, Blue Team further to the left. Yellow One we need some cover fire.”

Caine and Hondo fired another salvo. One missile destroyed a Gordon tank while another decimated a team of Republic marines as they were advancing towards a group of ruins for cover.

Blue Team’s T5s broke off and swung to the left. Joah dodged another attack from a Sierra. The enemy WarMech fired again. This time two of the three rounds gouged into his left shield. Fighting the shock from the attack Tyonek managed to keep his Defender from falling.

Pollsen took a volley of small missile fire from a Gordon to his right. He twisted his WarMech’s torso and fired a succession of plasma globs. The tank’s armor had already been damaged on its side and couldn’t take the incoming fire. It came to a halt with smoke spewing from the melted holes left by the plasma as it cooled.

“Blue Two, get back in formation” Joah said as he watched an enemy drone tag him with a red laser.

Pollsen had just begun to turn towards the rest of Blue Team when it was engulfed by two explosions.

Joah cursed under his breath. “I need snipers to take out those damned drones!”

Drones utilized by the Arbalests were incredibly fast and had a good range to their tag, but with the higher speed came a sacrifice in armor. Within seconds of the given order, the drone that tagged Pollsen was shot down. It careened into a tree and shattered.

As the smoke cleared from the attack on Blue Two, Joah could see the results of the devastating hits. Pollsen’s Defender had its left shield destroyed, along with its left foot.

The warrant officer lowered his Defender into a squatting position and moved his right shield to block the cockpit as best it could. He began to fire his plasma slingers at the Republic troops as they advanced.

“Blue Two, form up.”

“No can-do Commander. Foot is gone. I’ll never make it far. I will hold them here as long as I can.”

Tyonek cursed again and turned back to provide cover fire for Pollsen.

Caine fired a series of shots from his long-range plasma belcher which hammered one of the advancing Sierra’s.

Two Gordons opened up with their missiles again covering Pollsen in multiple explosions. His right plasma slinger was destroyed in the attack. He continued to fire with his remaining weapon coring one of the Gordons in return.

As the Republic pushed forward they took the bait and moved into the center of the battlefield. Several teams of Union riflemen popped up from cover and tossed their anti-mech grenades at the feet of multiple Sierras. The grenades detonated and shredded the feet armor causing three of the enemy WarMechs to topple to the ground. They received a shower of laser bolts for their trouble while the infantry charged forward. Four squads of Armos power armor dashed forward into the fray firing away.

Several more hits dug into Pollsen’s remaining shield. A Sierra WarMech had used its jump thrusters to launch itself into the air and landed not far behind Pollsen. It twisted around and aimed.

“Raaaah!” Joah’s Defender punched with its left shield crushing the Sierra’s head. It staggered trying to remain upright but Joah punched with his right shield skewering the enemy WarMech in its right elbow, crippling the lower part of the arm from the impact with the spikes on Joah’s shield. Tyonek opened fire with his plasma weapons destroying what remained of the Sierra as it dropped into a heap on the battlefield.

Just as Joah began to charge into the Republic’s front-line Jessika’s voice shrieked in his ears, “Aaaaah…” Green One had been tagged by another drone before she was bombarded by fire from the hiding Arbalests.

“Green One, disabled” Sara said as a matter of fact.

“If we don’t target those drones we won’t last long. Green Two, take them down!”

The two remaining Goblin WarMechs of Green Team coordinated their fire and blasted the pair of drones with their cannons.

Another round of missiles from Yellow Team scored hits against the Republic as another Gordon exploded and destroying a right arm of one of the advancing Sierras.

Joah surveyed the battlefield for a split second before continuing to charge forward. “T5s, swing wide and push the left side. Infantry, charge forward. Green Team, move in, we need to provide cover for the infantry so they can get close enough to the front.”

Lieutenant Caine spoke on the command channel. “Incoming aircraft.”

Joah stopped to turn back and watch as Hondo was destroyed by the tactical airstrike. Missiles exploded all around his WarMech as it fell to the right. Caine took a direct hit to his Quad Launcher sending bits of it raining all around. As the aircraft flew past, Yellow One targeted one with his plasma belcher and fired. The large blue globs were too slow and completely missed.

“We aren’t going to last much longer at this rate. We have to break the front and give our infantry a chance to make a difference” Joah said to himself.

He clenched his jaw as he throttled up and ran forward. Several Sierras stood in his path and they had noticed the large WarMech rushing towards them. They fired round after round. Some fortunately missed, while others chewed at his shields as he advanced. Joah triggered his plasma slingers as he pressed forward despite the enemy fire.

Several missiles trailed past Tyonek heading somewhere behind him.

Even before the roar of the missiles explosions dulled down, Sara said, “Blue Two, disabled.”

The sweat built up along Joah’s eyebrows burned his eyes. “This is getting bad.”

Out of the corner of his HUD two new enemy signals appeared. He turned in horror to see that the two Arbalests had chosen now to step out onto the battlefield.

He got a chill down his spine as they both turned towards him. Time seemed to slow down to a fraction of the normal speed as his own voice echoed in his mind. “Why did you come here mother? To tell me my fate?”

“No, my son…I came here to say goodbye.”

Joah felt numb as three bright flashes followed by large plumes of smoke ever so slowly puffed from the Arbalests missile launchers.

“Is this my fate? Is this where I die?”

The missiles crept through the air, closing the distance in what felt like a dream state.

“No! This is not going to be my fate. The stars, the universe, they do not control me.”

All three missiles inched ever closer.

“I’m not ready. Not now. Not yet.”

Time began to speed up back to normal.

Joah slammed his left foot down on the brake pedal and twisted his Defender towards the oncoming barrage. He slammed Sara’s shields together and shouted, “I will not die here!”

The Commander and his WarMech disappeared in the triple explosion. Many of the Union soldiers turned their gaze towards their fallen commander, rapidly losing the will to fight.

“Raaaaaaaaaaah!” Tyonek shouted a roar deep from within his core as his WarMech barreled through the smoke.

He charged straight on at the Arbalest on the left, the pilot frozen in shock that anything could survive such a hellish strike.

Joah’s voice bellowed through his outer speakers, “I will not die here!”

The other Arbalest attempted to hit the oncoming Defender but missed wide with its lasers. As the two WarMechs collided, Sara’s left arm got caught beneath the Arbalest’s cockpit. Joah fought valiantly to keep Sara upright as his enemy tumbled to the right ripping his Defender’s arm off at the shoulder. Its right missile launcher crunched beneath its own weight as it slammed into ground.

“You will not kill me!” Tyonek shouted as he turned to face the other support WarMech Tyonek and fired his plasma slingers again and again into the torso and head of the standing Arbalest.

It violently shook as its pilot struggled to react before his cockpit melted from the plasma globs. While the WarMech slumped to the ground dead, Joah twisted back to see the other Arbalest attempted to get its foot beneath it to stand.

He drove Sara’s remaining shield down into the Arbalest’s back, gouging three large holes which and sparks and smoke danced out of.

“Raaaaaaaah!” Joah lifted his WarMech’s left foot and stomped the Arbalest’s cockpit in, killing the pilot along with the machine.

Looking on as their commander did the impossible, all of the Union soldiers found renewed strength and pressed the attack. The remaining Goblin’s dashed forward to protect Tyonek while the infantry swarmed a Gordon assault tank along with two more Sierras.

Breathing heavily Joah surveyed the battlefield, suddenly above the noise of the slaughter he could hear a roar growing louder and louder. Looking up his HUD displayed the arrival of multiple Union dropships inbound for the planet.

Spotting the incoming reinforcements for the U.S. forces, the Republic troops broke off and returned to the city.

The surviving Union soldiers let out a loud cheer.

Joah took a deep breath before he spoke on the command line. “Green Team, form up with Blue Team. Captain Ryder, reassemble your men, we are going to retake Destin very soon.”

Captain Ryder in his Armos power armor suit slowly approached Tyonek. No one could see it because of his helmet, but the infantry captain’s mouth opened in shock as he saw the damage his commander’s WarMech had taken in the fighting.

From head to toe it was covered in pot marks. Almost all of its paint had peeled off and it was amazing it could even stand. It looked like it had been through every layer of hell. Small trails of smoke flowed out of several of the holes as the WarMech turned towards him.

“Captain?” Joah asked, his breath finally returning to normal.

“Sir, how did you survive that attack?”

Tyonek thought for a brief moment before responding. “I don’t know, I just wasn’t ready to die.”

“Someone must be watching out for you.”

“Maybe…” Joah looked up into the sky. “Maybe, but I know what wasn’t.”

Note from the author: Rick Graham

I want to take a quick moment to thank you for taking the time to read this compilation of short stories. For cycles I have wanted to explore the Revelations universe but was unsure of how to go about it. In 2017 I figured that if I didn’t just go for it, then I never would. I don’t want to find myself on my deathbed and feel regret for never going for my dream. But I cannot create this universe without thanking those who support it and to also extend a welcome to you if you are new to the stories of Revelations.

If you would like to learn more about other stories, products or just join an awesome growing community of fellow fans then consider checking out any of the links below.

Website: www.revelationswar.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/revelationsuniverse/

Thank you again, and I look forward to us creating Revelations into something we can all enjoy together!

Rick Graham

Revelations Creator & Lead Author