ã€ŠThe Oblivion Cycle Setting Short Story Collectionã€‹


 TOC Short Story: Heart of Gold

    Heart of Gold

    The air was frigid, just the way he liked it. Bliss filled his core as he strode through the icy depths of the cavern and he rumbled appreciatively deep in his chest. It was late in the afternoon, the additional chill seeping deep into his insulating fur, but he felt content. It was as it should be, not the sweltering interior of some metallic tomb.

    He turned a corner and everything changed. As if detecting his fears the walls turned from shining crystal and powdered snow to bare corroded metal and hissing pipes. The heat hit him like a physical wall, immediately he started to pant as his body temperature increased, his chest felt heavy as if a great weight was pressing on it. He couldn''t breath, he fell to his knees and tried to cry out but was only able to let out a whimper. This hell pressed closer on all sides, he was going to perish here, he closed his eyes.

    Argwen opened his eyes suddenly as he jolted awake. He was confused for a bare moment before he recognised the bare steel ceiling of his room. He attempted to yawn but was prevented by a large weight on his chest, he groaned slightly as he looked to see his companion creature Geraldine laying on his chest. Her toothy maw was only about an inch from his face, the large conical teeth imposing. But he knew he was in no danger, Geraldine was a noppin, a croc noppin to be precise. The noppin were animals originally native to the planet Nowhere on the western outskirts of the Union, they had been domesticated over the centuries by the planet¡¯s population and then spread across the stars.

    He grunted and poked her scaly snout a few times before she grumbled and opened a slitted eye. Seeing that her favorite basking spot was now awake, she gave a low groan of displeasure and slid off his stomach to the floor where she proceeded to yawn quite spectacularly. Her long narrow mouth stretched wide, showing off her dazzling array of teeth, with a pop she snapped her jaws shut and then seemed to smile at him.

    Argwen knew she was more intelligent than she let on, he remembered the day he had gotten her as a little juvenile. He had been able to hold her in the palm of his hand at the time, and she had been so lively. Nowadays all she seemed to do was lay around, though that might have been because he had the temperature settings as low as they could go. As an Atraxses, his thick coat of insulating fur was perfectly capable of protecting him from subzero temperatures like on the Atraxses homeworld of Ho¡¯the¡¯rell. Out in space, where the ship''s lowest settings would only take the temperature down to a balmy eighteen degrees celsius, he was a bit too warm. Geraldine was from an arid world however, her species adapted to the hot climates with cold blood and slow metabolism.

    Thinking of her slow metabolism made his stomach growl with hunger and he sat up in bed before rubbing his face, he was still tired. He was glad he didn''t have to wear a full body uniform like some of the hairless races in the Union, Humanity and the Nerivith came to mind. Instead he slung his shoulder pads on, they had his affiliation and pockets that allowed him to retain the least amount of covering possible in the hot confines of the ship. Argwen knew it wasn''t really that hot on board, but to him it felt like a blazing summer''s day.

    As he made his way out of the small sleeping quarters and towards the kitchen, he paid more attention to the details around him. The same slightly corroded steel walls from his nightmare pressed in on all sides, at two hundred and eight centimeters in height, he was a bit tall for his people, but that wasn''t very helpful when his primary means of transport was designed for Humans. His head didn''t quite touch the ceiling, but he did have to duck to enter rooms, something he had learned rather quickly after banging his head multiple times.

    He heard a low rumble to his right and looked down, Geraldine was walking along beside him. While she was a large breed of noppin, she wasn''t particularly tall. The obvious quadrupedal ambush predator build evident in her scaly form brought to mind pictures he had seen of creatures from faraway lands. But as the first settlers of Nowhere had learned, the noppin were quite a bit more intelligent than their outward appearance would suggest.

    He reached out with one of his hands and gave her broad head an affectionate rub to which she grumbled happily. He smiled, a very Human gesture he had picked up several years ago in a small border colony. He made his way into the ship''s kitchen and made a quick meal of reconstituted eggs and sausages. After a quick meal, in which he only fed a few sausages to a begging Geraldine, he made his way to the ship''s bridge.

    The AMI Heart of Gold wasn''t technically his ship, not really. But as he had been assigned to it for the last four years, he had come to know its ins and outs, its little quirks. He knew that it liked to pull a bit to the right when full acceleration was used and he knew that the right hand sample collector was a bit wobbly.

    He ducked as he entered the compact control room that worked as the ship¡¯s bridge, Geraldine trotted in behind him, her tail held just above the floor behind her. As he sat in the slightly too small chair, she curled up next to him on her favorite cushion. He had purchased the padding from a small second hand store back on the hub.

    He had not been to the hub for almost a full week, though time meant a lot less in space. The hub was, as its name suggested, the system¡¯s center for trade and commerce. It was a large space station that held, among other things, a small shipyard for repairs, housing, stores, and the headquarters for Axel Mining Industries. AMI was his current employer and the real owner of the AMI Heart of Gold, but he didn''t mind. As far as evil corporate overlords went they were not too bad. His pay was always correct and on time and he had health benefits, yeah it could be worse.

    The Heart of Gold, or Hog as he liked to call it, was currently in the system''s outer asteroid belt. At almost eighty five standard astronomical units from the system''s star, it might as well have been interstellar space. At least he hadn''t pulled a month of duty out in the Oort cloud. That was not a fun place to be, isolated by trillions of miles.

    He started the ships systems, bringing them to life from the power conserving hibernation they had been in while he rested.

    Turning to Geraldine he said ¡°Good, we didn''t drift too far from our position last night, let''s get to work on that M class on scope.¡± He knew she wouldn''t understand all the meaning or concept of what he had said, but she understood his tone.

    The large scaly lizard raised her head briefly from her nap and gave a short grumble of congratulations before closing her slitted eyes and dozing back off. Argwen chuckled to himself, as long as he had her, things never seemed so bad. He had been originally skeptical when a Human had told him to get a noppin, the thought of a predator species as a companion giving him pause. But as he had raised Geraldine he could no longer imagine life without her and her slightly grumpy mannerisms.

    He jerked his eyes back to his sensors, the asteroid was coming into range of his main array now. He would have to process a core sample in order to discover the exact composition of its makeup, but he could get a decent idea of what it contained from a distance. He grabbed a water bottle from the side of his chair, the small cooled drink case inset into the chair was a Human idea, and a welcome one.

    As he drank a gulp of the icy water, he caught a glimpse of the asteroid''s composition and nearly choked as he gasped. Coughing and hacking for a moment he heard a concerned grumble from in front of him as a large blunt snout pushed into his lap. Patting her snout he coughed again and reassured her ¡°It''s okay girl, I just tried to inhale water.¡± Seemingly satisfied that he was in no immediate danger, she snorted and moved back to her nest.

    Looking back at the readings he found himself grinning. This was exactly what he had been needing, a big haul. The metallic asteroid would have already been a decent find as it was, but his scanners had detected the presence of natural Osmiridium in it. The primary hard currency of the Union, Osmiridium was invaluable as it was impossible to fake and necessary in the construction of warp drives and artificial gravity components.

    If the asteroid was even a bare thousandth of a percent rich with the material, then he would still have made more in this single find than the last year of finds all at once. He rubbed his large hands together, this was going to be good regardless. The Hog was a Human designed Jumble Lix class prospector, at only seventy four meters in length, it was smaller than the seventy nine meter asteroid he had just found.

    There was no way he was going to be able to process the entirety of the find himself, and even if he could somehow have attached a large chain or series of hooks around it, the Hog wasn''t nearly powerful enough to jump it back to the inner system alone. He would need some backup.

    He got on the ship''s short range hypercom, essentially it was a complex device that could open a short range wormhole to a connected device to send short bursts of data. While not exactly as powerful as military channels or Hyperweb complexes, it was an invaluable piece of technology that would allow him to communicate with his constituents further in system in as near as real time.

    Argwen popped open the communications panel on his control console and selected a linked communicator. He then raised his wrist mounted assistant and spoke ¡°Dune Strider, this is Heart of Gold, come in Dune Strider.¡± He didn''t expect them to get back to him right away so he decided to move in to take a core sample while he was waiting.

    He busied himself with the familiar controls, on the front of the Hog was a small but complex series of drills, lasers, and mechanical armatures that would allow him to clear a spot, drill a five meter core sample, and then move it into the ship via a small port at the front. He watched the tools readouts closely to make sure nothing was in any danger of damage. After a few minutes of practiced concentrated action, he had successfully managed to extract and collect the sample.

    He leaned back into his chair and let out a breath ¡°Whew. Never gets any easier to do, all the little pieces that could go wrong.¡± Geraldine didn''t look up at him, instead letting out a low grumble. ¡°Hey, I thought it was tough all right, gotta do something to challenge myself every now and then. Well besides trying to give you a bath.¡± At the mention of such a hated activity Geraldine pointedly glared at him causing a slight chuckle. ¡°Fine. Be that way.¡± he said with a bit of false hurt.

    As the ship slowly started working on processing the core sample to see what it contained Argwen noticed his communicator flashing. ¡°Hmm, that was quick.¡± he muttered to himself. Usually Vincy didn''t get back to him this fast, she must have been looking for work. That was good for him because it meant he wouldn''t have to try very hard to convince her to help.

    Argwen opened the message and heard the melodic voice of the Nerivith woman say ¡°I read you Hog, what''s the problem this time? Your waste reclamation unit backed up again?¡± he heard her say with a snicker.

    Opening the link and checking the connection he sent a reply. ¡°It was only the one time, and no. I have a potential jackpot here, I¡¯ll have the results of the core sample in a few more minutes. But I think you are going to want a partial claim on this one.¡± And with that he sent the preliminary composition data along with it.

    He was right about his earlier hunch as she responded with only a few seconds delay. He could practically hear her vibrating with excitement and imagined the pink woman¡¯s tail lashing with her enthusiasm as she replied ¡°Oh, I see. And this is just the preliminary? I''m on the far side of the star, but I''ll be over there within the next three hours. Don''t go anywhere.¡±

    ¡°As if I have anywhere to go.¡± He replied testilly. He knew she was just teasing him, but his tolerance for such antics was similar to most of his people, very low. This fact was known and exploited by Vincy any chance she got. He sighed as the link was terminated, he liked the woman, she was a good Tug operator and a friend, but he didn''t handle her teasing very well.

    His ill tempered response aside, he was happy to hear that she would be there soon. There had been heightened suspicious activity in the region and he was starting to miss the security of the inner system.

    He spent a while waiting idly for the core sample results to finish, while he waited he played a few holovids on his assistant, just trying to pass the time. He looked up as a low tone emitting from his console alerted him to the core sample results. He sat forward, interested in just how good of a find he had made. The large metallic asteroid was high in iron and nickel, not too bad, his brow rose as he started getting into the rarer elements and then rose more as he reached the end.

    ¡°Blinding Blizzard!¡± he cursed as he saw the osmiridium content, osmiridium was a natural compound of about sixty percent osmium by weight and the rest of iridium. It had a unique molecular weight that was impossible to fake and what''s more was used in various technological processes, and he really had hit the jackpot.

    According to the data from the broken down core material, assuming the asteroid was relatively homogeneous, then the osmiridium content was several dozen times higher than a standard metallic asteroid, higher even than what was considered very pure osmiridium ore. If the whole rock was similar in composition then he had just found a single asteroid worth millions, tens of millions. He let out the breath he hadn''t realized he was holding and slapped the arms of his chair as his brain tried to wrap around the significance of the find. This system wasn''t even considered a hotspot for such high yield finds, there were others where such finds were more common, albeit generally of smaller size.

    All he had to do was get it back to the processing facilities on the Hub and he and Vincy would be absolutely stacked, with his fifteen percent commission fee for being the prospector to find the rock, he was looking at a potential pay in the hundreds of thousands of credits, enough to buy the Hog ten times over. He could do almost anything with that kind of money. Axel mining industries paid commission as well as a base salary to encourage their employees to look for high value targets, in this manner they quickly racked up a large amount of valuable ore instead of useless carbonite rocks.

    Argwen was finding the practice to be very beneficial at the moment, he looked at Geraldine and said excitedly ¡°Geraldine, we are going to be rich! I can buy you all the Ranx steak and Himplit sausages you can eat.¡± At the mention of such treats she raised her scaly head and looked intently at him. ¡°Well, not now, we gotta get paid first.¡± he said. Seeming to realize that no treat was forthcoming, she grumbled in a dissatisfied way and laid her head back down, her eyes remaining open though in case of a surprise treat.

    He shook his head, his shaggy white fur swaying with the motion. For such a large and powerful predator, she sure liked to pout a lot.

    Thoughts of grumpy noppins were dashed from his mind as a proximity alarm suddenly went off. The proximity alarm was only set to trigger in two cases, when a large mass of material, not uncommon in asteroid fields or belts, was moving towards the ship on a collision course. Or when another ship approached to within ten kilometers and didn''t have a transceiver active.

    Argwen opened his console to the external scopes and located the incoming vessel after a moment, all thoughts of outrunning it were dashed as he saw it was a faster ship. He thought about jumping away, but he put the idea aside as he realized that the warp core wasn''t even warmed up yet. He did so and cursed himself for not doing it earlier, but it was a power sink to keep it prepped all the time and so he generally only did so when he knew he was jumping.

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    It was too late to jump to warp and his ship wasn''t built for speed, they had not fired and so were likely going to attempt to board his ship. He linked his wrist worn assistant to the ship, the personal computing device making a slight dinging noise as it connected to the ship''s controls remotely. He stood, causing Geraldine to stand from her bedding as well. She seemed to understand something was wrong and groaned in sympathy.

    Argwen weighed his options, he could send out a distress pulse and hope there was somebody nearby enough to help him, or he could surrender and hope they were feeling generous. He decided to test his luck on a nearby patrol rather than the goodness of the potential brigands'' hearts.

    His assistant pinged as he instructed the ship to send out an SOS pulse. As soon as it did his assistant pinged again, this time with an incoming transmission.

    He opened it and saw the frowning face of a grizzled Human woman. Inexplicably, her frown deepened even more as she saw him and she spat ¡°Stupid fuzzer, of course you would send out a distress pulse like the cowards your kind are. We were just going to take your shit, but now I''m going to take your life!¡±

    Argwen was a bit taken aback, the woman seemed furious, and less at his cry for help than at his race. He knew speciesism was a thing, but he had never encountered it this blatantly before. He felt his temper trying to get the better of him and he replied ¡°If you want my life then come and get it. I''ll bet I¡¯m not as cowardly as you seem to think I am¡­ Bitch!¡± He added the Human swear on the end for good measure. It seemed to have the desired effect as the woman screamed incoherently in rage just as he severed the link.

    Chuckling a bit despite the situation he found himself in, he turned and made his way quickly from the bridge in the direction of his room. Lumbering down the narrow hall, Geraldine trotting just at his heels, he entered into his small room and walked to the far wall. Pressing in a code and unlocking a wall panel, it swung open to reveal a long-barreled weapon. It was an Incalculable Arms manufactured double barrel shotgun. Grabbing it, Argwen turned to Geraldine and said ¡°There are some bad people coming, we need to be careful.¡± He wasn''t sure if she understood every part of that, but she seemed to understand his tone as she let out a grumble and hunched low.

    Feeling a bit more secure now that he had a weapon, he made sure to grab spare ammunition which he placed in his shoulder pouch and then exited his room, locking the door behind them. It wouldn''t do to give the pirates anywhere to hide for free. The ship was large for a single person, but most of its internal volume was taken by industrial equipment and storage, this left only two potential entry points for the raiders. They could dock with the main airlock and then try to force their way through, but it was more likely they would attempt to invade through the larger service hatch. This way they would be able to fit more than a single person through at a time, cutting down his chances to bottleneck them.

    Now he was no fan of hurting other creatures, but it was a dark and often hostile universe, one had to be ready to defend themselves with violence if necessary. He checked his assistant, the unregistered ship was almost on them, little more than a hundred meters away and closing. He hoped that someone had heard his distress pulse as he was not really fancying his odds of fighting them off alone. As if she had heard his doubts, Geraldine butted her snout against the back of his legs as if to assure him of her presence. He reached down and fluffed her frills affectionately, at least he wasn''t truly alone.

    After a moment of waiting at the bend of the hall overwatching the service airlock, he felt a shudder pass through the ship. They had made contact, it wouldn''t be long now before they breached the airlock and came for him. He shouldered the shotgun and aimed it square at the rounded hatch of the lock. Geraldine groaned in worry and he reassured her ¡°It¡¯s alright Geraldine, I won''t let them hurt you.¡± he got another headbutt in response.

    His attention was drawn back to the hatch as it seemed to smoke slightly then blasted inwards with a loud bang causing him to flinch. He frowned as nothing came through the door immediately but remained in position, partially in cover around the wall. Soon a sound reached him, the scuffling noise of something moving.

    After another moment he saw movement as a large Human male wearing a dark chest piece of some sort burst through the door. Argwen immediately fired both barrels simultaneously, the fearsome recoil slamming into his furred shoulder and causing him to wince slightly, he immediately pumped the fore-end, the double action slide first ejecting then loading two new rounds into the weapon. The large man gave a startled yell as he was slammed back into the dark opening, Argwen wasn''t sure if he had killed the pirate, but given the loud curses coming from the end of the hall he didn''t think so.

    As the man had been wearing some sort of protective plate, he assumed that they were simply angry now. He held his ground as more noises came from the dark opening, he couldn''t see anything however and so held his fire. He wasn''t sure if he would get the chance to reload the bulky weapon if he didn''t do something to slow them down.

    Feeling a bit brave, he decided to shout ¡°Not such an easy target am I?¡±

    After a moment''s pause a string of foul curses rang out followed by ¡°That''s it, I''m going to enjoy killing you slowly, watching the pain and fear in your eyes as I carve you apart piece by piece!¡± it was the same voice he had heard over the communication, the pirate woman.

    ¡°Oh yeah, not if you don''t make it on my ship you won''t!¡± he taunted, feeling more confident.

    He saw a flash of movement as two of the brigands rushed through the entrance, Argwen fired both barrels in quick succession but only managed to hit one of the invaders, the man falling to the floor. The other managed to dive into the cover of the airlock and began to fire back on him with a small caliber pistol. The bullets ricocheted off the rusted metal walls of the Hog and he ducked fully into cover to avoid being struck. Geraldine let out a low groan of anger at the noise and danger but remained by his side, her frill extended and her posture low. It made her look a lot more threatening, but he knew she was likely more afraid than angry.

    At a short pause in the incoming fire he leaned back out around the corner and let off another volley of fire, this time hearing a shout and a curse. He wasn''t sure if he had hit anything but it was immaterial as the incoming fire doubled and he had to fall back fully around the corner. Realizing that his position was too exposed he started making his way towards the middle of the ship. There was another bend in the hall next to the galley that he could use to catch them exposed in the open.

    ¡°Cmon girl, we need to move!¡± He said to Geraldine, the croc cocking her head a little before bounding off after him. He ran as fast as he could down the twenty-meter stretch of exposed hall, expecting a bullet in the back at every moment. The sting of death did not manifest however and he made it to his next holdout position panting and hot. His people were not known for being fast, and the temperature inside the ship was much too high to be comfortable to him.

    As he panted and turned around he heard shouts of anger, it didn''t take long for one of the pirates to peek around the corner. Unfortunately for them Argwen had been expecting that and the man flew back as two rounds of heavy shot smacked into his helmeted head. Unluckily for Argwen the man was wearing a ballistic helmet, so while knocked unconscious the downed man would likely survive.

    Another flurry of shots rang out causing him to duck back into cover. He waited for a lull and leaned back to take another shot, to his surprise he found himself not more than ten meters from two rushing pirates. Neither side hesitated and a flurry of shots rang out, one of the charging men went down hard with a large portion of his leg missing while the other only took a glancing blow to the chest. The return fire struck Argwen in the arm causing him to cry out in pain and shock.

    He jerked back into the cover of the hall and fumbled with the small medical trauma kit at his waist. He pulled out the syringe of adrenaline and stabbed it into his leg with a grunt as his vision swam. As an Atraxses, his body didn''t produce the life saving combat stimulant and a severe injury to his arm would likely have put him into shock sleep for several hours as his body tried to repair the damage. Lucky for him he was Atraxses, meaning his biochemistry was similar enough to Humans that he could make some limited use of the substance in order to remain conscious. It did nothing for the searing agony that his arm had become though and as he was reaching into his pouch for painkillers, the other pirate rushed around the corner with a roar of hatred.

    With the adrenaline coursing through his blood, Argwen felt as though time had slowed to a crawl, his senses hyper aware of every detail. The smell of burned gunpowder, the glisten of moisture on the corroding walls. The smell of the brigands sweat was potent as was the stench of his own blood, the heavy wet coppery smell making him feel dizzy, but as the Human raised his weapon a large mass slammed into him from behind with a subsonic bellow of rage.

    Geraldine had tackled the man, her oversized digging claws piercing into the man''s protective vest with a brutal tearing sound. The man screamed in terror as he impacted the deck face down, before he had a chance to so much as struggle Geraldine closed her jaw around the man¡¯s neck and with a sickening crunch she crushed the pirate¡¯s spine and throat. Giving another bellow that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up, Geraldine stood, blood and small scraps of flesh hanging from her toothed maw.

    Argwen knew she wasn''t going to attack him, but part of him still recoiled in abject terror at the gruesome sight. After a second he collected himself and rumbled ¡°Good job, thanks for saving me. We need to move though!¡±

    She seemed to understand his intentions as she followed him down the short hall to the bridge. As soon as they were both in he locked the doors to the bridge, the thick partition closing with the shriek of corroded metal on metal. Argwen sat heavily in the main chair, exhausted by the heat and the fear. He felt something brush his leg and looked down to see Geraldine looking at him.

    She gave an affectionate grumble and he smiled, his dark features seeming to placate her worry. He reached down and gave her scaled frill a few pats before he said ¡°Well, that was awful. I''m sorry that you had to do that girl.¡± The croc noppin just blinked her slitted eyes, not understanding the words but hearing the gentle tone of his voice. She gave him another affectionate headbutt and a small grumble while scratching at a small container next to his chair and he laughed ¡°Alright.. alright. But only one, you know you get a stomach ache if you eat too many.¡±

    He reached down and opened the cooler and pulled out a small package, unwrapping it revealed it to be a protein bar. He tossed it to her and she snapped it out of the air and made an attempt to chew it for a few seconds before giving up and swallowing it whole. She grumbled again in a questioning way and he shook his head. ¡°Just one, maybe another when we get out of this.¡±

    She settled herself on her small bed as he turned his attention back to the ship¡¯s condition. On the small internal monitors he could see the brigands had moved up to the corner he had defended. The two pirates that had been dealt with lay where they had fallen, their cooling bodies serving as a grim reminder. The woman in charge seemed to yell something, but the cameras were video only and he couldn''t hear through the void-proof bridge doors. Whatever it was he was sure it wasn''t pretty though.

    The remaining pirates stalked up to the doors of the bridge and after a moment two of their number were dispatched back to their ship. Argwen didn''t like the look of that, it had all the markings of them going for something to breach the doors. Accessing the intercom he spoke ¡°Good job, you¡¯re doing great!¡± His sarcasm wasn''t lost on the woman who turned to the nearest intercom and screamed something silently before shooting the offending speaker with her plasma pistol.

    He just gave a grunt of humour at the sight and sat back. There wasn''t anything he could do to stop them, he just had to hope that his distress call had been heard.

    Less than twenty minute passed as he watched the raiders at their work. They had grabbed some cutting torches and were busy setting them up as he watched, he gave a small snort. While they would be able to cut through the doors with such tools it would take them quite a while. Though it seemed like they were trying to capture the ship intact, this was likely the reason they were not risking explosives on them.

    Argwen watched over the silent feed as they got the torches running and soon the bright flare of directed plasma blacked out the camera view. He turned over the side of the chair to see their progress. As he watched, a small but growing section near the middle of the door began to glow a dull red. He was distracted from the sight as another proximity alert went off. This time however the ship''s transponder relayed its information to the Hog.

    He read the data and gave a mighty sigh of relief, it read as the CMS Utmost Urgency, a Drabbon class patrol frigate. It was a military ship and likely full of Union marines, they would make quick work of the pirates. Suddenly the intercoms on his ship came to life as an authoritative male voice rang out ¡°AMI Heart of Gold, this is Junior Commander Jack Lincould of the Union Navy, we received your call for help. Unknown vessel, you are hereby commanded to kill your engines and prepare for boarding, any resistance will be met with deadly force. This is your one and only warning to lay down any arms and surrender peacefully.¡±

    Argwen watched as the pirates became agitated and stopped trying to force the door. The woman in charge seemed to be trying to convince her other crew to take up arms. While one seemed to be listening, the other two were shaking their heads. It seemed as though they had no intention to fight against the elite training of the marines.

    On another feed, he watched as the CMS Utmost Urgency docked to his main airlock and the marines soon pushed inside. He made sure that the airlock wasn''t under lockdown and the marines rushed inside a moment later in full battle armour. The matt black of their power armoured void suits covered the entirety of their frames, but he could see that there were at least two different races among them. Some that were obviously human, and a few others that were taller and a bit slimmer, likely Nerivith.

    They pushed up through the ship, most likely patched into his own ship''s video feeds as they seemed to know exactly where the invaders were. They encountered a pirate that immediately threw down their weapon and surrendered, they were roughly subdued and put into cuffs. A small device was attached to the back of their neck, likely a resistance plug. It was a small electronic device that, among other things, monitored the condition of the prisoner and would issue a strong electric shock if they tried to escape or fight back.

    The single prisoner was left behind as the group of marines split. One half moved off towards the pirate vessel that was still attached, and the other half made their way towards the bridge. Argwen watched in fascination as they methodically worked their way to him. As the marines reached the corner that led to the final approach they stopped and seemed to communicate to the pirates in front of the bridge. The pirate captain yelled something and raised her pistol before jerking as if struck. He opened his mouth wider in surprise as he saw one of the other pirates throw a smoking gun to the ground and fall to his knees with arms raised. After a moment the other two surviving pirates followed suit. The marines then moved around the corner, guns up and ready to fire if the brigands made so much as a twitch towards their weapons. It was over in seconds with the invaders suppressed and being carted off by a few of the marines.

    The tallest of the marines lifted a hand to their helmet and a second later his console beeped with a communication.

    Looking down he read ¡°This is Lieutenant Has Jerenger of the Union Marines. It''s all clear out here. I would ask that you open the doors so we can verify your condition.¡±

    Argwen moved to open the door then hesitated, looking at Geraldine he said ¡°Geraldine, here.¡± She stood and moved to his side with a curious groan. He placed a hand on her back as he opened the door, immediately he felt her stiffen and crouch. He mumbled ¡°It''s alright, calm. Be calm, these are good people.¡± She seemed to relax a bit at his tone and he stood and turned to face the door.

    After a few seconds the door was open and the tall marine stepped through. At two hundred and eight centimeters in height he still towered over them, but they were almost one hundred and ninety centimeters tall themselves, likely the armour added a bit to that.

    The marine seemed to take in the room at a glance before reaching up and opening their helmet visor. Argwen saw he had been right as the rose colored face of a Nerivith woman looked back at him. She asked ¡°Argwen Shmourgan?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that''s me.¡± He replied slowly.

    The woman nodded and then asked ¡°I can see you are unhurt, was anything stolen or damaged besides the airlock?¡± He shook his head. The marine nodded and then turned to Geraldine ¡°And who is this?¡± She asked in the melodic voice of her people.

    Geraldine, sensing that she was receiving attention, gave a low grumble and crouched playfully. The woman laughed musically and said ¡°I''m assuming that this one is responsible for the mess out in the hall?¡±

    ¡°Er, yeah, she isn''t normally aggressive but I guess she knew I was in danger.¡± He said a bit cautiously.

    ¡°Yeah. The love of a noppin is fierce. My brothers and I begged our father to get us one as juveniles, they were great. Though not nearly as impressive as this one here. A female I¡¯m assuming?¡± The woman said while gesturing to Geraldine¡¯s frill. As a female noppin her display was smaller and less impressively colored as her male counterparts. As he nodded she asked ¡°What''s her name?¡±

    He hesitated but decided that he trusted the woman, she had saved their lives after all. ¡°Her name is Geraldine.¡±

    Geraldine gave him a bump as he said her name, as if acknowledging his admission. The marine nodded and said ¡°Hi Geraldine!¡± As she reached out an armoured hand.

    The noppin looked back and forth between them, seeing his relaxed posture, she seemed to decide the woman was a friend. She lumbered right over to the power armoured Nerivith and proceeded to flop over onto her back while waggling her paws in the air. The marine giggled a bit girlishly and crouched to scratch the noppin¡¯s belly. Geraldine grumbled happily and squirmed around as she received power armoured skritches.

    After a moment the woman stood and cocked her head a bit. Nodding to him she said ¡°Alright, the raiders have been subdued, their ship is being towed back to base, it looks like you should be okay from here. Our sensors are detecting an incoming vessel with the same prefix as yours. I''m assuming you are familiar with the AMI Dune Strider?¡± As he nodded she confirmed ¡°Yes, incoming vessel is friendly. Affirmative. Will do commander.¡± Reaching out a matt black armoured hand the woman said ¡°Well, it was nice to get a chance to do something again. I thought this posting was going to be nothing but drills. I hope you are going to be alright now.¡±

    Argwen took the offered hand in his own and gave it a shake as he said ¡°Yes, thanks to you and your friends. I owe you my life, I thank you again Lieutenant Has.¡± He gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile, she let out a small giggle and he scrunched his brows.

    ¡°Well, I have to go, take care then Captain Argwen. Oh and I didn''t forget you cutie!¡± She said as she gave Geraldine one last scritch before she waved and turned. As she walked down the hall he sighed. It was nice to be saved, but damn if he hadn''t been almost as on edge around the military woman as he had the pirates. The Nerivith were known to be quite cold when it came to bloodshed, not even batting an eye at things that would give him nightmares. He shuddered as the sight of Geraldine crushing the pirate''s spine played again in his mind unbidden. He moved to his command chair and watched as the pirate ship and the CMS Utmost Urgency moved away from him.

    After a short period of inaction the two ships docked and then disappeared in a flash of light as they jumped into warp. A few minutes later another burst of light announced the arrival of Vincy and her ship. After another moment his communications channel beeped and he connected. The slightly aged face of a Nerivith woman met him as Vincy smiled ¡°Argwen! So good to see you, in one piece that is. I''m assuming that military ship wasn''t here for you?¡±

    He snorted and said ¡°Vincy, you have no idea.¡± As he laid out the last couple hours her face went from disbelieving to surprised to intrigued.

    ¡°It sounds like a certain someone is going to be treated to a premium Ranx steak dinner back at the hub then?¡± Vincy asked.

    He gave a curt nod ¡°More than one if this haul is as valuable as it appears to be. I¡¯ll help you get loaded up, this is going to change everything Vincy. This is that big break you always talk about.¡± He said a bit excitedly.

    He saw her nod, a small glint of mischief in her eye. ¡°Yes indeed.¡± She said.

    He sat back in his seat as he prepared to help affix the warp anchors she was deploying. Yep, it was all going to change, no more two week prospecting trips, no more having to follow directives. He was finally going to be his own man. He smiled, he was going to buy a small cargo ship and name it the Arctic Heart just like he had always dreamed. He wasn''t yet sure what kind of ship it would be, but he wanted a sturdy one, one he could leave to his children if he ever had any. Yes, it was all going to change for the better indeed.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Adrenaline

    Adrenaline

    Greeve was excited to be off work for the day.  He walked down the dusty road to his favorite bar and stepped inside the darkened interior, as his pale blue eyes adjusted to the gloom his attention was immediately drawn to the Yeown woman seated at the end of the bar.

    She was gorgeous, her powerful legs connected to wide hips and she had heavily muscled arms and an impressive bust.  His eyes tracked her long fluffy tail up to where it connected with the small of her back.  She was wearing tight fitting shorts and a sleeveless shirt that cutoff leaving a strip of her lower back and belly exposed.

    He glanced down at himself, his fur was a bit scruffy and his clothes were worn, but perfectly serviceable.  Running a hand through the fur on his head he flicked his pointed ears and swaggered over to this paragon of the feminine form.

    She heard his padded feet approaching as he neared and she gave him a cursory glance before returning her attention to her drink.

    Walking up to the seat next to her he waved to the Human bartender and called for a beer.  As he received his drink he turned towards the woman and flashed his teeth in a smile.  He was proud of his teeth, he made sure to keep them immaculately clean and bright.

    The woman huffed, not impressed.  He spoke "Hi there, I''ve never seen you here before.  You new to Drainge?"  She glanced at him again and gave him an appraising look before tossing her head and taking a pull from her drink.

    "Not interested in conversation."  She said tartly.

    Greeve frowned and asked "You have a rough day?  Well this is the place to relax, trust me.  I know all the cool spots to chill out here, like this one time for example¡­"  he began before she slapped a hand down on the bar and stood.

    Greeve shrunk down instinctively, cowed by the larger female''s commanding presence.  "I said, I''m not interested in talking to you, beat it."  She said more gruffly.

    Greeve gulped and nodded his head.  Even he wasn''t dumb enough to challenge a woman, especially not a woman who looked like she could bench press him with one arm.  He wasn''t out of shape by any means, but he definitely wasn''t as toned as she was.

    She smirked as he scurried away to a table on the far side of the room.  He sat heavily on the overstressed wooden chair which creaked in protest under his weight.  Focusing on his drink he grumbled "What was that?  I was just trying to be nice."  He reasoned out loud.

    Greeve finished off his drink and ordered another.  He wasn''t much of a drinker normally, but he was suddenly feeling the urge to get very drunk and forget about the whole situation.

    Greeve was on his fourth beer and feeling sorry for himself when he chanced a glance at the woman again.  His brow furrowed as he saw her talking to a Human male, they were sitting next to each other and chatting casually.  Greeve felt a flash of anger, why was this meatsack talking to her, what did he have that Greeve didn''t?  He was a Human, he didn''t have claws, no fur, not even a tail.  And what was worse they were even smaller than Greeve was, they were of average size for their species, but so was Greeve.

    The Yeown were on average 185 centimeters tall, this Human couldn''t have been more than 175 centimeters.  As Greeve watched the two, he grew more frustrated.  This weak, clawless, primate thought that he was better than him?  Well he would show them who was stronger.

    Greeve stood unsteadily and steadied himself before he strode over to the pair determinedly and planted himself next to the Human.  "Hey, what do you think you''re better than me?"  He huffed at the man as he turned to look at him curiously.

    The man looked him up and down and said "Buddy, you''re drunk.  I advise you to leave and cool off."  And then he turned back towards the female.

    Greeve was determined to get her attention however and he prodded the man''s shoulder and asked "What are you too clawless to challenge me?  C''mon, I challenge you."

    The woman was looking at him now, her expression was not one of contempt now, but of interest.  Emboldened by her gaze he stepped back and shrugged off his jacket exposing his sleeveless work shirt.  His arms were muscled and his four fingered hands were large and possessed retractable claws.

    The man seemed to sigh loudly and said "Well, looks like I gotta put another one down huh?  Okay bub, let''s do it your way."

    Greeve smiled and replied "Yes, no weapons but what nature gave us.  Till first blood."

    The man raised his eyebrows in that funny Human way "Till first blood?  What, you scared to go all out?  I say we take this till the other is incapable of fighting any more."

    The female Yeown raised a hand to the Human''s shoulder and started "Barry, maybe this isn''t¡­"  but she was cut off as he said.

    "This asshole has it coming, besides, he literally asked for it."  Barry retorted.

    She sighed and lowered her hand, settling down to watch.  Barry stepped forwards and raised his hands into a fighting position and Greeve did the same, unsheathing his claws.

    The Human smirked and Greeve growled low in his throat.  The female said "Alright on the count of three, one, two, three."

    As she finished, Greeve rushed at the man, intending to slash his chest with a heavy strike thus ending the fight in one blow.  But he yelped in surprise as the man sidestepped his charge and used his momentum to fling him into a table.

    Greeve got to his feet, wincing, that had hurt, and he felt a few bruises starting to form under his fur.  Snarling in anger he slowly circled the man, now wary of his speed.  Barry suddenly lunged at him and threw a heavy punch at Greeve''s face.  Greeve managed to avoid the blow by millimeters and reciprocated with an up swipe that slashed three shallow wounds into the human''s exposed forearm.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The human didn''t even flinch at the contact and retreated back a pace with his arms back in that fighting pose.  Greeve blinked at that, he had heard about humans being able to ignore wounds, but had never seen it for himself before.

    Greeve could smell the Human''s blood as it slowly welled up from the gashes, but they seemed unaffected.  Greeve changed the direction of his approach and attempted to catch them with another quick slash but grunted in pain as Barry smashed his blow aside and slammed a closed fist into his exposed shoulder.

    Damn, that had hurt!  Greeve began to become worried, this Human was fast, faster than he had expected.  Greeve tried to put some distance between the two of them but stumbled on a pulled out chair.  Like a flash Barry was on him, Greeve cried out as he was punched in the gut twice in quick succession.  Greeve fell to his knees, gasping in pain and holding his middle with his uninjured arm.

    "Had enough yet?"  The Human taunted.

    Greeve glanced at the female and saw concern in her eyes, he didn''t know if it was for him, or for this Barry fellow, but he felt another flash of determination flood through him.  He wasn''t going to let this small man beat him into submission without at least getting another hit in.

    Greeve stood to his feet and spat "Not even close, thanks for scratching that itch, it was driving me crazy."  His bravado seemed to have the desired effect as the Human frowned and raised their arms again.  Greeve was hurting, but he pushed through the pain and rushed at Barry again, this time he feinted with his injured arm and was rewarded with the Human going for a block.  Quickly switching his attack, Greeve threw his uninjured arm in a closefisted punch straight into the Humans chest.

    Greeve growled in satisfaction as the Human grunted in pain and was knocked back a step.  But to Greeve''s surprise he seemed to recover immediately, that blow should have cracked a rib at least and yet the Human was just as fast as before, maybe even faster.

    Greeve felt a blow connect with his jaw and howled as something snapped.  Near blinded with pain he raised his arms in a pitiful defense as a series of blows rained down on his body, his stomach, his arms, his side.  Greeve reeled back and tripped over something, as he slammed to the ground he felt his vision fading.

    The female was suddenly there kneeling beside him, she cradled his head in her arms as he coughed blood and blacked out.

    **********

    Greeve awoke to pain.

    He was lying in a white room.  The walls and surroundings looked sterile and he realised he was in a hospital bed.  He tried to raise his arms and groaned in pain as only one of them responded to his will, the other seemed to be too numb to move.  He tried to sit up but failed as his battered muscles refused to cooperate.

    Closing his eyes he cursed silently to himself, what had he been thinking.  He had been drunk sure, but he hadn''t thought himself that stupid.  There was a reason that Humans were known as brawlers, and he had challenged one in a flight of fancy.

    Lying there for a while in silence, his ears twitched as he heard the unmistakable sound of padded feet approaching his room.  Cracking open an eye he peered at the door to his room, it began to creak open and his eyes shot open in surprise as the same woman from the night before stepped in.

    She was dressed in a long white coat and scrubs and he groaned internally as he realised that she was a medical worker.

    She was holding a datapad and walked over to him, tapping away on the screen she ignored him for a few moments before huffing and finally looking at him.

    Greeve shrank into the sheets as far as he could as she turned her emerald green eyes on him.  "I cant tell if you are reckless, or just stupid, you''re lucky you didn''t break any bones, although you did lose a fang."  Greeve remained silent as she berated him.  "I mean, I said I wasn''t interested in talking to you, and then you come back and try to duel for me?  If I wasn''t so annoyed I might actually find that kind of cute.  So tell me, are you reckless or stupid?"  She demanded putting her hands on her hips.

    Greeve was at a loss for words, on one hand here was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen standing above him, on the other she seemed ready to tear his throat out.

    Her gaze softened slightly at his scared expression and she asked "Greeve."  He perked up at the use of his name "I''m trying to understand, help me understand." She asked less harshly.

    He swallowed loudly and replied hoarsely "Stupid, definitely stupid.  I never drink that much, but I guess I was feeling a bit down."

    She snorted and said "Sure ya were, big ol tough guy like yourself tries to impress some girl and gets blown off.  Then when he sees another man talking to her he mans up and tries to grab her attention with his impressive fighting ability, does that sound about right?"  Greeve nodded sheepishly, not meeting her eyes.

    To his surprise she chuckled, he looked up at her to see her smiling.  "What''s funny about that?"  He asked curiously.

    She shook her head and said "I''m just remembering the look on your face when Barry threw you into that table.  Honestly, it was a pretty decent fight.  He boxes in his free time, I''m surprised you managed to hit him, not once but twice.  You got him pretty good the second time too, he had to come in for three cracked ribs."  Greeve was confused.  She seemed to know this Barry person as she spoke of them with fondness, but she didn''t seem upset that he had hit him, rather, she actually sounded amused.

    He frowned in confusion and asked "Wait, you''re not mad I hit him?  But you two seemed to be getting along so good, and you speak as if you know him well."

    She laughed at his question and said "Oh, Barry?  Yeah he''s my brother in law.  I was adopted into a human family after my parents died in an accident.  Barry and I grew up together, he has always been protective of me, I think it''s some sort of Human thing, I could pick him up and throw him if I wanted to.  Still, I find his protective manner endearing."  As she finished, Greeve just stared at her for a few moments before averting his eyes.

    "I''m sorry to hear that, and I''m sorry I hurt your brother.  I thought he was just someone trying to get your attention and doing a better job than me, I guess part of me got jealous."  He admitted ashamedly.

    He jerked as he felt her place her hand on his shoulder, he looked into her face as she said "Honest and humble?  Hmm.  Greeve, while I will admit that I was annoyed by your crude attempt to pick up my attention, I must admit that in a roundabout way, your plan worked."

    "I, uh, huh?"  Greeve sputtered in confusion.

    She set the datapad down on the table next to them and moved her hand from his shoulder to his cheek "I was in a bad mood when you tried to talk to me.  That''s why I snapped at you when you first came over, but when you came over and challenged Barry, and even managed to hurt him.  I have to say, that was intriguing, very, very, intriguing."  She said as she leaned closer to him.

    Feeling a little more confident now that she wasn''t angry he asked "So uh, I still don''t know your name?"  He said as she transfixed him with those shining green eyes.

    He tensed as she grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him suddenly.  It seemed to drag on for an eternity and he drifted on the tides of pain and euphoria as his battered body warred with this new wonderous sensation.

    After just a second she pulled out of the kiss and stood, releasing him.  He gasped and stared at her as she turned to leave.  He tried to sit up but groaned as his body protested.

    As she reached the door she turned and fixed him with another look before smiling and saying "Oh, my name is Freasha by the way."  And with that she was gone.

    Greeve looked up at the ceiling and sighed, he was in a hospital, battered and bloody from a lost fight.  And yet, he felt better than he had in as long as he could remember.  He smiled and closed his eyes, hoping beyond hope that he wasn''t dreaming.  His breathing slowed as he fell into a calm sleep, dreams of a beautiful woman on his mind.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Evanescent City

    Evanescent City

    Evanescent City, a sprawling urban jungle rife with crime and corruption.  Ruled by militarized gangs and policed by bloodthirsty brutes in heavy armor whose answer to every problem is the business end of a weapon.  This cesspool of scum and villainy is the perfect breeding ground for stories of treachery and brutal vengeance.  To exist in such a den of iniquity is to live in one of the most brutal and degenerate administrations the underbelly of the SCU could produce.

    ++++++++++

    Hella crept through the narrow alley as quietly as she could, she knew that this was technically neutral ground, but it always paid to be cautious, especially this close to Lightning Strikes territory.  She raised her fist in a signal to halt as she neared the end of the shadowed alley.  Her Baron, Jorge, made a similar signal with his own clenched fist and the rest of her small scouting party stopped.

    She didn''t usually lead Blue Blood patrols herself, but the last two of her scout patrols had reported heightened Lightning Strikes activity along the western boundary of the neutral zone.  While the bugs were usually not ones to provoke open conflict, relying instead on lightning quick hit and run raids, it was not unheard of for the Vinarfelien gang to engage in open fighting when the fighting mood took them.

    She heard a quiet murmur of conversation from behind her and she whipped her head around looking for the source.  Her eyes narrowed as she saw one of the younger squires jerk their gaze away.  Hella snarled to herself and hissed "Squire Ash, you know what comms silence means, it means no verbal communications of any type.  There will be penance for your lapse when we return to the hold."  The now thoroughly chastised youth hung her horned head in shame and moved to the rear of the squad.

    These juveniles didn''t understand, there hadn''t been any major conflicts in her zone for a few years now and the newest batch of recruits were showing their inexperience and were in desperate need of some real combat experience.  Hella herself was growing quite bored with the calm nature of the zone under her control and secretly looked forward to potential conflict with the Lightning Strikes hordes.

    Looking left and right she saw no signs of enemy activity, though she did see a scraggly street hawker standing on a nearby corner in a battered trench coat.  Motioning for the squires to stay in cover, she and Jorge approached the pitiful creature slowly so as not to cause alarm.

    The figure turned its features to them and she grimaced as she saw the pale flesh and piercing predatory eyes of a Human.  Humans were strange, their whole species was an enigma that had yet to be figured out by the other member races of the SCU in general.  Humans were as peaceful as they were violent, as kind as they could be cruel.  She had even heard whispers of a malady that affected some of their number that caused their minds to fragment into a crazed amalgamation of conflicting personalities trapped in a single body.  She shuddered at the thought of ever meeting one of those so-called schizos.

    The Human male saw her approaching and cracked a wide smile, his bright white teeth at odds with his scraggly and battered features, she realised as she looked at his attire that he was a member of the Greasers.  The Greasers were a wide spread collection of petty thieves and minor criminals that used their coalition to protect each other.

    "Why hello there good lookin, what''s a pretty pink dancer like you doing in a sleazy alley like this?  You lookin to buy something?"  The man asked her with a hopeful look.

    She sneered at him and adjusted her dull camouflage powered chest armour that she had been awarded upon reaching her rank of Castellan.  "While I appreciate the warm welcome Greaser, I am here to check up on a lead.  You haven''t seen any bugs around here have you?  And I don''t mean the ones living in your clothes."

    The stocky Human chuckled at her jab and returned "Bugs huh?  Am I to assume you are speaking of Lightning bugs?"

    She bared her teeth in a grimace of frustration and said "Enough of your games, tell me the truth, have you seen any Lightning Strikes activity in the area?  Tell me now or I''ll¡­"

    "Or you''ll what?"  The greasy man cackled madly.  "You have no authority here Blue Blood, you are in a neutral zone, anything you do here will be considered an act of aggression.  I suggest you dance on home, you will find nothing but death here."  He finished much more ominously.

    Hella glanced around and put her hand on Jorge''s shoulder as the slightly shorter male puffed up and began "Why you rotten curr, you have no idea who¡­  what, what is it?"  He followed her gaze and deflated as the shadows around them came to life with a multitude of shadowy, trench coated figures.

    She passed a long fingered hand through her short hair beside her horns and nodded to the man saying "I''m sorry for the intrusion friend.  We will leave you to it."  Tugging on Jorge''s sleeve, she walked as calmly as she dared back to the narrow alley where her patrol was waiting.

    "We will proceed back towards the hold, keep alert, I have reason to suspect Lightning Strikes activity in the area."  The juveniles nodded and began to move with the grace commonly attributed to the Nerivith as they wound their way back along the narrow corridor.

    As they reached an opening to another main street, she paused to check her surroundings.  Feeling a tingle of unease run down her spine to the tip of her tail, she pulled out a small scavenged military scanner and switched it on.  It would be able to detect nearby life forms and should be able to tell her their species as well.  She looked at the small cracked readout and swore under her breath as it confirmed her suspicions.  She looked around and noticed an abandoned looking building across the cracked duracrete roadway that would make as good a fortress as could be expected.

    Raising her arm and signaling to her companions to follow she flicked her tail in a gesture at the building and unslung her gun from her back.  She held the familiar weight of her bright rifle in her arms as her small squad darted into the cover of the warehouse.  She waited to see if the coast was clear before following and shutting the heavy steel door behind her.

    Jorge looked at her and asked "Enemies?"  She nodded.  "How many?"  He asked her.

    "Too many to take alone.  We need to call for reinforcements, but it''s likely our transmission will be intercepted and bring the full force of our enemies upon us."  She replied grimly.  She cast her eyes around the dark interior of the building they were occupying and took in the layout with her practiced eye in an instant.  "Ash, take Yourn and Fred to the balcony over there, use your rifles to suppress the bugs so they can''t get within melee range.  Jorge, get on that second story opening there, see if you can get some early shots off.  I''m going to post up here with Danny and Streala."

    While the others made haste to their assigned positions, weapons free, she pulled out her battered assistant and activated its communications function.  She sighed deeply and then linked back to the hold.  After a moment a voice emanated from the small device saying "Castellan, it is good to hear from you, has your patrol discovered something?"

    She wasted no time in explaining the situation, quickly retorting "Yes, I need at least a platoon, maybe more.  We have hostile activity, at least three squads worth.  We are set up in a defensible structure on the far western side of the neutral zone and will hold for as long as we can.  Please hurry, I fear they may have intercepted this communication."

    The voice was quiet for a moment before returning and saying "It will be done my Castellan, we are dispatching all available ranks to your position, eta twelve minutes.  Just hold on."

    "Copy that, return to radio silence."  She said before quickly switching off her communication program.  She pulled out the old scanner again and held her breath as the contacts continued in their general direction, then stopped.  She swore as she saw the blips begin to move towards them with a more sinister purpose.  "We got contacts incoming.  Bunker down and watch your angles, we have reinforcements arriving in about twelve minutes.  Hang tight, don''t fire until I give the word."  She didn''t hear acknowledgement but knew they would obey her without question.  She was their Castellan after all, in charge of their safety and security as much as they were hers.

    Jorge looked at her and they shared a brief look before he turned away and raised his rifle.  She blinked a few times and raised her sniper rifle to the window she was peering out of.

    The warehouse was dirty and run down, with missing windows and rusted walls, the walls were made from thick steel plates, the ancient welds cracked and rusted.  The industrial structure would do well in absorbing the fire of their enemies while simultaneously providing an elevated platform they could use against the bugs.  Hella peered through the cracked glass of the widow she was crouched by and observed the street.  It was similar to any of the thousands of other streets she had seen in Evanescent City over the course of her life, cracked duracrete roadways with narrow sidewalks and grimy buildings to the sides.  The buildings were primarily duracrete or concrete with plasteel supports making them cheap and durable.

    The alleys between the buildings allowed walkers to transfer from street to street much quicker, though one had to be careful never to travel alone or unarmed down their gloomy lengths.  She took a moment to think about her journey and the choices she had made to reach this point in her life before her seldom used earpiece crackled and Jorge whispered to her over short range that he had spotted movement down the left side of the street.

    Hella signaled to the others to turn their attention in that direction then peered through the scope of her bright rifle.  At first all she could see was the faded facades of the buildings opposite her, but as she continued to observe she began to make out brief flashes of movement.

    The Lightning Strikes were a Vinarfelien exclusive gang, and being Vinarfel, they were generally hit and run attackers.  The Vinarfel were a large insectoid race vaguely resembling an Earthly centipede with their elongated serpentine bodies and multitude of skittering legs.  They possessed incredibly durable natural armour and were impossibly quick.  It was said that a Vinarfel in full sprint could reach speeds in excess of 45 kilometers per hour for short bursts, and could comfortably move at 20 kilometers per hour for extended durations.

    This speed and agility made setting up a strong forwards facing defensive position one of the only viable strategies to effectively combat them.  Trying to flank them would be futile as they could change positions faster than any other species and are able to climb up the sheer sides of buildings with ease.

    Hella watched as the shapes became more defined, the sinuous forms of the Vinarfel moving like liquid shadows.  She raised her tail above her head and prepared to snap it down in the signal to fire just as Danny cried out in shock and fell to the ground clutching her arm.

    She snapped her tail down while simultaneously shouting "Fire at will!"

    "Fred, get down here, Danny''s hit!"  She called to the young squire.

    Fred pulled back into cover and made his way down the metal grates that formed the ramp to the upper level.  He darted over to Danny and began to work on her arm which seemed to be bleeding from a flesh wound.

    Hella ignored the bright blue blood that was their namesake and focused back on the shadows outside.  She was equipped with a standard model bright rifle, the up-powered sniper variant of a beam rifle.  It fired a powerful pulse of near ultraviolet light that manifested as a searing line of purple that would leave afterimages in the vision of any without proper eye protection.

    She saw a flash of movement and fired without hesitation, she hissed to herself in frustration as the lance of solid light only grazed her target.  While it carved a furrow into the armour the Lightning Strike had been wearing, it didn''t slow them at all or otherwise hamper their progress.  She fired twice more and was rewarded with a flash of vaporized blood as her last shot struck home.

    Hella''s victory was short lived as she felt something slam her head backwards, only the raised collar of her armour protecting her from a broken neck.  She fell back with a screech of pain that she quickly stifled, she was a Blue Blood, a Nerivith warrior to make her mother proud.  She would fight till she was no longer able to move, then she would curse her foes till they silenced her eternally.

    She felt a great ache in her skull and knew that it was likely a bad wound, but as long as it did not impair her ability to shoot she would ignore the pain.  Fred made his way over to her, seemingly done patching up Danny.

    Hella made to wave him away as she fired off another trio of shots but hissed in rage as the insolent male dragged her into cover.  "How dare you pull me from combat, I will have you flogged for this."  She began but was cut off.

    "Cut the shit Castellan.  If there is one thing I learned from my medical training it''s to not take shit from a patient, and right now you are under my command.  So sit your ass down and let me patch you up or so help me I''ll dope you up so much you won''t be able to fight for a week."  The young man snapped as he pulled out a tube of medicated quickheal and some bandages.

    Hella sat sullenly, thoroughly beaten by his tirade.  She brooded grimly as he applied the medical ointment and bandages to her head and only whimpered in pain once.  She hated to show such weakness and committed to serving penance for her show of frailty.  Finally after what felt like hours, but was likely only minutes, Fred stepped back and frowned.

    He shook his head and said "I''m not going to lie to you, that''s not going to grow back.  But at least you have the other one still."

    Hella looked at him not comprehending for a moment before her eyes widened and her hands shot to her head.  She gasped out as her hands found the bandaged stub of her left horn.  Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she was able to recompose herself.  Swallowing hard, she shouted "Those shrij are gonna pay for that!"

    With a cry of anger she swung herself back into firing position and searched for a target.  With a hiss of anger, she fired on the first movement she saw and shouted in triumph as she saw a now mostly headless corpse slump to the ground on its multitude of legs.

    Jorge cursed as a shot sparked off the crate he was using as cover and fell back heavily, hands clutching his chest.  "Shit, that hurt¡­"  he wheezed painfully.

    Hella spared him a glance as she leaned back into cover and saw Fred rushing to him, he waved him off saying "I''m fine lad, just got the wind knocked out of me, that''s all.  I''m afraid I won''t be much help without a gun though."  Fred nodded and immediately offered the older male his rifle.  Jorge looked at it and Hella heard him say "Oh I couldn''t take your gun lad, you might need it later."

    Fred said quickly "There won''t be a later if we get overrun, please take it.  You are a better shot than me anyways."  Jorge nodded and accepted the beam rifle before making his way back into a firing position.

    Ash exclaimed from the second level "There are so many of them, what are we going to do, Castellan?"

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "We will do our duty, we will fight and die if that''s what is required.  And I will strike down any too cowardly to meet that standard myself."  She said while looking into the frightened squire''s eyes.  Hella smiled to herself as she saw the tiny embers of anger spark into life.  Good, if she was angry then she wouldn''t be afraid.

    Yourn spoke up from her spot near Ash saying "Permission to perform a dirge Castellan?"

    "Permission granted, anyone who wants may feel free to join in."  Hella answered stoically.  Yourn raised her voice in a mournful keening wail that rose and fell eerily in the dark confines of the battered warehouse.  She was performing the classic dirge for lost hope, a fitting piece considering their predicament.  Jorge joined in, his slightly lower timbre adding an additional eldritch layer to the otherworldly song.

    Hella smiled sadly to herself as she continued to fire out into the dark streets, hoping to prolong their lives just a little longer.  She wasn''t afraid to die, she had been living on borrowed time for years now.  She was upset that these fine young squires would die with her, and Jorge.  She wasn''t really sure how she felt about Jorge, on one hand he was her most loyal subordinate, on the other hand he was as close a friend as she had ever had.  In another life they could have been more than that, but it was too late now, much too late.

    A shriek of pain brought her out of her trance, she leaned out to take another few shots before jerking back into cover just in time to avoid the barrage of shots that slammed into the thick sheet metal of the industrial warehouse next to the window she was using.  Glancing up to her right, she saw the crumpled form of Yourn as Fred tried to patch the bleeding hole in her chest.  She checked her bandolier and saw she was down to her last two battpacks.  That was nowhere near enough to cover for the remaining six minutes they had till reinforcements arrived.

    Jorge had stopped singing when Yourn had been hit and the whip cracks of railgun fire and the sound of rounds slamming into their cover was all she could hear.  She hung her head and came to a decision, they would die here, but they would die fighting.  As she prepared to deliver a hel-speech, she suddenly became aware of the silence.

    Jorge called out to her "My Lady, they have halted their advance.  Someone approaches."

    She looked to him before whipping her head towards the window beside her as a voice rang out.  A familiar voice.  "Howdy there pretty pink lass, I gots a message for you from the Mechboys.  They said all this fightin is causing such a ruckus they can''t concentrate on their projects.  They asked if y''all would kindly stop slaughtering each other here and take it somewhere further from their territory, before they come and make you stop.  As it is, I''m calling fer a ceasefire, let''s talk it out eh?"

    Hella blinked in surprise and peeked out the window to see the sleazy Greaser from earlier standing in the middle of the street like he owned the place, which he kind of did now that she thought about it.

    Before she could respond she heard an angry hiss come from the shadows behind the Greaser and narrowed her eyes as a Vinarfel male in full combat gear stepped into the light.  He was an impressive specimen.  Fully six meters long, his forward two meters were reared into an upright posture and his ten arms were gripping a multitude of rifles, knives, and pistols of various models and calibers.  His bright red compound eyes glinted menacingly in the dim light of the overhead lamps and his faceplates shifted into a frown as he hissed again.

    "And who are the Mechboyssss to interrupt our duel?  Ssshall I call in the Speed Freaksss, I''m sssure they would love an opportunity to put those slavering junkersss in their place."  The Lightning Strike said.

    She racked her brain and then called out after him saying to the Human "Yeah, and I will notify my contacts in the Terravita Clans, they would relish an opportunity to smash those blockheads into the ground.  Nothing beats them in melee combat, not even the Mechboys fancy suits."  She had exposed herself fully to the enemy now, but they were under the sanctity of a ceasefire now.  Any who drew blood during the negotiations would be hunted down and destroyed by all.

    The Greaser seemed to mull it over and then replied "Huh, seems like an awful lot of work to me.  I''ll take this back to the Mechboys, sit tight, I''ll be back in five minutes.  Oh, and the ceasefire is still in effect, no killin till they get back to ye."

    Hella smiled in spite of the situation as the Vinarfel spat in frustration and holstered his weapons.  She slung her bright rifle over her back and gave Jorge a look before saying "I''m going out there to talk to that bug helspawn.  If he kills me, vaporize him."

    Jorge knew better than to argue with her and simply nodded before resuming his overwatch position with Fred''s rifle.  She slowly opened the main door to the warehouse, it creaked and groaned as its battered joints took on its full weight, but she managed to muscle it open anyways.  As she strode into the street towards the large man, she pulled out her assistant and opened a channel to the hold saying "Hold this is castellan Hella, ceasefire in effect, please relay this information to my reinforcements."  She didn''t wait for a response, as soon as she saw her message was received she turned it back off and placed it in the pouch at her waist.

    The Lightning Strikes leader looked at her with a hostile glare and hissed at her as she approached "Why are you here, come to beg for mercy?"

    "No, I''m here to find out which one of you blew off my favorite horn, I take that rather personally you know.  And I have at least two platoons on their way, so good luck with that endeavor."  She snapped back at him.

    They continued to glare at one another for a few more seconds before she reached up and felt the bandaged nub of her left horn and let out a deep sigh.  She leaned against a nearby pole and relaxed slightly before glancing over at the large alien again.  He was still looking at her with a hostile gaze.  She decided to try and break the ice, if she couldn''t kill the bastard, she might as well try the diplomatic approach.

    She cleared her throat and started "Well, it seems as though we haven''t been formally introduced, my name is Hella, Castellan of the West Yorlands Blue Bloods hold.  And you are?"

    For a minute longer the two meter tall man stared at her and said nothing, those impassive red compound eyes giving away nothing.  Though she did notice the twitching of their faceplates and antenna as if they were deep in thought.  Though she had to admit she really didn''t know much more about the bugs than how to kill them.

    To her surprise he answered slowly as if thinking over every word "My name iss Gram.  Local Leader of the Wesst Yorlandsss Horde.  Casstellan, hmm?  What bringss you out to the edge of civilissed territory.  I thought you nobel cowardss only hid behind your thick wallsss and never rissked yoursselvess."

    She decided to ignore the obvious jabs at her and her kin before answering back "Sure some of them do, but as you can see,"  she gestured to her very conspicuous missing horn and continued "I am made of sterner stuff."

    The Vinarfelien raised a single antennae slightly and stated "Indeed."  He shuffled slightly and settled closer to the ground in a semi hunched posture in an effort to get more comfortable.  His antenna twitched as his eyes glinted in her direction.  He shuffled a bit and spoke "Thiss iss sstrange, why would the Mechboyss call for a ceassefire in the neutral zone?"

    She shook her head and sighed as the question she had been thinking was voiced out loud by the other.  She looked up towards the metal roof of the undercity and said "I was thinking the same thing, we are nowhere near their territory, and they normally wouldn''t care even if we were.  There has to be something else going on here."

    She heard a commotion from down the street in the other direction and both she and the Vinarfelien bolted upright, hands on their weapons.  It was a moment before the source was revealed.  It was the called for reinforcements finally arriving.  She glanced at the large man beside her and apologized "Hang on, I''ll go take care of them, hold onto that thought."  The alien twitched his faceplates into a tiny smile but said nothing.

    Hella walked the twenty meters or so down the street toward the leader of the relieving forces before calling out to her "Paladin Nera, it''s good to see your face, I''m afraid the situation has changed."  She saw Paladin Nera giving her a strange look and realised she was staring at her missing horn.  Hella put her hands on her hips and sternly asked "Is there something on my face Paladin?"

    Paladin Nera jerked to attention and snapped a salute, palm flat over the heart.  "NO!  There is nothing wrong Castellan¡­  er, may I ask where I should bunker down while the situation, err, resolves?"

    Hella gave a little snort and flicked her tail in the direction of the abandoned warehouse saying "You and your troops can bunk in that structure, if worse comes to worst, it will provide ample shelter."

    Snapping another salute, paladin Nera responded "Yes Castellan, Squads 3, 5, 8, and 11, follow me."

    Hella watched them move off before rolling her shoulders and walking gracefully back to the waiting Lightning Strikes leader.  She looked at him as he initiated conversation, saying "While I have no great love for your people, I musst admit that I have great resspect for your disscipline and fighting prowesss.  A mere sqaud of yours were able to sstand alone againssst my raiding party and you even managed to kill a few of usss, one a highly sskilled verteran.  If ssituationsss were different, I might even cossider inviting you to a feasst."

    Hella smiled grimly and replied "Your words are heard and appreciated, know that I did not take your presence lightly, I called for a full platoon of reinforcements.  For I know just how deadly your people can be if not taken seriously."

    Gram nodded at her remark, his antennae waving slightly in the air.  He seemed to cock his armored head slightly before saying "I smell oil and scorched metal, the Mechboys are approaching."

    She looked at him and then nodded her head and took a spot by his side.  If this turned violent, she would trust the honor of the Lightning Strikes above the machinations of the machine men.  Gram''s eyes glinted but he remained silent as a procession of huge, grotesque metal figures thundered into view.

    They stopped a good fifty meters away and one broke off, a particularly large specimen.  The armoured behemoth trundled towards them, its slow sedate movements somehow even more menacing than its earlier thunderous pace.

    As this massive mechanical monster reached within ten meters of her and Gram, it settled towards the ground in a strange hunched posture.  The front of its armoured bulk seemed to split open like an overripe mushroom and the armoured petals slid into hidden recesses in the sides of its steel carapace.  A much smaller, yet similarly distorted, person stepped out of the mess that was the interior of the mech.  Turning and twisting, the misshapen figure unhooked a multitude of cables and power lines from their body and then stepped closer.

    As they got closer, Hella noted that the figure was a Slaaveth female.  She was wearing a heavy suit that integrated the systems of her mech with her own movements.  It was this integration suit that had given her such a grotesque appearance.  Due to her species inability to use bionic implants, she couldn''t assume direct control of her suit and made do with this secondary option.

    She stode to them and smiled at them with her sharp dagger-like teeth and soulless black eyes as she said "Why hello there, you are the two making all the noise then?  My name is Glorm, I''m in charge of the local Mechboys band.  I was told by Sleede that you were busy making a mess of our favorite stomping grounds.  I would kindly ask that you disperse, or at least move off to a different area to slaughter each other."

    Gram hissed in anger and Hella grimaced and lashed her tail at the indignity of the woman''s comment.  Gram spat angrilly "Who do you think you are talking to?  We will run ringsss around thosse russt bucketsss you call mechss.  Ssee how well you can fight when your hydraulic liness are ssevered."

    Before the angry Vinarfel could really get riled up Hella butted in saying "You know I have a whole platoon bunkered in that structure right?"  She made a gesture with her sinuous tail towards the building behind her as she continued "They will slag your suits before they make it ten paces."

    Glorm gurgled in anger at their rebuttal before growling "You really want to test that theory?  You might hurt us, but you lack the firepower to kill us, we on the other hand, will obliterate you and scatter your ashes to the great currents.  Never to be seen again."

    The threat stood in the air for a few moments longer before Gram made a move for his weapons.  He was fast, but Glorm had been expecting his reaction and drew her small sidearm using her suits'' mechanical muscle fibers to beat him to the punch.  He froze as the barrel of her pistol came to a halt mere centimeters from his head.

    "Are you sure you want to go there, there doesn''t have to be any more fighting."  She said to the immobile man as his red eyes glinted in anger.

    Gram twitched his antennae and hissed "I would rather die than ssubmit to one ssuch asss you.  You and your honorlessss kin can burn in the firess of the Mother''ss wrath."

    "I agree with Gram, you sell your services to the highest bidder, you have no cause.  You fight not for family or honor, but for your own perverse self indulgences."  Hella spat, her tail coiling in anger behind her.  She would be damned if she died to this hel spawned whelp and her cronies, much better to die in honorable combat to the likes of Gram.

    Before any of them could voice any additional vitriol, a new voice rang through the narrow street.  It was synthetic and emotionless, seemingly coming from every direction at once and it took her a moment to understand the words.

    "Cease this hostility now.  Know you not where thou art stood?  This most holy of sites is protected from violence.  Let any who raises their arms against another post hence be struck down to that endless void that is oblivion.  I say unto thee, cease thy hostilities!"  The strange voice said as it seemed to emanate from the very air itself.

    Hella shrunk back in surprise and a little fear.  Having never heard one herself, she knew of the mysterious Chaos Watchers that seemed to exist in the shadows of the city.  They were beings of incalculable power and were said to be able to destroy those that disobeyed them with naught but words.  She saw Gram and Glorm both shrink in fear of the voice as well.

    Hella gasped in shock as the air beside them seemed to shimmer as if suddenly heated to unimaginable levels, before a shrouded figure seemed to step out of the rift and stood silently before them.  Hella did the only thing she could think of, she fell to her knees and bowed her head, hoping that her display of reverence would spare her from the displeasure of this creature.

    After a few tense moments she peeked up and saw that the figure was still standing there silently.  She shivered and was about to bow her head once more before the figure spoke again "CW7001-245 bids you rise Hella, daughter of Jasper.  You have obeyed my plea for peace.  For this your earlier desecration will be forgotten, but I urge thee to depart this place with all haste.  There are actions at play here that you couldn''t possibly understand.  Glorm, your presence here is unneeded and unnecessary.  Return to your hanger in peace.  Gram of the seventh litter, you of all should understand the benefit of discretion.  I urge thee to depart with your wounded, the dead may rest here for a time.  But must be removed before the third night of the coming week."

    Hella gave Gram a look and shook her head in disbelief before turning and making her way back towards the warehouse.  She glanced over her shoulder and jerked as she noted the hooded figure was staring directly at her.  She snapped her head forwards and quickened her pace as she made her way to the large structure.

    As she squeezed in through the partially open door, she was inundated with a barrage of questions and shouted comments.  She waved her arms for silence while shouting for everyone to quiet down.  When it finally became quiet enough for her to begin, she spoke "Yes, that was a Watcher, no I have no Idea why they are here.  We are heading back to the hold immediately, no questions asked.  Two of you are going to carry Yourn back, she is on that stretcher in the corner."  She said quickly.

    Jorge walked over to her and asked her a question quietly as the sounds of packing and clanking filled the room "What was that, they just stepped out of thin air¡­"

    She looked at him and replied "It was a Watcher, you could tell me they made the sun shine pink and I wouldn''t be surprised.  Speaking of the sun, I haven''t been up top in a few months at least.  As the Castellan, I am entitled to some leave of absence when I so desire it.  What do you say we take a trip to the tropic region, go on a vacation so to speak?"

    He gave her a funny look.  "We?  Why would you want me with you on such a leave of absence, surely I would do naught but remind you of your responsibilities?"

    Hella giggled sweetly at his shocked expression before they began to move out of the warehouse and back home.  She leaned over to him and whispered down into the shorter males ear "I want you there because I like being around you Jorge.  Do you think I kept you around all this time simply because you were good at your job?  You are good, but not that good.  No, I keep you around because I like having you near.  Come with me, and show you just how much you mean to me."

    She laughed again as the man ducked his head and blushed a violent shade of purple.  His reaction caught a few questioning looks that were almost immediately curbed by her piercing gaze.  She felt something in her hand and looked down to see Jorge holding her hand as they walked.

    He got on his tiptoes to whisper back to her "I thought you would never ask, my Lady."

    Without warning she swept him off his feet and wrapped him in a passionate embrace as she kissed him fiercely, this elicited a strangle yelp of surprise from him and a general chuckle from the Blue Bloods around them.  His shocked expression quickly melted into a look of bliss as she kissed him with the passion of one with nothing to lose and everything to gain.  She let herself get lost in the moment, knowing that this feeling wouldn''t last forever, but savoring the sweetness of the kiss while it endured.

    She was happy to be alive, she let thoughts of her responsibilities and duties leave her mind for a few precious moments.  She would have to see if there was a way to get an artificial replacement for her horn though.  As she released Jorge and the two stood, they smiled in unison at the strangeness of the situation.

    "I love you, I always have."  Jorge said to her quietly.

    Hella punched his shoulder playfully and began walking again as she said back "I know, it was kind of obvious."  They walked with the rest of their troops in silence, a new purpose giving her graceful steps a bit of extra spring.

    Hella knew that things would be difficult, that this new adventure could lead to heartbreak.  But if she had learned anything in her life, it was to take what you could get when you could get it, for one might never know when they might have such an opportunity again.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Lost and Alone

    Lost and Alone

    One foot in front of the other, keep moving.  It was cold, his skin burned from the chill.

    (It hasn''t always been like this before.  He had once had a home, had a family, and had a future to call his own.  But it was all gone now.  Burned to glass in the fires that had fallen from heaven.)

    Another few steps, the clink of shattered glass under his bare clawed feet, the slight pain of a cut quickly forgotten as the cold numbed his limbs.

    (He could remember when he had no worries, life had been carefree, joyous even.  He had used to romp in the front garden of his childhood home, the sun beaming in the sky, the light flowing through the trees.  But it had never been meant to be.)

    A small pile of rubble, the collapsed remains of some distant structure.  He might have once been curious as to its original purpose, but now he felt nothing but hollowness.

    (He had never known hunger back then.  His belly always full, his eyes bright and his smiles a kilometer wide.  He used to play by the river with his sister, she had been so nice.  They shared everything, did everything together.  She had been his best friend, his only real friend.)

    He stumbled, front foot catching something buried in the dust.  As he glanced he caught the sight of hollow eye sockets and a grinning skull.  The remains of a body forgotten by all but him now.

    (The weather had been warm.  Clouds in the sky could cover the sun for a time, but never enough to make it cold.  The fields of Frubble trees laden with their golden fruit covered the entire planet.  A garden world of unsurpassed beauty and sweet delights.)

    A sob escaped his lips as a sharp thorn pierced his side, the twisting thorny creeper clinging desperately to a crumbling brick facade, he battled through the pain and squeezed through the gap in the wall.

    (He could remember the look on his father¡¯s face as they plucked the fruit from the low branches.  The smile, his chin sparkling with the juice of the fruit he had just tasted.  His father¡¯s approval and love filling him like the sun''s warm rays upon his back.)

    Another barrier, this one cruel and twisted.  Its blasted form topped with razored wire and warnings.  They meant little, all that had once been held was now destroyed.  Just like everything else.

    (He could picture the skies.  Bluer than anything he could remember and stretching into forever.  Only the tops of distant farmhouses broke the unending fields of fruit trees and waving seas of corn.)

    He had to hop across a stream of filthy water.  Taking a moment to sup some of the brackish liquid, he continued onwards.  His never ending journey unfinished.

    (Stemmins.  The name of his home that once was.  The home that had been.  A shining green jewel in the deep void from whence the destroyers came.  They had come in ships, impossibly large ships.)

    His belly groaned, hunger his constant companion.  Seeking to sate it he scrabbled at a nearby wall.  A small layer of slimy algae came away and he licked it from his fingers.  The taste of death evident.

    (Ships had appeared overhead, ships like he had never seen before.  His sister had screamed, her voice lost in the roar of wind as something fell from them.  Dark shapes like stones but far larger.)

    He attempted to duck under a low hanging beam and lost his footing.  Sliding on the slurry of ash and mud, he fell into a sunken pit alongside the building with the collapsed roof.  He scrambled in the mud for a minute, panic overtaking him.

    (The ships had been overhead for hours, then a strange thing happened.  They seemed to break apart.  Dark shapes falling from them, screams like he had never heard echoing in the wind, then light.  Bright lights in the distance, lights that burned to look at and hurt his ears.)

    He had managed to escape the pit, had even caught a znot for his troubles, the small fuzzy creature joining the algae in his stomach.  His hunger sated for a moment, he relished the rare feeling.

    (Explosions, that is what his father had screamed to them as he galloped towards them.  He had told them it was danger, his father¡¯s face wild with an emotion that he had never shown before.  He and his sister were bundled into the root cellar like a potato harvest.  But their father did not follow, he went to find mother.)

    A wire crossed his path.  He stopped, danger senses tingling.  It might be nothing, but it could be a trap.  Not another trap.  He shivered, hunched down and wrapped the scrap of cloth around himself tighter.

    (The ground shook and dirt streamed down from the ceiling.  Where had father gone?  Why were these things happening to him.  He couldn''t know, and did not dare to try.  Another loud noise, an explosion.  This one closer than any before.  Soon the screaming wind was back, the doors to the cellar flew open.)

    It hadn''t been a trap, at least not a very good one.  There were others, like him.  But not like him.

    (In the door, it was father.  Before he could call out to him another flash.  And the roof collapsed, he was buried alone in the crushing darkness.)

    He had met another like him once.  They had called themself an administrator, not sure what it meant.  It sounded nice though and so was she.  Old like mother but nice like sister.  He had liked her, but then they had found others.

    (Coughing, darkness, constricting pain on all sides.  He flailed and tried to scream, but to no avail.  Kicking hard he pushed up, and broke through the surface.  He had immediately been burned by the heat. The air shimmered and the ground was painful to touch.  Father was gone, everything was gone.)

    The mean ones had beaten him, put him in a box.  He watched as they hurt administrator.  They beat her and asked her questions, but she wouldn''t answer, their dark clothing made him shiver.  They kept hitting her till she was still.  They said to be quiet, that he was next.

    (He had wandered, looking for father, for mother, for anyone.  But everywhere he looked it was ash and fires.  The trees no longer green and soft, but hard, burned, dead.  He had seen death, but this was different.  He fell to his knees in pain and sorrow.  He was alone.)

    The box had been small, but he was stronger than the mean ones had thought.  He had escaped and run.  Run and run till his legs no longer worked.  Then he had crawled as far as he could go.  If they found him, he would die.

    (He realised that there were still places with green, but all was turning dark, the skies once clear and blue were now grey and black.  Angry lights made deep angry noises across the sky, the lights like veins of fire.  White flakes fell from the darkness sometimes, bitterly cold to the touch.)

    He awoke, alone again.  With nothing to do he had walked onwards.  The area he had come to was different, more buildings and less trees.  Although all were burned, they seemed less so.

    (He wandered.  Alone and afraid for a long time.  But he was not a quitter, father had always told him that quitting was bad.  He would keep going, he would find father.)

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    He stumbled along, his strength all but spent, his eyes heavy.  Suddenly, something different.  A noise, like the wind that no longer blew soft and gentle.  He looked up and gasped in surprise, there was a ship.  Not like the ones that had destroyed his home, but like the ones that had used to come.  It was wide and fat, reminding him of dreegrubs that sometimes liked to eat the fruits from the trees.

    He stopped thinking about the past, this was good.  Maybe they would help him.

    He began to run, the ship sending a smaller ship towards the distance.  If he could just make it there, then he could ask the nice ship for help.  They could make the bad things go away, they could fix everything and help him find father.

    So he ran, as fast and far as he could, but he was still too far away.  His hope began to fade and his tired muscles gave out, he sprawled across the muddy street.  All his energy spent and his vision swimming.  Why had he even tried?  They would never waste their time on something as small and pitifully weak as he.

    He crawled to the side of the road, under a small dead bush.  For the first time in his life, he felt nothing, no pain or hope or love.  He felt truly empty, he had given up.  His eyes closed slowly as he realized it was time, he would not get to see the nice ones again, he would be like sister, quiet forever.

    Something woke him from his sleep.  He jerked awake and tried to stand, but found he had no strength.  Voices, voices in the distance.  Voices coming closer!

    He panicked a little, were they the nice ones coming for him?  Or had the mean ones finally found him again.  He didn''t know what to do for a short time, but decided it was worth the risk.  A spark of hope flared once more in his small chest as he mustered all of his strength and called out.

    ¡°Please help me.¡±

    **********

    Trisha was crying, tears falling from her black eyes and running down her scaled cheeks.  She had never seen such devastation, the entire planet of Stemmins had burned.  Those Hegemony monsters had attacked unprovoked.

    This had been a simple agricultural world, yes it supplied the military but only a beast would think that made it a viable military target.  The world hadn''t even had defenses.

    She stopped and turned to her secondary pilot, Hervast.  ¡°This is appalling.  Get it all on tape, we need to show everyone that will listen what happened here.¡±

    Hervast nodded, their sharp teeth bared in anger at the sight of the burned buildings and cars.  The dead trees and icy puddles of filth on the ground.  The world had been burned, and the people too it seemed.  Trisha had found more than one body, the remains horribly burned.

    Suddenly she heard a small voice, she looked around but saw nothing.  Turing to Hervast she asked ¡°Did you hear something?¡±

    Harvest looked around and gurgled ¡°It sounded like someone said help I think.¡±

    Trisha spun around slowly, they had been walking through the bombed out remains of some semi-industrial town center.  Nothing but burned buildings and the bleached remains of corpses exposed to weeks of wind and rain.  They had not been the first to arrive at the scene of the slaughter, but they looked to have been the first to arrive since the Hegemony had left.  At least two wrecks had been detected in orbit of the planet, small independent freighters by the looks of the remains.

    She stopped, something had caught her eye.  Movement near a small blackened scrub bush.  She motioned for Hervast to follow and walked slowly towards the small pile of ragged cloth she saw.

    The pile stirred fitfully as she approached and she realised with a start that it was a small Gre¡¯vahn child.  Painfully thin and wrapped in rotting cloths, its eyes were closed and its chest hardly moving.

    ¡°Oh!¡±  she exclaimed as her pupiless black eyes opened wide.  She took off her thick coat, the freezing air causing a shock to run through her cold blooded body.  She rushed to the small form and wrapped the thick jacket around them.  It was a young boy, likely not more than six or seven years old at the most.  How had they come to be here, where were their parents?  She had a sinking feeling in her heart that she knew the answers to both questions.

    As she crouched over the small, wasted form, she saw his eyes open slightly.  His eyes a beautiful silver on black.  She smiled but the boy closed his eyes shut tightly and began to shiver, a low moaning whimper issuing from deep inside their little chest.

    ¡°Oh.. no no no.  I''m not going to hurt you.  Here, you must be starving.  Take this.¡±  she said quickly and pulled a small, dried ration bar out of her pocket.  It was made from dried wish and nuts and quite tasty in her mind.  She knew that the Gre¡¯vahn were omnivores and should have no trouble with the foreign proteins.  Their constitutions hardier than most.

    The young boy¡¯s eyes shot open at the smell of food and he reached for it but hesitated.  He gave her a look with those beautiful silver eyes and she understood.

    She took a small bit off the protein bar to show it was safe and then held it closer to the boy who snatched it like she might change her mind.

    She smiled as he ate, he was making small rumbling noises that she hadn''t ever heard a Gre¡¯vahn make before.  She knew what it was though, he was purring.

    Hervast made a small noise and said ¡°Oh, that''s interesting.¡±

    As the boy finished his mean he looked up into her face again, she shivered slightly as her body adjusted to the chill.  It wouldn''t hurt her but she wouldn''t be very quick.  ¡°What happened to you?¡±  she asked as softly as she could, the slight gurgle of her accent coming through.

    The boy seemed to gain courage and he said in a slightly raspy voice ¡°Father said there was danger.  But then he was gone, I was trying to find him.  Can you help me?¡±

    Her heart broke.  This little boy had witnessed hell in all likelihood.  He was shocked, didn''t know what had happened to him or his world.  Immediately anger flowed through her, white hot and banishing the chill that seeped through her.  ¡°I don''t know if we will be able to find him, but if you come with me, I will do everything I can to help you okay?¡±

    The young boy nodded and tried to stand but fell to the ground once more.  His eyes teared and he sniffed but she was undeterred.  She reached down and scooped him up off the ground, jacket and all.  He was a little heavier than she had been expecting, cursing herself for a fool she remembered, the Gre¡¯vahn had quartz skeletons.  Of course he was heavier than his scrawny appearance would have suggested.

    Huffing slightly from the weight, she cradled the boy as best she could.  In response, the young boy wrapped his arms around her neck.  ¡°What is your name, mine is Trisha.¡±  she asked him.

    He pressed his small, furred head into her neck and responded quietly ¡°My name.  My name is Gavin.¡±

    She smiled and told him ¡°Gavin is a very nice name.  I''m going to take you somewhere safe and warm, okay Gavin?  You will be safe there.  I won''t let anything hurt you ever okay?¡±

    Gavin seemed to sob quietly as he hugged his little arms around her tighter.  Motioning to Hervast she carried the young child along the burned streets of Stemmins.  The planet had been destroyed, but amongst all the death she had found a spark of hope.  Gavin was a miracle to her.  That the young boy had survived was incredible in itself, but for her to have stumbled across him in such a manner.  It rang of grand design.  She knew that she had to take the evidence of what she had seen here back to someone in the Union.  Someone who could do something.  She was just a cargo hauler captain, basically nothing in the grand scheme of things.

    She felt her charge shift slightly and heard a faint noise.  Listening closer she realised it was a snore, he had fallen asleep in her arms.

    ¡°This¡­  This is a crime against life.¡±  she seethed softly.

    Hervast nodded and said ¡°I agree.  There was never any need for this.  This goes beyond callous.¡±  she could practically feel the anger coming off of him.  It seems that the plight of their newest little friend had caused his blood to heat in anger as well.

    They turned a corner and she saw her ship, the simple bulk hauler was capable of atmospheric entry and takeoff.  Very handy when visiting low tech systems like this one.  For once she stopped and looked at the small symbol of the Union pasted on the side of the ship.  On any other day she would not have looked twice, but today it meant something new.  It stood for everything that was good and right, for the opposite of what had happened here.  The small, winged eagle of the union with its starbursts filled her soul with a righteous fury.  She would see the perpetrators of this horror laid low.  They would answer for their crimes at the end of it all.

    This she swore in her mind.  Gavin had never deserved this, the precious little boy¡¯s home had been destroyed by a heinous blow.

    She stepped up to the ship, its ramp lowering automatically.  Gavin stirred at the noise and gave a small cry of alarm that she quickly silenced with a grumbling coo.  ¡°It''s okay Gavin, it''s me.  Trisha.  You are safe now, I have got you.¡±

    He looked around, his eyes lighting on the ship as its ramp lowered to them.  ¡°Where are we going Trisha?¡±

    She gave him a smile and he smiled back, his wide mouth full of tiny teeth.  ¡°We are going to the stars Gavin, the stars will keep us safe.¡±

 TOC Short Story: The Day it Ended

    The Day it Ended

    The sound of muted chatter reached Kile¡¯s ears as he reached out slowly towards the bright yellow parcel in front of him.  Grasping it gingerly he placed it in the small basket he was carrying and swore slightly under his breath as he read the numbers on the small handheld device in his hand.

    ¡°Damn!¡±  He swore to himself quietly.  The numbers kept ticking up, that wasn''t good.  There was a limit to how much he could take.  If he wasn''t careful he could go over his allotted limit and that would mean all kinds of nasty things.

    He shuffled along after the mass of other people trapped in the large warehouse-like structure he was in.  He thought about the war and what it was doing to people, the economy was crashing, the general population was scared.

    As the faint sound of beeping made its way through the mass of grimy humanity to his ears, he perked up and looked ahead.  There was a scanning station ahead.  He would need to pass through it with his package if he wanted to leave the structure.  He checked his pockets to make sure he had his identification on him, the last thing he needed was to get caught out without it.

    The line shuffled forwards slowly as the mass of weary people shuffled inexorably forwards, the beeping of the scanning station became louder as he closed in on its position.  Pretty soon he was at the small station, he placed the yellow parcel from his basket on the worn out looking conveyor belt.  With a slight squeal of worn out gears, the belt moved the precious package towards the worn out looking woman behind the counter.  Her hair was messy and her clothes were rumpled, she looked as if she hadn''t slept well in weeks.  He could believe it, he probably looked just as bad.

    He looked at her small worn name tag that said ¡®Hello, my name is Dina¡¯ and he turned to her with the best smile he could muster and stated.  ¡°Hey there Dina, how has your day been?¡±

    The woman stopped with her hand resting on the package as she scrutinized him for a moment before answering tiredly ¡°I''m doing fine hun, how about you?¡±

    He waved a hand towards her nonchalantly and responded ¡°Oh as well as can be expected.  Everythings getting worse but I''m hanging in there.¡±  he finished with an awkward chuckle.  The woman responded with a raised eyebrow and scanned the package.

    She looked at the dusty screen next to her and squinted slightly before turning to him and saying ¡°A week''s worth of basic freeze dried provisions.  That will be two hundred and thirty five dollars please.¡±

    Kile stood straight and said in surprise ¡°Two hundred and thirty five?  Last week that was only two hundred and ten dollars¡­  what happened?¡±

    The woman sighed and said impatiently ¡°Sir, I don''t make the prices, now do you have enough or not?¡±

    Kile muttered under his breath as he pulled out his credit identification card and handed it to the grumpy attendant.  The woman scanned it in and handed it back.  As he stuffed it into his pocket she tsked and said ¡°Looks like you''re six dollars short hun.  Do you have another card?¡±

    He shook his head and looked around before leaning towards her and whispering ¡°I might have some cash on me.¡±  the woman''s eyes widened and she looked at him in a more interested way.

    ¡°Cash huh¡± she said quietly.  ¡°Alright, hand it over then.¡±  she said with her hand outheld.

    He looked at the man behind him who was starting to look a bit impatient before he pulled out some wrinkled bills from his pocket.  The cotton and linen bills were heavily crumpled and worn from age, but they were still a valid form of US currency.  The Federal banks had stopped issuing paper money a few decades ago in lieu of a cashless society, but there were still people that dealt in cold hard cash if one knew where to look.  The outbreak of the US/Chinese war had halted most of those underground cash transactions however and now, eight years later, it was even more rare to see.

    The woman took the five and one dollar bills gingerly and looked at them closely before she smiled.  ¡°They look just like I remembered from my childhood.¡±  she mused, she smelled one of the bills and then nodded.  ¡°These are real all right, where did you get these?¡±  she asked him.

    Kile shook his head and said ¡°I can''t tell you that, you know that.¡±  she just nodded and waved him along as she handed him his package of meals.  He grabbed it gratefully and proceeded towards the exit of the grimly lit building, he could feel eyes on his back and he sped up slightly.

    Soon he was at the exit, the doors shuddered open as he approached and he walked out into the parking lot of the store.  The sky was gray and the air slightly humid as he walked to his old car.  It was an old diesel burning model, not one of the new hydrogen cell powered ones.  There was something about not having to rely on government handouts for the fuel to drive that he and his family liked about the old car.

    Kile reached the small gray vehicle and opened the trunk to put the package away when his cell phone started to buzz frantically at him.  Sighing and closing the trunk, he answered the call and was surprised to hear his mothers panicked voice.  His mother had been through it all, the civil war, the second great depression, and the Luna disaster.  But she sounded truly spooked.

    He listened to her for a minute before he asked ¡°Wait, what is this about the war?  What happened?¡±  he asked.  The United States had been at war with China since May of 2120, it had seemed to be going well from the information he had been hearing.

    His mother took a calming breath and he heard her say again ¡°I said there are reports of nuclear detonations, it''s the end.¡±

    He shook his head, nukes?  There was no way that anyone was actually dumb enough to go that far, it would mean the end of life as they knew it.

    He tried to reassure her as he said ¡°Mom, mom, calm down.  There is no way that''s possible.  It has to be some sort of disinformation, you know you can''t trust everything you see on the internet.¡±

    ¡°I know that Kile.¡±  she said pensively ¡°But this wasn''t just from the internet, it was on the news.  They don''t tell stories like this without some sort of confirmation.¡±  she started to wail again.

    He sighed and told her calmly ¡°Well if it is true mom you''re going to be okay.  There is no way the Chinese would care about a little town like us.  We will be okay.¡±

    She seemed to calm at his words and finally she told him ¡°Okay, you are right, you always are.  Oh my smart little man¡­¡±  she began but he cut her off.

    ¡°Oh c''mon mom, stop it, you know I hate that.¡±  he said only half seriously.  She chuckled and he smiled in spite of the grim situation.

    ¡°Okay Kile, make sure you call Kaitlyn before you head home, she is probably worried too.¡±  his mother told him.  He smiled, his sister was a worrier indeed.

    ¡°I''ll give her a call mom, don''t worry.¡±  he said as they hung up.  He looked at his phone for a moment before leaning his head back.  It was stressful every day, but news like that was the last thing he really needed.

    He opened his phone keypad to call his sister when his phone screen suddenly went black.  He jerked slightly as a series of harsh tones emitted from the speaker while a series of hazard symbols popped up and a message started to scroll across the screen accompanied by a synthesized voice.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°LONG RANGE BALLISTIC MISSILE THREATS DETECTED, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.  SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.¡±  He stared at the message as it repeated several times, looking up in shock he saw that others around the parking lot were also looking in disbelief at their devices.  He slumped against the trunk of his car, what was he going to do, should he call mom back?  He was completely lost.

    Just as he was debating whether or not to hop into his car and try driving home, a nearby voice called out to him ¡°Hey, did you get that alert too?¡±

    Kile turned and saw a man approaching, middle aged and having a distinct, if slightly worn, dad look to him.  Dusty cargo shorts with sneakers and a plaid button up shirt.

    ¡°I did, what should I do?¡±  Kile started to say before the man waved a hand.

    ¡°If it''s a false alarm then don''t panic, that''s the last thing you want to do.  And if it''s not a false alarm, well then son, panicking isn''t going to help either.¡±  the man said calmly.

    The manner in which the man spoke helped to calm Kile internally and he took a deep breath as he asked ¡°Who are you?¡±

    The man laughed jovially and held out a hand while saying ¡°My name is Fredrick Jeebs, retired US army.  Believe me when I say, I''m not as calm as I look.¡±  Frederick finished with a nod of his head.

    Shaking the man¡¯s hand, Kile introduced himself ¡°Kile Brunswarth, I work at the convenience store on the corner of 11th and Washington.¡±

    The man nodded and said ¡°I know the one.  How you doing?¡±

    Kile shuddered and leaned back against the trunk of his car.  He looked around briefly.  The parking lot was mostly unadorned, just a few rusty lights scattered around to light it at night.  Most of the cars parked were older electric or hybrid models, but there were a few of the newer hydrogen cell cars as well.  The ground was pocked asphalt and there were small weeds clinging to life in some of the more damaged areas.  All in all it was a rather run down and shabby looking place, but it was home.

    ¡°I''m still a little shocked, I guess.  The war, the death.  I have heard terrifying things from the news, chemical weapons, superbugs?  Why is it happening, what can be worth so much death¡­¡±  he finished in a slightly haunted voice.

    The man sighed and said ¡°I won''t pretend to know all the answers.  As for why, it''s all a show of power.  Both sides think they are right and that they are the only ones allowed to be right.  But in all reality they are both wrong.  There is a peaceful resolution to this, but the government won''t even consider it.  Believe me, I have been asking myself those same questions for longer than you have been alive, I recon.¡±  Fredrick finished.

    Kile just nodded, only half there.  His heart was still pounding in his chest and his palms were sweating.  He knew he was reacting strongly to what was happening, but fuck, it might be the end.  ¡°I don''t know what to do, and my phone isn''t working.¡±  he said as he tried to dial his mother again.

    The man shrugged and said ¡°Well, you can talk to me lad.  I''m here if you need.¡±

    Kile looked at the man, he was standing there in his ridiculous outfit, arms spread wide.  It was so ridiculous to him at that moment that he started to laugh, he laughed till it started to hurt, then the laughter turned to tears as his resolve started to break down.  He felt a hand pat him on the back as Fredrick said ¡°It''s okay, let it all out Kile.  it''s going to be okay.¡±

    Kile stayed that way for another minute before he spit and stood straight.  ¡°Thanks¡­¡±  he mumbled without looking at the man.  He was a little embarrassed he had broken down in front of a complete stranger like that, but what was he supposed to do?

    ¡°I used to have a son like you.¡±  the man started.  Kile looked at him but remained silent, not trusting himself to speak but not wanting to silence the man''s story.

    The older man took his silence for approval and continued ¡°He was about your age when the world ended for him.  His wife and young child were killed in a terrible accident that he was partly responsible for, he survived but the guilt tore him apart.  He, he ended up killing himself.  That''s the day the world ended for me, every day since has been borrowed time for me.  That''s the real reason I''m so calm.¡±  the man finished.

    Kile looked at the man completely mortified.  ¡°What a horrid story, that''s terrible.¡±  he said before adding quickly ¡°I''m not upset that you shared it, I guess I''m just wondering, why?¡±  he asked.

    Frederick sighed and scrunched up his features in an indeterminable way.  He leaned back on the trunk of Kile¡¯s car next to him.  He stared off into the far distance for a while before he answered, a slight breeze stirred the air between them as the man spoke ¡°I guess I feel like someone else needed to know.  And If it really is the end, then, well.  You might be the only one I have the time to tell.¡±  he finished somberly.

    Kile blinked, he wasn''t sure how to respond to that.  This man he hardly knew, walked up to him and was speaking to him as if they were old friends.  Kile smiled, it was nice to be honest, people could be so distrustful, hateful, mean.  It was refreshing to meet a person that seemed to just want to hold a decent conversation.

    ¡°Well, that''s true I guess, but where do we go from here?  I have to get home.¡±  he told the man.

    The man nodded and asked ¡°Which way are you going?¡±

    Kile raised his arm to point towards the city outskirts to the north when the northern sky was suddenly lit by a brilliant flash of light.  Kile¡¯s eyes widened as his overloaded brain tried to make sense of the stimuli his eyes were feeding it.

    ¡°Whaa, wha¡­¡±  he started to say as he began to panic, but he felt a firm hand on his shoulder and looked to the older man next to him.

    ¡°Don''t panic.  That''s not going to help.¡±  Frederick said.

    Kile nodded numbly and looked back to the ominous orange glow that lit the horizon.  A gust of hot air washed over the land from the direction of the blast.  ¡°Why would they hit us here, there is nothing here¡­¡±  he said.

    Frederick shook his head sadly ¡°That''s not true, there are a series of nuclear defense sites in the mountains to the west, that''s probably what doomed us.  Fucking government and their need to place those damn sites everywhere.¡±  The man finished darkly.

    Kile started to look around, there were others in the parking lot that were panicking and speeding away from the blast, Kile started to move but was stopped by the man again.

    ¡°Let go of me, we need to go.¡±  he shouted.

    Frederick shook his head and looked up ¡°There''s no point.  It''s going to be alright lad, the suffering is almost over.¡±  he said, gesturing up.

    Kile looked up and gasped.  He could see the white plume of something falling through the air above them.  He squinted and was shocked to see the long form of a missile plummeting towards the ground at incredible speed.  He turned to look at Fredrick and asked ¡°What was the point of it all, why even fight?¡±

    Frederick just shook his head sadly and told him ¡°We fight because we have no choice.  And now the fight is over.  And so are we.¡±

    Kile felt a sense of peace wash over him, it was a little surprising but he recalled some of the events from his past that always seemed to make him smile.  His twelfth birthday, the time he won first place in a robotics competition in high school, his graduation day, mom had been so proud of him.  He smiled despite the events washing over him and looked to the older man.

    He held out his hand and said ¡°I see, thank you Fred.¡±

    Frederick smiled and took his hand as they looked up together.

    The long range ballistic missile detonated five hundred meters in the air as it was designed to.  The four kilometer ball of roiling plasma expanded almost instantly and vaporized the store, the parking lot, and everyone in it.

    The blast ripped trees from the ground by their roots, the wave so terrifying in its power as to shatter buildings over ten kilometers away.  The blastwave from the explosion expanded out, faster than the speed of sound and more powerful than a hurricane.  Everything in its path was torn asunder and cast to the searing wind.  The heat set the nearby forest ablaze almost instantly and the great mushroom cloud rose into the sky.  Forks of lightning flashed inside its fiery plasmatic interior as the hot, supercharged air vented its fury on the ruins below.

    As horrific as the scene was, it was just one of thousands of similar such blasts that blanketed the entire eastern seaboard of the continental United States.  But the US had gotten their own in return.

    China burned in the fires of nuclear armageddon as previously stealthed MAD class submarines unloaded their apocalyptic payloads in response to the atrocity.  When the smoke eventually cleared the world was forever changed.  The sky wept toxic tears to see such slaughter.  Billions had perished in a single afternoon, the world was blanketed in darkness and the smoke and ash filled the skies and blocked out the sun.  The subsequent nuclear winter would last nearly a decade and result in the extinction of almost thirty percent of all life on Earth, but Humanity persisted.

    Hiding underground in shelters and under the sea in submarines, many hundreds of millions managed to survive the fires, but those who did struggled with the cold.  Humanity had paid a heavy toll for its stubborn pride, but those responsible would never be held accountable for their folly as they were purged in the first minutes by the fires of justice.

    Man had perpetrated the gravest injustice upon themselves and their world, but they were tenacious creatures, they would survive.  It would be two hundred years of struggle but Humanity would eventually fulfill its cosmic destiny.  They would soar through the stars on wings of light and the future would be theirs forevermore.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: The Dark Hand

    The Dark Hand

    Danni hunched down behind the crumbling brickwork of a rotting warehouse and clutched his long gun to his chest.  He cursed Lady Luck under his breath as he rolled a few paces to his left and chanced a peek through a gap in the wall.

    The day had started out as normally as the rest of his days had been for the last three and a half months.  The rebel forces of the Hegemony of Independent Systems had finally grown the balls to launch a ground invasion of his homeworld of Dreyvan II.  It was just his luck that he had been back on a recall rotation for equipment renewal, the war had been dragging on for half a decade now by this point.

    He was tired of the fighting, tired of the killing, and more than tired of the Luck cursed pisschips that they called rations.  If he never had to eat another freeze dried pre-prepared spaghetti dinner with extra garlic again it would be far too soon.

    His radio buzzed and he slapped the call button in annoyance.  ¡°What is it Jester?¡±  he asked, using his spotter¡¯s nickname instead of his real one.  His real name was hard to pronounce, full of gh¡¯s and gurgling guttural sounds native to his people.

    In response a slightly gurgling voice issued ¡°I have told you ten thousand times it''s¡­ nevermind.¡±  his spotter just sighed.  Jester was slaaveth, the scaled aliens looking similar to a humanoid shark or deep sea fish, minus the tail.  His soulless black eyes always making him look more than a little ominous to Danni¡¯s eyes.

    Jester spoke again ¡°Reports of sniper fire to our two-sixty-four.  They moved again it seems.¡±

    Danni swore again and slammed a gloved fist into the gritty floor next to him.  That son of a bitch, he had caught just glimpses of his enemy an hour ago while the sun was high overhead, the long carapaced body of a vinarfelien unmistakable.  The large insectoid species looking like somebody had taken an Earthly centipede from some children''s nightmare and scaled it up into a six meter, three-hundred kilogram carapace armoured monster.

    He had started the day off well enough, the view through his SR-404¡¯s scope had been the same as the last month of fighting.  The small flashes of enemy troops turning to puffs of viscera when the large calibre bullets he was firing tore through them.  There were those that unironically called him the dark hand, a name that he secretly hated.

    He wasn''t raised to be a killer, he had actually wanted to be a baker as a child.  But trouble had landed him in a juvenile detention center and his quick to anger nature had seen him enrolled in the military as he turned eighteen.  A path that he had been stuck in for the last twenty seven years.  Every time he had felt he was close to getting out he was called back to service, another bad guy, another conflict.  And now, war on a scale never before seen in the Sapient Congressional Union¡¯s seven-hundred-and-seventy-five years of history.  He nodded to himself, the thoughts of his past flashing away.  He had a job to do, and he was obligated to do it in service to the Union.

    Danni crouched and snapped his heavy gun up onto the low windowless wall he had been sheltering behind.  He took a moment to see if any fire was directed his way and then put his eye to the scope.  As soon as he did his anxiety seemed to melt away, the sounds of carnage and gunfire slowly faded as he entered a state of mind he liked to call his serenity state.  It was where he was most comfortable, the decades spent in the service to the Union as a marksman of unparalleled capacity meant that he was more comfortable behind the scope than in his own bed.

    He took a moment to scan the nearer roof and dark shadowed windows of the bombed out apartment complex across the thoroughfare.  The town was not the largest, but it was not small either.  Before its evacuation it must have had a population in the ten or fifteen-thousand range.  All gone now, those that had failed to flee had been buried in the rubble of the war as it ground everything it touched to ashen rubble and cratered ruins.

    He had often heard tell that war was won by attrition, the side with the ability to sling the most men and munitions took the victory, but he liked to disagree.  Wars were won by morale, and it was his job to be a constant morale drain for his enemies.  Them just knowing he was on the battlefield had proven enough to turn the tides of small scale battles in his own biased opinion.

    ¡®There!¡¯  he thought suddenly, a small glint winking at him from a far building immediately drew his attention.  Was it his opponent?  It could be, but it seemed an unlikely place for them to sit.  The building was far too isolated to make good cover, he wouldn''t have fired a shot from such a disadvantageous position.  But then again, maybe his counterpart was not as versed in the art of hunting as he.  He immediately dismissed this explanation.  No, his opponent was every bit as good as he himself, in fact he had heard whispers that it was the legendary blue devil himself.  The Hegemony sniper gaining almost as storied a reputation as his, though the last he had heard the blue devil was taking heads on New Yimiar.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    That was far to the galactic west, nearly nine-hundred light years from the Dreyvan System.  Whatever the case, he needed to focus.  He refined his scope¡¯s zoom and looked closer.  The figure he saw didn¡¯t look like a vinarfelien, instead he could make out a faint trace of pink skin on a somewhat lanky figure.  A nerivith then.

    Danni adjusted his shot for windage and fired, the two-hundred-twenty meter shot childsplay for his skills.  As he had expected his shot was true, the distant figure jerking as a small cloud of blue erupted from their torso before they dropped like a sack of flour.

    He was about to search for another shot when the short hairs on the back of his neck seemed to stand on end.  He threw himself to the side, and it was lucky he did so as not a millisecond later a brilliant blue bolt flashed through the space his head had only just vacated.  He rolled to the right as the distant crack of the shot was heard, part of his mind noted the disparity of two-point-eight seconds.  In Dreyvan II¡¯s atmosphere that was nearly exactly one kilometer from his position, and judging by the direction the shot had come from he now had a clearer picture in his mind of where the shot had come from.

    He had been able to recognise the sound of his opponent¡¯s gun after the second hour of their duel.  It sounded like a modified Specter 2 electromagnetic sniper.  The Vinarfelien counterpart to his trusty chemical firearm, although much more potent.

    The main issue with the weapons was the fact that they were so remarkably heavy most species in the Union could not even heft them reliably.  The vinarfel were known for their strength however, and the fact that they had ten arms helped at least a little bit.

    As he continued to crawl to a new position he lamented his choice of position.  The barren floor of the building was littered in broken glass and reef glider droppings.  Why couldn''t he ever fight in a clean carpeted house with lights and a refrigerator full of Ionade.

    He scooched into the shadow of a nearby pillar and sat to wait for a minute, as he did so his radio buzzed again.  He answered it and almost immediately spoke reassuringly.  ¡°Yes Jester, I am fine.  I know where the shot came from but I don''t have a good spot to take a countershot from, I need a distraction.¡±

    A pause followed by a small sigh greeted him.  The slightly gurgling voice of his spotter fizzed through the poor connection.  ¡°That¡¯s good news, I was going to tell you that I saw their shot.  They might be a quick pup of a slurge, but that gun of theirs makes far too obvious a contrail of inoised air, making it easy to pinpoint their last firing location.¡±

    Danni smiled at his friend¡¯s reply.  It was true, his gun might be considered many hundreds of years behind in raw technological development, but it had something that he valued.  Unlike a laser, plasma bolt or electromag projectile, his own bullets traveled through the air with no tell at all.  Virtually invisible in comparison to more high tech options, sure the muzzle flash of his gigantic sniper was a problem, but he had a flash suppressor equipped to mitigate that as much as possible.

    No, his real problem was the fact that his human reflexes were no match for the lightning quick movements of his opponent.  He wouldn''t win this duel with speed or skill, he would have to rely on his years of experience to outwit his opponent.  Get them to make a mistake.

    He looked around, he smiled as he spotted a large piece of glass and an idea started to form in his mind.  He lunged for it and scrambled back to the cover of the wall, he wasn¡¯t sure how much of an elevation advantage his opponent had on him and had to assume they could see down into the room he was in.  He carefully set the piece of glass up at an angle on the wall next to the pillar he was on.  He made sure to angle it towards the suspected location of his opponent, his EVHUD goggles allowing him to see what Jester saw in real time.

    Using this information he moved a half dozen meters to the side and pulled out a handheld laser rangefinder from his belt.  Setting his gun up against the wall in a ready position, he shined the laser on the glass, hoping his plan would work the way he intended.

    Almost a second later he jerked as a white hot streak smashed the pane into glass dust.  Without hesitation he bolted upright and sighted on the place that Jester had just seen the flash from.  It was a large six story building nearly nine-hundred-and-eighty meters away, far behind the front line.  He took only the barest moment to calculate bullet drop and crosswind before firing.  He wanted to watch the shot, but he knew in his heart that it was a mistake.  His hesitation would cost him though as another brilliant streak would reach out towards him from that distant tower, his opponent already firing on him before his shot had even crossed the gap.

    Danni managed to jump aside, but his gun was not so lucky.  The bulky SR-404 was smashed to pieces by the incredible power of his enemy''s weapon, Danni hit the ground painfully.  He could feel shrapnel embedded in his chest rig and shoulder, but nothing felt critical.

    Instead he watched a replay of the feed from Jester¡¯s point of view, he saw the tiny pinprick of his enemy as they fired, and then smiled as a moment later a puff of red indicated a solid hit.  He couldn''t be sure if it had been a kill shot though and instead reached for his radio while rolling onto his back with a groan.

    ¡°Jester, I think it¡¯s time to take a little bit of a break.¡±

    His spotter just replied stoically ¡°If you say so sir.  I''ll call for medical right away.¡±

    Danni didn''t reply, instead he just smiled.  He got the feeling that his opponent had not gotten the best of him, and neither had he.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Beaten but Never Broken

    Beaten but Never Broken

    The bright yellow star shone across the Slee system and its planets.  No terrestrial worlds orbited in this star''s warm embrace, but the shadowy outlines of distant gas giants could be seen.  Large and composed of vast amounts of gas and dust, these huge spheres were the lifeblood of the Sapient Congressional Union.  The SCU siphoned the gas from the giants and refined it into fuel for their ships, Valuable Tritium and Deuterium could be found in vast quantities in most gas giants across the expanse of the galaxy, and this system was blessed with four such behemoths.

    The refinery stations orbited the giants like parasites, leaching the very substance of the giants to power the progress of the SCU and its many races.  All was not well within the SCU however, a rogue faction had arisen, driven by hate and greed.  This faction, called the Hegemony of Independent Systems, was after the lifeblood of the SCU.  They wanted to take the refineries for themselves and in doing so, starve the vast war fleets of the Union making them incapable of defending the thousands of worlds in or around the conflict zone.  While this was an important task, the Slee system was far from the largest or closest to the front lines.  And this was the cause of her lone defender''s distress.

    The single Union warship that floated in the cold void was huge and imposing.  It was a ship of Human manufacture, the brutalist design and clean lines showing the founder race¡¯s predisposition towards order.  The ship was like a huge middle finger to the very entropy that ruled the universe, its straight edges and flat featureless armour panels laughing at the universe''s attempts to abrade it away.  The ship was layered in meters of superheavy armour that was capable of withstanding horrific levels of punishment, as that was the ships reason for existence.

    Captain John Cameron of the Greyson Class ship CMS Olympus Mons was pacing along the bridge as was his habit of late.  The son of a fourth generation naval tradition, the lack of action sat ill with him.

    He turned to his second, Commander Jrise Kreen, a Nerivith female with long curving horns and skin the color of a pink rose.  He asked her ¡°What is the status of our relief?  They should have been here two days ago!¡±  he fumed.

    Jrise flicked her sinuous tail in agitation as she responded in her slightly husky yet melodic voice ¡°There is a precedent for them being late.  Many other shipments and supply runs have been late in the past.  They are likely running behind schedule, nothing more.¡±  she assured him as best she could.

    He shook his head and growled ¡°They had better be here soon, the longer I wait the more likely there is to be a hypersonic boot going up their ass when they finally get here.¡±

    He smiled a bit as Jrise giggled at his dour mood.  ¡°Oh, you and me both.  I wasn''t made for this sitting, my blood craves action.¡±  she said to him with a smirk.

    He nodded his head to the bloodthirsty woman, the Nerivith were even more aggressive in combat than Humans tended to be which was deeply at odds with their lovely succubine appearances.  They looked more suited to dancing than fighting, but he had seen her weave her way through an enemy boarding party, slitting throats and disemboweling enemy marines like war was a dance for her.  And it likely was.

    ¡°With any luck we will be rotated to the front lines soon.¡±  he sighed as he stopped to look at the large main viewscreen.  The bridge of the CMS Olympus Mons was situated deep in her 920 meter long bulk, protected by layers of superheavy armour that would protect them from almost anything that currently existed, except maybe Supernova cannons or Paragon lasers.  The advancement of sensor technology made having an exposed bridge entirely unnecessary, although all the other known races tended to leave their bridges exposed for some reason.  Maybe it was aesthetics, maybe they felt less confined that way, whatever the reason, it was a tactical error to do so in his opinion.

    The CMS Olympus Mons was an old ship, and while conflict of this scale had never occurred in the SCU before, that didn''t mean that the venerable warship had never seen combat.  She had battled rebel warlords in the far south, destroyed pirate warbands to the far east, and obliterated Flesh Tearer raiders in the outer colonies where the law rarely went and many systems fended for themselves.  He had never agreed personally with the somewhat self centered way the Union had governed itself.  The Core systems and most of the major homeworlds were guarded and well traveled while the outermost colonies were lawless places where the weak were subjugated by the rich or strong.  He himself had come from an outer colony and he attributed that to his family''s strong appreciation for martial power and order.

    As he stood, leaning against the upper railing above the main bridge pit, he heard the sound of a proximity alarm going off and looked around for the source.

    His search was ended as one of the ship''s Ensigns rose to her multitude of skittering legs and flagged down a nearby officer.  The Ensign, a Vinarfel female named Amora Offshine, was a particularly vibrant member of her species.  The Vinarfel were large arthropods looking vaguely similar to six meter long Earthly centipedes, but their forward third reared up and they possessed five pairs of arms.  Their fearsome appearance was at odds with their temperament as many he had known throughout his life had been temperamental, but good people.  They had gotten a bad wrap in the public eye most recently however as the large number of Vinarfelien colonies that had joined with the Hegemony in this recent conflict.  He shook his head at the unfairness of it, just as many or more Human worlds had seceded as well, but Humans were seen as friends and explorers and their crimes often overlooked in the public eye.  He snorted and turned towards the concerned looking junior commander hurrying his way.

    As the Human man stopped at attention he stated ¡°Junior Commander Hunter Doogle Sir, I have urgent news.¡±

    John just sighed internally at the man''s stiff demeanor and barked ¡°At ease, Report.¡±

    The man went into the most stiff and uncomfortable looking ¡®ease¡¯ that John had ever seen but reported swiftly ¡°Sir, We have detected a possible warp signature approaching.  It is either a very large ship, or a great many smaller ones.  What are your orders?¡±

    He looked at the man and then over to Jrise standing a short distance away, she had a savage smile on her face.  Her blunt teeth startlingly white against her rosy features.  ¡°All hands to alert stations, Yellow alert is in effect.  Combat roles at stations!¡±  he bellowed across the bridge, his commanding voice ensuring that every voidsman heard the call.  Seconds later the yellow alert lights flashed on and a general alert howled through the near kilometer length of the battleship.

    He moved steadily but unhurriedly over to his command throne and sat in the large chair.  Jrise sat quickly in a seat to his immediate right, it was always good to keep your subordinates on hand for dire emergencies.  From his position he could see all the command crew as well as the pit officers at their stations.  A ship as large as the Mons was in possession of nearly three thousand crew not including her marine complement.  And he was in charge of bringing each and every one of them safely home.  It was a huge, almost impossible, responsibility, but he reveled in the sensation of power and command.  This was why he had been born.  To take the fight to the enemies of the Union, the enemies of peace.

    He checked his readouts, there was indeed a large cluster of warp signatures heading their way.  Far too many to be their relief, he counted over two dozen signatures, but as close together as they were at that distance it was near impossible to tell.

    He pressed the internal comms unit on his throne and said to the ship''s computer ¡°Get me Gunnery Master Hagj¡¯Nrak.¡±  The large Gre¡¯vahn man was the primary intelligence when it came to the inner workings of the Mons guns.

    After a moment of static, the wide featured head of Gunnery Master Hagj¡¯Nrak appeared on his console.  ¡°Yes Captain, I''m very busy at the moment.¡±

    John smiled and asked ¡°I believe it, we have a large amount of contacts inbound, there is a high probability that they are hostiles, please tell me you have the Nova cannon ready to fire.¡±  he finished with a slight plea.

    Hagj¡¯Nrak shook his head sadly and said ¡°Not yet captain, but if I put the boys on it double time it should be ready to fire in about forty minutes.  Why did the enemy have to attack right as I was doing maintenance on the man gun, quite rude of them¡­¡±  the man trailed off as he was distracted by something in the background.  Suddenly he roared ¡°NO!! NOT LIKE THAT YOU ARSELING!! YOU WANT TO KILL US ALL¡­¡±  the link cut shortly after and John chuckled to himself.  That man was a wonder with guns, but people?  He just never seemed to get the hang of biological flesh and blood machines.

    Jrise spoke up ¡°So no main battery.  We should still have enough secondaries to send these fathersuckers straight to hel.¡±  she swore colorfully.

    He nodded in agreement as he asked ¡°But without the Iron Storm shells, there is a high chance any ships larger than a frigate will be able to approach within weapons range.  We will likely suffer heavy damage in any upcoming fight.  I have the main blast doors over the main gun sealed so it should be safe from most fire, but I am loath to take the chance¡­¡±  he trailed off as the first warp signatures finally resolved themselves into ships.  ¡°By Lucks fleeting grace¡­¡±  he whispered to himself as he saw the ships materializing in battle formation.

    There were thirteen ships, six frigates, four destroyers and three cruisers, although two of them were light cruisers.  It was still bad, that was an awful lot of firepower about to be directed at them, and they had no backup.

    ¡°Well, I think I know why our backup never showed up.¡±  Jrise muttered from beside him.¡¯

    He leaned forwards and saw that the lower pit was awash with hushed whispers and muted panic, deciding to make a statement he opened the all ships com and cleared his throat.

    The noise grabbed everyone''s attention as he started ¡°This is the captain speaking.  As you all are likely aware, our relief has not arrived, and to make matters worse, we are detecting the approach of numerous hostile ships entering the system as I speak.  But do not be alarmed, we are the Union''s finest, and this vessel is out home.  The enemy wants to take her from us, to render her down to ashes.  But this will.. Not.. Happen.  I swear on my honor and on my family''s illustrious name that we will beat these bastards back to whatever dark pit they crawled out of.  They will rue the very day they decided to test their mettle against the likes of us, the children of Olympus!¡±  He finished with a roar that was echoed by every member of the crew he could see on the bridge.

    He heard the high pitched hiss of multiple vinarfell and the keening cries of many nerivith as they shrieked their battle cries to the void, even the low muted gurgle of some Slaaveth as they used their aquasonics in open air.  After a minute of this he began again ¡°Now, move to your battle stations with all possible haste, for on this day, we bring ruin upon the enemies of the Union.  Captain John Cameron of the CMS Olympus Mons out.¡±  and he severed the link.

    Jrise was bobbing her horned head and flicking her tail excitedly.  She turned to him and said ¡°Oh I missed your war speeches.  That one was one of the best I have heard you give, well spoken.  I feel my blood coursing through my veins, I feel ready to kill.¡±  she finished excitedly.

    He shook his head and said "I just hope it''s enough, this looks bad."  He said while gesturing to his console and the numerous contacts it was reading.  What''s more, there were more contacts on the way, they would likely arrive in less than an hour.

    "We should attack.  We need to dispatch these enemies before their backup can arrive.¡±  John said smartly.

    She looked at her own console and then over to him as she said ¡°As much as I want to agree, I find I must do my duty as the small voice by your side and ask if it would not be more prudent to wait for them to attack in a more defensible position?  With our backs to one of the giants perhaps, then they will not be able to outflank us.¡±  she suggested.

    He nodded and then asked ¡°And then who would protect the other three refineries, we can''t protect the whole system, we need to push the attack as soon as possible, before their warp drives can recharge.  They will likely scatter across the system as soon as they are able.¡±  he pointed out to her.

    She was silent for a few seconds before nodding and saying ¡°I will admit the thought of such a maneuver had slipped my mind.  I see the point you are making.¡±

    He shifted in his chair before looking out over the mass of junior officers and voidsmen on the command level of the deck.  It was possible that in undertaking such an aggressive stance, many hundreds of the crew would die.  But the alternative was them failing to hold the system, which was unacceptable.  They would not lose such a valuable fuel depot to the enemy if they could do anything at all to prevent it.

    He made up his mind and opened a channel to the bridge crew.  ¡°This is the captain, we will be advancing on the enemy position immediately, no delay.  Charge the warp engines and plot a course for their position now.¡±  he commanded over the link before severing it.

    He nodded as he heard and saw the junior officers begin to move as one, their actions preparing the ship for war, and an emergency warp jump.  The yellow lights on the edges of the bridge went from a slow intermittent pulsing to solid yellow indicating an imminent warp jump.  He tensed as the all too familiar feeling crashed through him.  Jumping into the alternate space of a warp bubble somehow interfered with the base neural network of living things, science still had no explanation for it instead dubbing it warp shock.

    The ship lept forwards on his console, suddenly racing towards her enemy at thousands of times the speed of light, they would be upon the enemy in less than ten minutes at this speed.  He needed to prepare himself.  The crew was ready and the weapons of the Mons were armed.  Unfortunately her Nova cannon was not quite operational yet, but the enemies were likely spread out enough by this time to make an iron storm shell less effective.

    Leaning back in his command throne, he closed his eyes briefly and tried to enjoy the last bit of relative peace he was likely to have for the foreseeable future.  The enemy would be able to see them coming, and would likely be aiming every gun of theirs at them.  But they had made a critical error.  Unless they had intelligence more accurate than a week old, they would not know that the CMS Olympus Mons was here.  They would probably be expecting a cruiser or battlecruiser at the most for such an out of the way system.  They would not be expecting the armoured might of a Greyson class battleship to burst upon them.  Their fire would roll from the superheavy armour of the Mons like rain from the back of a seabird.

    Only a single minute to go now, he was ready, his ship was ready.  He turned to Jrise and asked ¡°Are you ready?  I''m going to need you watching for anything I miss.¡±

    She nodded and with a savage grin replied ¡°Yes captain, I have been waiting to follow you into battle again.  We shall show these rebels what they get when they mess with the Union.¡±

    He frowned in thought and nodded at her words.  They likely would, but at what cost?  Well, it was no use dwelling on the subject as they burst from warp amid a cloud of high energy particles.

    **********

    The CMS Olympus Mons burst from the warp in a blaze of white sparks, the outer layers of her hull dark and slightly pitted like the skin of some vast cosmic predator.  She immediately opened fire upon the rebel ships that she had pounced on.  But the rebels were not surprised, their own guns firing instantly upon her translation.

    A rebel frigate, a Nebula Type F Class, was almost instantly holed as it was struck by a full broadside from the Olympus Mons.  The eight 225mm Pendragon superheavy railguns tearing the smaller frigate nearly in half.  As secondary explosions tore the small ship the rest of the way apart, another frigate on the Mons¡¯ other side was suffering a similar fate.

    The frigates had managed to get shots off, and as their own lighter railgun fire slashed across the gap, it did nothing whatsoever to the titanic armour plating of the Mons.  the bright flashes and expelled particles of molten armour as the shots dug more than a meter into her hide.  But her skin was thick, thicker than most vessels of her class.  She was a bullet sponge to the small caliber guns arrayed against her, soaking up their fire without any effort and dishing out punishing blows in return.

    With her main gun out of commission for this fight, she was instead relying on her many secondaries.  After her main broadsides came the follow up shots from her six larger, but slower firing, 250mm Harbinger superheavy railguns.  The six shots sped outwards, seeking the slightly heavier targets of the light cruisers.  Three struck the right cruiser amidships and tore great gaping hollows through her main decks, the wound was a fatal one, but not immediately so.  The dying light cruiser fired again and again ineffectually on the Olympus Mons before it was in turn silenced by another volley from her Pendragon broadside.

    The light cruiser to her left fared no better, it had pulled into a sharp turn as the Mons had exited warp which caused two of the three shots to fly wide.  But the turn caused the bow of the ship to be struck directly by the third shot instead.  The huge chunk of tungsten alloy burrowed deep into the light cruiser''s core till it touched off the ship''s main reactor.  The reactor itself wasn''t explosive, but the tons of fuel mixed with the ship''s oxygen supply quickly turned the ship into a cloud of rapidly cooling debris.  These debris struck a nearby frigate, wounding its engine and causing it to slew off course.

    This wounded frigate floundered for a full minute before it was acquired by one of the Mons¡¯ many gunners and targeted by one of her port Hornet swarm missile launchers.  The missiles might have been relatively small, only 155mm in diameter, but the Hornet swarm launcher fired two hundred and eighty of them in a single salvo, this tide of high explosive ordinance fluttered towards the doomed frigate almost leisurely before impacting as a single mass.  The explosive potential of each rocket magnified by the others detonating around it, the frigate''s defenses were overwhelmed and destroyed.  Its hull cracked, its bridge was shattered, its engines slagged.  Its destruction came slowly as its life leaked out of its ruptured hull, its guns warped or blasted out of shape and its crew mostly dead from the overpressure waves that had buffeted the ship''s interior.

    The largest rebel ship, a Starfire Type L Class, rushed along the side of the Mons as she was dealing out death to the rebel ship¡¯s charges.  The enemy ship managed to dodge a volley from the Mons¡¯ Harbinger cannons and used its maneuverability to duck under a close range 520mm Nuclear Torpedo that had been launched in a desperate attempt to stop it.  The Cruiser was raked by the Mons¡¯ vast array of 30mm gatling cannons, the armour piercing shells tearing craters in its light armour before the ship got behind the Mons.

    The Cruiser managed to fire a salvo of heavy railgun shots directly into the Mons¡¯ main engines, the hit causing the top engine to explode violently while the lower suffered crippling damage to its thruster nozzle.  The Mons retaliated quickly though, its rear mounted flak cannons opening up.  The 92mm flak cannons were not designed to destroy large targets like cruisers, but their combined fire distracted the rebel ship long enough for the Mons to turn.  Like the wrath of an angry god, the full might of the Mons¡¯ portside battery opened up on the hapless rebel ship, tearing it to red hot splinters.  Fragments of the shredded ship pinging off the meters thick armour of the Mons as she seemed to growl in anger.

    The enemy fleet wasn''t finished yet however, while the Mons had been distracted, a pair of rebel destroyers snuck under her and rained fire upon her belly.  This tactic might have helped them against a lighter ship, but even the thinner armour on her belly shrugged off the fire as if it was naught but stinging rain.  In response the Mons rolled slightly in order to bring her torpedo tubes in line, the huge dark maws of the launchers aiming directly at the two unfortunate Destroyers.

    The destroyers, sensing the impending danger, decided to try and flee.  But that was exactly the wrong move because as they turned away their anti missile and point defense batteries were obstructed, this allowed the Mark 47s and their nuclear payloads to approach uninhibited.  The Mons turned away from the fleeing destroyers, confident that they would be dealt with.  And this prediction came to be as twin flashes, brighter than a star, appeared for a brief moment.  As they dimmed the molten slagged remains of the two destroyers could be seen, slowly drifting end over end into the deep dark void of space.

    The battle wasn''t won yet however as the remaining rebel ships rushed the Olympus Mons all at once.  Three frigates and two destroyers all unleashed their full weapon compliments as a single volley, the coordination and precision something to behold.  Like streaks of solid starlight, the numerous kinetic projectiles streamed across the kilometers separating the ships and struck the Mons with bright flashes.  Missiles and slower high explosive ordinance flitted across the void, the point defenses of the Mons opening up.  The streams of brilliant tracer fire lit the void like lines of fire in the vacuum of space, the tracers burning their internal oxidizers and leaving faint trails of smoke that quickly dissipated in the cold black of space.

    The CMS Olympus Mons was a huge ship.  All along her nine-hundred-and-twenty-meter length light burst forth as enemy hits registered on her armour.  Several of her guns were destroyed by lucky hits in the barrage before she was ready to retaliate. But finally she straightened and pointed her least damaged side towards the remaining enemies.

    She listed slightly from the damage she had received as her engines struggled to keep her stable, thousands of enemy shells having struck her armoured hull and even breached it in several locations.  She was injured, but that only served to enrage her crew as they fought for their lives with the savagery of beings who knew that they were doomed but only wished to take as many of their enemy down with them as possible.

    The Olympus Mons fired her guns, the guns seeming to boom even in the airless void of space, the fires sizzling and the electricity arcing.  Her shots struck true, the form of one of the frigates being smashed aside, its corpse quickly venting atmosphere and tiny squirming bodies into the darkness.  The pinpricks of small secondary explosions across its torn surface like the twinkling of stars against the background.  Only four enemy ships, all of them damaged to various degrees, rushed her with the wild implacable pace of maddened animals.  They seemed more intent on taking her out than on saving themselves, but their efforts were in vain.

    One by one the Mons swatted them out of the endless sky.  A frigate took a torpedo straight to the prow and crumpled inwards as its structural integrity failed, the g forces at play sending it cartwheeling off into the night.  A destroyer shuddered as if in pain as it took three Pendragon shells straight down its throat.  Its rear compartments belched flame as its ruptured hull began to break apart, it shuddered suddenly like it was caught in the grasp of some mighty creature before its internal magazines detonated and it simply ceased to be.  The last frigate was overwhelmed by two of the Mons¡¯ Hornet swarmer missile launchers, the cloud of missiles smashing it to pieces, the burning chunks of the warship quickly snuffed out by the airless void as they tumbled out of control.

    The final ship, a Model 909 Destroyer of Yeown design, was left alone to face the full fury of the Olympus Mons¡¯ full battery.  The Mons fired a full broadside of her 225mm Pendragon superheavy railguns.  The battery was missing a shot as one of her guns had been damaged beyond viability, but the other seven tungsten alloy shells streaked across the kilometers gap between them in seconds before tearing through the rebel ship as if its armour was as insubstantial as air.  The destroyer tried to correct its course even while the great rents in its hull bled its lifeblood into the cold abyss of deep space.  It seemed to gain control for a moment and lined its guns up on the Mons again, but before it had the chance to fire a catastrophic explosion from somewhere in its core billowed outwards and tore the ship in half.  The sparkles of frozen gasses and liquids shone in the dark as the distant star lit upon them.

    Her final work done, the damaged Olympus Mons slowly turned and limped a fair distance from the debris field.  The fight had been hard and to her battered crew had likely seemed an eternity.  But the reality of the situation was that the entirety of the fight had taken less than a half hour.

    **********

    Captain John Cameron of the CMS Olympus Mons was thoroughly exhausted.  After coordinating the fight and barely managing to keep the ship from being entirely crippled, he felt more mentally drained than he could ever remember feeling.  The ship''s hull had been breached in dozens of places, but the Greyson class battleship had been built for exactly this purpose in mind and would be fine.  The same couldn''t be said for the nearly three hundred crew that had been lost to damages.  Either in direct impacts of when nearby areas of the ship depressurised explosively, the wind sucking the air from their lungs and rupturing their organs like the blastwave of a bomb.

    He hung his head in his hands for a moment in despair.  He knew he had already done the impossible, he had won against overwhelming odds.  But at what cost?  His crew deserved better than to die in some backwoods scuffle over a few ancient refineries that no one likely remembered the names of.  But such was his duty, and he would carry out his duty with the utmost respect and decorum because he was a Union officer.  Not some rebel detractor, but a man of pedigree and grand heritage.

    Jrise spoke up suddenly from next to him ¡°Captain, good news!  Gunnery Master Hagj¡¯Nrak has just reported that the Nova cannon is ready to fire.  But he says that the cannon is likely not stable and may sustain damage if fired.  He reports that it''s the best he can do with the time they have however.¡±  she finished, expectantly waiting on his answer.

    He took a moment before responding ¡°That is good news.  If we are only going to get a single shot, then we had better make it count.  Instruct the helm to pull us back from the estimated exit point of the next enemy group.  We¡¯ll hit them with an iron storm shell as they exit, they won''t even have time to see us.¡±  he said with conviction and a slight smile.

    She nodded and went to relay his orders to the crew.  He was glad she was here, he had known Jrise since the first day he had stepped out of officers corps and onto a small system defense picket ship.  She and him made a formidable team and had managed to stick together for the entirety of their military careers.  There were times when part of him wished that military protocol wasn''t keeping them apart, but then his good sense would return and he would be grateful they were just companions in arms.

    He watched the ship''s system readouts as the helm received his orders and the CMS Olympus Mons started to slowly pull back.  He grimaced at her reduced speed, they had lost one of their main engines, and while the other Hyper Igniter engine would be able to maneuver them with its 2,550 kilonewtons of thrust, it was far from an ideal situation.  Take into account that the operating engine was damaged and likely slowly coming apart as they used it meant that they were on a clock here.  He needed to defeat the next wave of enemy ships as fast as possible, and the best way to do that was with the Olympus Mons¡¯ Nova cannon.  The Nova cannon was a giant twenty-five meter bore railgun that ran a significant portion of the total length of the ship, it was capable of accelerating truly titanic projectiles to nearly eight kilometers per second.  The Iron Storm shells were even more deadly than the normal rounds though.  They turned the massive bore into a shotgun by separating into a multitude of giant tungsten alloy spikes after leaving the barrel of the monstrous gun.  If aimed properly, they were capable of destroying entire fleets of ships in one swift and devastating blow.  Which is exactly what he was counting on.

    The enemy ships'' warp signatures were fast approaching.  Due to the nature of warp travel, signals could be detected from inside the warp but not sent, so they would likely know that battle had commenced but would have been unable to ask any questions or information about it before they arrived.

    ¡°If they are smart they will exit warp early to assess the situation.  But that''s not likely as they would probably assume the first wave was successful.¡±  he said as Jrise glided back over to him.

    She cocked her head while giving her tail a flick in his direction before she asked ¡°And what makes you think that these rebels have the combat experience to do something as simple as that?¡±

    He chuckled and said ¡°Just because we managed to embarrass their first wave doesn''t mean that they are tactical invalids.  They might surprise us, and that''s exactly what we don''t need right now.  They will be here in less than ten minutes, we need to patch the ship up as best we can in that time.¡±  He finished with a wave towards the lower deck.

    She sat next to him in her seat and smiled ¡°It''s already being done.  I anticipated that order and had damage control teams working on patching as many of the holes and breached areas as possible.  They estimate that they will have upwards of sixty percent of them fixed by the time the second wave arrives and almost ninety before the third.¡±  she said with grace and pride.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    As the second in command on the ship, she was in charge of maintaining discipline among the crew, and the state of them after such a battle showed that her work had not been in vain.  The crew¡¯s morale was still high and they were working on undoing the damage they had taken even as more enemies loomed ever closer.  It was a proud moment for him and he smiled back at her.

    They shared a moment before he cleared his throat and said ¡°Alright.  Have the secondary guns readied in case there are stragglers from the main guns area of effect.  I don''t want any of them getting behind us again.¡±  he said a bit gruffly.

    She nodded and spoke into her wrist worn assistant ¡°Ensign Gentry, you will assist Lieutenant Krupp in ensuring the main battery guns are ready for combat.¡±

    A small ¡°Yes Commander.¡±  was heard before she severed the link and nodded to him.  He smiled, she was his link to the lower crew.  Many of them would follow her where they would hesitate to follow him, not because of any shortcoming on his part.  Mainly because as the commanding officer of the entire ship, his duties rarely saw him time to converse with the lower ranks.  He sometimes wished that it were not so, but it was the life of command to be venerated above all others.

    With nothing left to do until contact, he sat back in his command throne and watched the various command channel notifications as they scrolled across his console.  There were warnings about depressurised zones, damage to cabling leading to dangerous short circuits, and a few mentions of damaged ammunition that needed to be disposed of.

    He watched the countdown to enemy contact as it neared zero.  Hopefully they would be caught entirely unawares by the ambush.

    The enemy ships entered back into realspace from the alternate and he roared ¡°FIRE!!¡±  even as the main gun was already discharging.

    The twenty-five-meter projectile accelerated from a standing rest to almost eight kilometers per second in moments, the fearsome recoil causing the near kilometer long battleship to jolt backwards.  The millions of tons of heavy armour and steel moved like it had been pushed by a titanic creature such was the force behind the Nova cannon¡¯s discharge.  Inside the gun numerous shortages sparked and capacitors blew out as the gun fired before it was truly ready.  But such was the need for the swift dispatchment of the second enemy force that the loss of the main gun was deemed an acceptable sacrifice.

    Deep in the core of the ship the Gunnery Master howled in despair as his main charge was wounded beyond repair.

    ***********

    The enemy force materialized from the warp amid sparkling white lights as gathered subatomic particles vented from the warped regions around their ships.  These particles, while dazzling, were quite harmless.  Not at all like the massive tungsten alloy spikes that had been hurled towards them from the distant Union warship moments ago.

    Before the rebels had time to react the iron storm shell was upon them.  Massive spikes moving kilometers per second impacted the lead ships of the formation with such violence that many of them simply vanished amid flashes of light like those of nuclear detonations.  But these were not the fires of atomic fission, rather the total disintegration of physical matter into its constituent mass energy density such was the power of the impacts.  Where once a ship had drifted, now only an expanding cloud of cooling gas and some small debris remained.

    In an instant a full ten of the enemy ships were naught but expanding clouds of superheated gasses.  Their deaths looking more akin to minute nebulae rather than conventional explosions.  Not all the enemy suffered such a fate however, two frigates and a single Bloodwood Class light cruiser managed to somehow survive the desolation.  The rebel ships scattered in different directions as their captains tried to make sense of what had just happened.  From their perspective they had just exited warp before the majority of their number had been struck down by some powerful force.  Even now they would be scanning frantically to determine the source of the fire and what had happened to their friends.  They would likely detect the debris field and the massive form of the Olympus Mons quite easily.

    The CMS Olympus Mons moved towards them sluggishly, like a man loath to leave one''s bed on an early morning.  Her approach was detected and in the seconds it took the enemy ships to come up with some sort of rational plan of action, she had already fired on two of them.  The leftmost frigate shuddered and spun out of control as it took several direct impacts from the superheavy Harbinger railguns.  Soon it was disabled and drifting slowly out of control, its main power down and its backups smashed.

    The other frigate was spared such a fate as the Mons targeted the remaining light cruiser.  The cruiser wasn''t going down quietly though as it fired its own guns in response.  While not as railgun heavy as its Vinarfelien or Human designed counterparts, the yeown vessel was nevertheless armed with an impressive array of conventional kinetic cannons.  These battle cannons spewed fire as they hurled their hatred at the armored skin of the Mons.  the shells impacting with hammer blows that carved huge craters into her armoured hide, but ultimately had no effect.  The Olympus Mons returned far more effective fire in the form of her bow mounted torpedo tubes and several Pendragon railgun shots.  The railguns impacted the armour of the light cruiser, tearing through it as they were designed to hit much heavier targets than these.  As the light cruiser reeled from the impacts a single Type 47 nuclear torpedo slipped through its defenses and detonated amidships.  The resulting blast caved in the ship''s hull and deformed its huge armour plates as if they were as flimsy as paper.  The molten drops of slagged armour cooling slowly in the void as they spiraled off into the dark oblivion.

    Turning her full attention to the last frigate she swatted it from space with contemptuous ease.  The massive ship smashing the small vessel like a hammer would crack a nut, its insides becoming its outsides as it was ripped inside out by several tremendous impacts from the Mons¡¯ main guns.

    And just like that the enemy was done, the battle finished.  The ship lumbered back to its original position as it tended to its wounds, old and new.

    **********

    The bridge crew let out a mighty cheer as the last enemy frigate was torn asunder, John smiled widely at their celebrations.  He knew that the fight was far from over and they were not likely to make it out if the third wave was anything like the first two.  The Olympus Mons was heavily damaged, her systems fluttering between usefulness and total meltdown.  She had lost many of her guns in the fights and was reduced to only about sixty five percent of her combat potential.  What''s more, ammunition was running low for some of her weapon systems and she had no means to replenish her stockpiles in the system, her warp drive was malfunctioning as well so they wouldn''t be able to flee even if they wanted to.  But he was still smiling.

    ¡°That was textbook.  Those rebel bastards didn''t even have a chance to scream before they were annihilated.¡±  he chuckled to himself grimly.

    He felt a touch on his shoulder and looked to see Jrise smiling as well.  She leaned away and said ¡°We won''t make it out of this alive I''m assuming?¡±  she asked him quietly.

    He shook his head sadly and replied ¡°Not likely.  The third wave will have the benefit of speed and maneuverability over us, we can''t warp back to one of the giants to cover our back, and we are running low on ammo.  No, we probably won''t survive this.  But I¡¯ll be damned if I don''t give them a bloody nose to remember us by.¡±  he finished with a grunt.

    She gave a small sigh before leaning over the arm of her chair and saying "If this is really the end, well.  Then I guess I should tell you that I have always had feelings for you John."  She said to him.

    He jerked slightly before looking at her.  She gazed into his eyes without a hint of deceit and he slowly replied "I¡­  have felt the same.  But I am your superior and it would be indecent of me to have expected the same from you, though part of me had always hoped."  He finished quietly.

    She nodded and said "If we make it through this, we will find a way."  She promised him.

    John nodded solemnly, he wished there was more he could say but lacked the courage to take the next step.  Luckily for him, nothing further needed to be said.

    He waited in tense silence as the moments ticked by, the progress the damage control teams were making was little short of miraculous.  He watched the reports as stores of ammunition were spread evenly across the Olympus Mons'' remaining guns.

    He felt a little useless, all command level orders had been given, and all he had left to do was wait.  But waiting for him was often the hardest part.  There was a simplicity to combat, every action and reaction part of the larger dance that ended only two ways.  Victory or death.

    The enemy signatures drew ever closer, while warp signatures could be detected by specialized equipment from enormous distances, the signatures themselves conveyed little true information.  One could only guess as to the size of the ship or even its class, the bubbles let no light out and were similar in appearance to the event horizons of black holes.  Dark spheres that seemed to absorb all light emitted at them.

    He didn''t fully understand the nature of how the drives worked himself, sure he had taken the basic prerequisite courses at officer training Corps, but that didn''t mean that he understood half of what they had been saying.  He wasn''t planning on becoming some sort of technical wizard anyways so his ignorance on the matter had never really bothered him.  He knew tactics and naval gunnery, that was his expertise.

    The warp signatures were very close now, it was time to see exactly what he was dealing with.  No doubt the last wave would have a more important individual in command as they would likely have expected the other two waves to have cleared out any resistance.  ''Unlucky for them it seemed'' he thought to himself.

    "It''s about time.  John."  Jrise said from next to him.

    It took him a moment to realize she had used his name instead of his rank and he looked over at her.  She was lounging on her chair as if she was entirely relaxed, and given what he knew of Nerivith and their general lack of stress induced anxiety, she likely was.

    "This is it indeed¡­  And none will say we fell without a fight."  He added after a slight pause.

    She held out her hand to him and he hesitated before he took it.  Her fingers were long and delicate looking, nothing like the powerful but squat digits of his own hands.  Her fingers looked fragile, but he could feel the cords of muscle hidden just below the surface.  He had expected her hands to be soft, and they were, but not in the way he had imagined.  He stayed like that for a few moments before he released her hand and smiled.  "I always wondered what your hands felt like."  He admitted a little awkwardly.

    She giggled slightly and said "And your hands are like hardened leather.  Rough and heavy, but I think I like it."  She said with a slight purr.

    He swallowed and sat back up straight.  Clearing his throat he said "Ah, well.  We should probably talk about it later, don''t you think?"  If she noticed the slight reddening of his cheeks she didn''t say anything as she just nodded and went back to her console.

    She would be the death of him if he made it through this, part of him was still a little surprised that he was so okay with that.  After so long of denying that he felt anything for her he felt strangely naked.  Like a sheet of armour he had been hiding behind had suddenly been removed and he was now totally emotionally exposed.  As much as he disliked the feeling, it was also novel, something he had never experienced before.  He smiled grimly to himself as he decided that whatever happened, he would not let this new opportunity go.

    Turning his attention back to the main problem, he once more scrutinized his command console.  The Nova cannon was down, fatally damaged by the shot that had cleared the second wave.  He knew that it had been a necessary sacrifice, but he still lamented the loss of the ship''s main armament.  At least he still had the Pendragons and Harbingers.  Well, most of them.

    Several of the large electromagnetic accelerator cannons had been destroyed or damaged too badly to be quickly repaired.  And what was worse, some of the more experienced gun crews had been killed in action as well.  The guns were easily replaceable, the highly trained men and women behind them?  Not so much.

    He thumped his throne''s armrests with a closed fist ''Damn those rebels for thinking they were better than him, and damn them for pushing the Union into a civil war.''  He thought angrily to himself.  This whole loss of life could have been avoided if they had been willing to talk about it instead of just shooting.  But the past was the past and therefore out of his reach.

    The CMS Olympus Mons was hurting, she was shuddering slightly as the uneven thrust from her many damaged and destroyed maneuvering thrusters caused her to experience uneven thrust vectors when she tried to stabilize herself.  This in itself wasn''t that much of a concern except that the slightly unpredictable movement would throw off her aim slightly when they engaged the last enemies.  And while a tenth of a degree seemed small, over the tens of kilometers they would be likely engaging at, it equated to dozens or hundreds of meters, enough to entirely miss a ship if it was also maneuvering to dodge incoming fire.

    He sat up straight as the enemy warp contacts disappeared well short of their friend''s debris field.  ¡®Damn, they must have gotten a signal out!¡¯  He thought to himself.

    ¡°Cursed Luck!¡±  He swore out loud this time as the readout of the enemy ship composition was detected a few moments later.

    Jrise made a noise halfway between a groan and a whistle as she saw the readings as well.  ¡°Well that¡¯s going to be a bit of an issue.¡±  She said bluntly.

    John nodded his head as he read the screen.  While the number of ships was almost identical, the manner of ships posed a different risk entirely.  He counted them out as their signatures were confirmed by the bridge officers below.  There were several frigates and destroyers as before, but where there had been but a few light cruisers there were now many more.  He saw five light cruisers as well as a regular cruiser and a battle cruiser.  The light cruisers were only about four hundred meters long on average, not small but dwarfed by the CMS Olympus Mons'' armoured bulk.  The battle cruiser was another issue entirely, at just over seven hundred meters in length, it was nearly the match of his own ship, if less heavily armoured.

    He checked the signature again and swore, it was worse than that.  The Rebel flagship was a Deblait Class Ion battle cruiser, specifically designed to attack larger capital ships.  The rebel leader of this battle group was likely in command of the largest and most capable ship.  It only made sense.

    He jerked a little as Jrise commented suddenly, startling him from his darkening thoughts "If we blow up the big one, the smaller ships might turn tail and run.  Worth a shot?"  She finished with a shrug in his direction.

    As if the enemy had heard her, the rebel ships started to move into formation with the battle cruiser at its core.

    "Well, that complicates matters."  He grumbled to himself.  He pressed a series of keys on his console that set the general alert to red and combat mode to active.  The sirens remained silent and the lights did not strobe so as to allow the bridge crew to focus on their tasks.  The rebel forces obviously saw them by now and had not hailed.  John knew enough about combat to know that they were about to be under fire.

    As the rebel ships drew closer they fanned out to present the widest possible formation while still remaining close enough to be mutually supportive and have overlapping point defense zones.  He grimaced as he saw the tactical acumen of the rebel commander apparent in the movements of their troops.  This was likely to be the CMS Olympus Mons¡¯ final battle.  Fearing the enemy would do more harm than good however and he sat straight as he steeled himself for the fight.

    The enemy ships drew near, the flagship becoming more distinct as they approached.  John swore as he saw the repaired marks across the surface of the ship, the crew were likely veterans of multiple conflicts then and wouldn''t be easy to break.  He pulled up comms to Hunter and Julina, his two junior commanders and prepared to give the orders to engage.

    **********

    The CMS Olympus Mons floated still in space, the small flashes of impacting debris lighting its battered and torn form for brief moments as it sat still, waiting for the arrival of its enemies.  The rebel ships slowed their headlong approach as they neared the debris field between them, they acted wary, as if sniffing for a trap.  But there was none, the Mons had no more tricks to play, only its final stand and willingness to go down fighting.

    As if by some unspoken agreement, the two forces sat still and silent across the battlefield from each other, neither wanting to make the first fatal move.  After a minute of stillness, it was the rebels who made the first move.

    A pair of Bloodwood Class light cruisers jumped forwards with a speed that was at odds with their four hundred and sixty eight meter lengths, but these were flankers, designed to get behind larger enemies and deprive them of light escort cover.  As the Mons was alone, they would serve the function of harassers most likely, getting behind her and biting at her rear and flanks.

    The two light cruisers were followed at a distance by a pair of destroyers as well, likely to act as point defense to keep the Mons from simply overwhelming them with missiles right away.  The two pairs of enemy warships made sure to stay out of the Olympus Mons'' effective fire range as they approached and due to her low ammunition stores she held her fire so as to not waste any shots.

    Now it was the rest of the rebel fleet''s turn to act and they did, moving as a single entity towards the CMS Olympus Mons.  The Deblait Class battle cruiser needed to get pretty close to use its Ion cannons, so the smaller ships of the rebel fleet surged forwards to act as shields for their flagship.

    The first ship to cross into the Olympus Mons'' effective range was a Nebula F Class frigate.  The Vinarfel ship was a newer design and mounted high powered chaser railguns that fired straight ahead.  As the frigate charged its chasers to fire, the Mons'' fired a pair of her Harbinger super heavy railguns at the ship.  The twin two hundred and fifty millimeter tungsten alloy slugs impacted the bow of the frigate right in between the two chaser guns.  The impact was so fierce that the armour simply splashed out of the way, molten ripples tearing a great ten meter crater out of the ship''s front as they dug over eighty meters into the guts of the ship.

    The frigate jerked as the slugs stalled some of its forward momentum, after a moment''s hesitation the ship exploded from within.  The explosion unpeeled the ship like an overripe fruit, its twisted armour panels and shorn internals burning momentarily till the vacuum of space swept the oxygen away.

    With this first loss, the enemy fleet moved in more earnestly as if to avenge the death of their comrades, and they likely would be doing just that.  The flanking ships cut in towards the Olympus Mons as their allies moved into range, the result was that the Mons was suddenly receiving heavy effective fire on three separate fonts.  The hits splashed against her armour, high explosives tearing craters in the already heavily damaged plates.  One large section of her ablaitive armour was torn away in its entirety and the lighter structural armour underneath started to take a beating, deforming under the heavy impacts.

    The CMS Olympus Mons might have been in trouble, but she was far from toothless.  She fired her remaining Pendragons and Harbinger cannons simultaneously, the massive slugs little more than brilliant streaks of bluish light as they screamed towards their targets.  At such high velocities they were impossible to dodge at the short ranges the rebel ships found themselves at.  A full salvo of the huge railgun shots tore into the leftmost light cruiser, wreaking terrible carnage upon its lightly armoured frame.  Chunks of armour, twisted and now glowing with heat, were sent spinning into the deep depths of the interstellar void by the impacts.  The sudden outgassing of the rebel ship''s interior dragging the flailing forms of its crew to their doom.

    As the light cruiser burned and secondary detonations tore it apart, its accompanying destroyer escort pounced and fired a pair of shots straight into a chink in the Mons'' armour.  The shells dug into the armour, and punched through.  The massive battleship shuddered as one of her main reactors was smashed into oblivion.  The entire compartment where the reactor had been was scoured clean as superheated plasma comparable to a star''s heart swept through the engineering decks immolating dozens of crew and blowing out more sections of the hull.

    The hit was devastating and would have been the death of almost any other warship, but not the Olympus Mons.  She was a Greyson Class, built specifically to take a murderous beating and survive.  Her remaining guns fell silent for a single moment as she switched to her backup primary reactor.  As her guns regained power she attacked with renewed ferocity.  If she was to die then it would be atop a mountain of corpses, her blood staining the swords of a thousand adversaries.

    The offending destroyer had but a single moment to celebrate its triumph as it was smashed to splinters by another full salvo from the Mons'' guns.  The Mons simultaneously fired all four of its Mark 47 launchers at the rebels, the nuclear torpedoes powering towards the enemy ships.  To cover their approach she fired a pair of her Hornet missile launchers, each armed with two hundred and eighty missiles each.  The near five hundred projectiles streaked towards the enemies, the rebel ships unable to deal with the sheer volume of fire the Olympus Mons was capable of putting out.

    Countless missiles were destroyed by the point defenses of the rebel ships and even one of the torpedoes was smashed aside but it was simply too much.  The munitions impacted several of the rebel ships like a wave of explosions before the much larger blasts of the Mark 47s caused the battlefield to be illuminated in a hellish orange glow.  As the light dimmed the two frigates and another destroyer were gone, only the rapidly cooling spheres of plasma they had left behind were there to mark that they had ever existed.

    The rebels were close now, in a few moments the battle cruiser would be in range to use its Ion cannons and the fight would be over.  The Mons spat death one last time, firing everything she had in a symphony of destruction that wiped four more enemy ships off the face of the galaxy and tore a large portion of the bow armour from the rebel flagship.  The destruction wasn''t enough, even losing two more destroyers and two more light cruisers wasn''t enough to scare them away, and then the rebel battle cruiser fired its main guns.

    Beams of pure light and electromagnetic energy were projected from the main beam cannons of the rebel flagship, striking the CMS Olympus Mons directly on her weakest armour.  The Ion beams did little physical damage but they quickly overloaded all the surrounding systems as they created an incredibly powerful but localized electromagnetic pulse.  This pulse knocked out weapons systems, blast door overrides, and even shut down local life support.

    Twice more the rebel ship fired on the Mons, each strike dealing more damage and blacking out another portion of the ship.  It was careful not to shoot at the bridge location in the craft''s belly so as to leave it operational.  It seemed that the rebels had other plans for the Olympus Mons than to just kill her outright.  As the CMS Olympus Mons drifted disabled in the cold dark void, a message was sent to her from the rebel flagship.  A message that she would be unable to ignore.

    **********

    John sat silently in his command throne, they had lost, this was it.  And yet, the rebels had ceased firing on them, they were still alive.  Sure the ship was likely disabled beyond their ability to repair, and they were at the whims of an enemy force, but with life there was hope.

    He sat up as his console beeped and he heard the voice of Ensign Hope Linsen, one of the communication specialists, say to him ¡°Captain, we are being hailed by the rebel battle cruiser, she is calling herself the HMS Indomitable.  Shall I respond?¡±  she asked him nervously over the link.

    He shook his head, though Ensign Hope wouldn''t have seen his physical reaction, before he answered ¡°No, Pipe it to me directly.  I will speak to them myself.¡±  he said with more determination than he felt.

    After a moment''s pause, the smaller screen on his console resolved into the image of a proud Yeown woman, her uniform marking her out as a Commodore of the Navy, likely a bastardized version of the similar Union rank.  She cracked a wide predator smile as the link was established and she leaned forwards before she spoke.  ¡°Ah, finally we meet face to face.  You have fought valiantly, surrender now and your lives will be spared, continue to resist..¡±  she shrugged before continuing ¡°And I will have no choice but to destroy you.  Because of your tenacity in combat, I find that I no longer have the manpower to take your vessel as a prize.¡±  she finished with a glare at him.

    He shifted a little in his seat as if trying to make himself comfortable.  He didn''t want her to think he was overly affected by his words, if he played this right, he might be able to talk them out of death.  ¡°Hello there, I''m assuming you are in charge here?¡±  he said simply.

    The Yeown woman did not respond immediately as there was a slight time delay from their long range, but after a moment''s pause she drew back with a frown.  ¡°Yes, I am Commodore Taise Kuligan of the Hegemony of Independent Systems Navy, and you are?¡±  she finished with a flick of her tall ears.

    He smiled and glanced at Jrise next to him, she said nothing but watched him with a slightly worried expression.  ¡°I am Captain John Cameron of the Sapient Congressional Union Navy, and this is my ship, the CMS Olympus Mons.  As you can see, she is in a bit of distress at the moment and it seems that I have only you to ask for assistance.¡±  he said confidently.

    Taise shook her furred head and said ¡°I''m not sure you understand what I''m saying.  Either surrender unconditionally and wait till I get reinforcements to drag you to Hegemony space, or be destroyed, those are your only two options.  Choose wisely.¡±  she added with a low growl.

    He nodded as if she had simply told him the time of day before coolly looking to Jrise and mouthing to her that he needed her opinion.  She said quietly ¡°We surrender and we end up in a Hegemony prisoner camp, starvation awaits us as well as an ignoble death at the hands of these barbarous rebels.  I don''t think we should give in.¡±  she finished.

    He nodded and looked once more to the Rebel Commodore, her eyes flicking to his as he asked ¡°We¡­ might need a little time to decide, would an hour or so be allowable?¡±  he implored the woman.

    She growled low again as she said ¡°No.  You have fifteen minutes to decide, then we open fire regardless.¡±  she said as she terminated the link.

    John sat silently for a few moments before Jrise asked ¡°What''s the plan, what did you want the time for?¡±

    He nodded his head at nothing as she spoke, hearing her but not really listening to the words.  His mind was racing with options, he knew they were balanced on the edge of a blade, one wrong move or careless step would send them hurtling to their doom.  And no matter what he thought, the outcome remained the same.  Certain death now, or probable death later after prolonged suffering?  He snorted loudly as he came to a decision.

    He glanced at Jrise before motioning her to come over to him as he enacted his idea.  She walked over and watched curiously as his fingers flew over the keys of his console.  He was adept at computer systems, always had been since he had been a lad, and now he was putting his unused skills to the test.  After a few minutes he sat back and let out a breath.

    ¡°What is it?¡±  Jrise asked curiously as she looked at the screen.  On it was a simple set of commands that would be broadcast to the entirety of the crew.  It said ¡°This is the captain, you have all fought hard and have done more than any could have expected from us.  You are heroes, one and all.  But now I am afraid we are faced with an impossible decision, Death, or Servitude.  While the chances of death are lower in bondage, it remains an ever present threat.  But I am not going to make this decision for you, you must choose for yourselves.  You will have four minutes from the time of receiving this message to make a decision, after that, new votes will not be counted.  May Luck guide you to the end of all things in the palm of her hand.¡±

    She gasped as she realized what he was doing but did not rebuke his decision.  Instead she nodded and he pressed send.  As the message raced throughout the ship, he sat back into his chair and tried not to break down.  All the years he had been their captain, and he could not protect them in the end, but he could ensure that they went out on their own terms.  The majority would tell if he had trained them well, or if he had made cowards of them all.  He knew what he would have done, he would have fought tooth and nail till the bitter end.  Death was better than slavery and suffering after all.

    He grunted in surprise as Jrise walked over to him and plunked herself down on his lap.  ¡°What in the name of Luck are you¡­¡±  he managed to get out before she grabbed his head in her long fingered hands and kissed him suddenly.

    He tensed for a minute, his first reaction to draw away, but then the rational portion of his brain was subsumed under the warmth of her embrace and he melted into her.  He had no idea how long they stayed like that, but after what felt to him an eternity she released him and he gasped.

    She giggled sweetly and said ¡°I have wanted to do that for far too long¡­ Captain.¡±  she finished with another little laugh.

    John''s head was swimming with emotions and feelings he had long suppressed and he looked into her eyes for a moment.  They were deep violet, the sclera around her irises a pale blue that matched her copper blood.  He finally managed to say ¡°Yeah, me too.¡±

    She smiled widely, revealing her blunt fungivore teeth as she cuddled closer to him, laying her horned head in the nape of his neck.  He knew that he was breaking regulations just allowing her to act in such a manner, but he found that he suddenly didn''t give a shit anymore.  He wrapped his strong arms around her and she sighed and sank into his embrace.  They had been friends for so long that no words needed to be exchanged, they both knew how they really felt about each other, and they knew that this was the end.  They might as well be honest with each other in the last minutes.

    He looked up at his console as it dinged, the talley for the votes had come in, out of the roughly three thousand crew they had started with, fewer than eighteen hundred had responded, he was sure if that meant the other were dead or if they just hadn''t been able to respond in time.  But the vote was clear as crystal, they would not surrender.

    He jostled Jrise slightly and she sat up and looked at the talley.  ¡°I guess that''s that then.¡±  she whispered.  He nodded at her comment.

    She stood and moved to his side as he opened a link to the HMS Indomitable.  Once more the face of the Yeown woman appeared on the screen.  Taise spoke suddenly ¡°Have you come to a decision?  You have two minutes left.¡±

    He nodded and answered before sitting up straight.  ¡°No sense wasting any time.  We have decided¡­  We will not surrender, we will not be taken to be used as hostages or slaves by your overlords.  We may die this day, but we die free man and women of the Union, curses on our lips and wrath in our hearts.  Do your worst rebel scum!!¡±  he shouted for effect.  The crew in the bridge pit had apparently been watching as a mighty cheer erupted from the lower command pit at his words.

    Taise snarled and spat ¡°So be it!  Burn in agony you Union vreenth!!¡±  and she severed the link.

    Jrise moved to sit with him again as the ship shuddered, the first impacts from the rebel warships tearing into her thick armour.  Without the ability to maneuver, she would soon be overwhelmed as the enemy would be able to accurately target weak portions of the hull and cut them apart.  He pulled Jrise close and she in turn hugged him tight before she whispered in his ear ¡°You have been the joy of my life, both as a friend, and now however briefly, as more.¡±

    Tears welled from his eyes as the emotions finally got the better of him and he sobbed lightly ¡°And you have been my light in the darkness, my reason for living.  I only wish we could have continued on, but alas, all good things must come to an end.¡±  he finished.

    The pair clung to each other as the sounds of destruction grew louder, and then with a mighty explosion, the bridge was breached and fire and burning steel consumed them all.

    ***********

    Taise sat back heavily in her seat and pounded her fist on the arm of her chair.  ¡°Why did they have to be so stubborn!!¡±  she raged.

    Other members of her crew looked away so as not to bring any of her ire upon themselves.  She stood suddenly and howled in anger as her claws unsheathed.  After a moment venting her rage she collapsed back into her chair, utterly exhausted by the entire ordeal.  On her small command screen she watched as the huge Union ship was gutted.  It was a messy death, the ships remaining to her barely sufficient for the task.

    As the ship finally stopped venting atmosphere and fire, she slumped once more.  This whole operation was supposed to be a cake walk.  She had been sent with three entire skirmish groups, the fact that they had nearly been wiped out by a single antiquated union battleship boded ill for the entire campaign.  What would have happened if there had been but one single additional Union ship to guard the system.  They likely would have been entirely destroyed.

    The only reason she had not been eradicated is because she had thought it prudent to bring an ion cruiser, just in case they had a capital ship.

    She turned towards her second in command, a wiry looking Slaaveth female, as she commanded ¡°Tell the fleet to move into the system, refuel and then destroy the refineries, once that is complete we will regroup at rally point delta.  And tell them that speed is more important than stealth, more Union ships might be coming.

    Her subordinate nodded and moved to carry out her order, meanwhile Taise just turned to look at the slowly cooling wreckage of the battleship.

    She smirked slightly to herself, those self righteous fools, they could have survived this, albeit as prisoners, but still alive.  Instead they had chosen death.  Most noble of them, she knew they were her enemy, but she would make sure that they were never forgotten.  She would commission a commemorative plaque for the Battle of Slee herself if she needed to.  Warriors like that were rare in this modern galaxy, and it mattered little to her that they were her enemies.  They might have been on the opposite side, but they were still honorable.  She smiled for the first time since entering the system, oh there would be consequences for her disastrous action here, but she found that she cared little.  She had witnessed greatness today, and that was reward enough.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Flight of the Lancer

    Flight of The Lancer

    Kelsea ''Ginger'' Shoos walked briskly down the narrow metal hall that led to the secondary hanger of the weathered Ishka Class fleet carrier Any Port in a Storm. Beside her was one of her four squad mates, Helena ''Savage'' Marks. Helena was a female Yeown of average size and had cream colored fur across the front of her body that faded to a muted gray at her wide shoulders and back. She had picked up that particular nickname on shore leave a while back when she had savagely put down a man who was drunkenly hitting on her. Ginger and her other squad mates had laughed and commented on how savage she was, and it had stuck. Savage wore her name with pride and remarked on it often.

    Ginger had been given her nickname almost immediately due to her unusual appearance. She was Nerivith, but unlike most of her people who had raven black hair and purple or indigo eyes, she had a genetic mutation that gave her fiery orange hair and vivid yellow eyes. She had been teased relentlessly as a youth about her appearance, many of the children had called her things like ''Rusthead'' and ''Shrij Eyes''.

    Bringing herself back to the present she focused once more on the moment as a klaxon blared once and the speaker system announced "Fifteen minutes to warp exit. Please report to your battle stations, this will be a hot drop. Expect resistance."

    Savage turned to her and growled "I hope it''s hot, it''s been a while since I wetted my claws."

    Ginger smiled and replied "I''m sure it will be, we are dropping straight into the contested zone."

    They walked out of the hall into a larger staging area that joined to the secondary hanger. The room was long and narrow with a low ceiling, like everything on the four-hundred-and-sixty-meter-long carrier. While Ginger wasn''t much a fan of the low ceilings, at least she didn''t seem to have as many problems as Savage. She spotted another two of her squad mates getting geared up in their dark brown pressure suits as they entered the room.

    Jridgena ''Harpy'' Xceese and George ''Dunce'' McMann were struggling into their flight suits as she and Savage approached them. Dunce saw them and attempted to wave while he was still putting a leg through his garment, the result was a loud grunt as he promptly fell flat onto the padded ground. Harpy let out a breathy giggle as he struggled to untangle himself. She made a grab for his leg and he yelped as she sunk her clawed digits into his rump instead as he flailed.

    "Woah hey, watch it. I need to be able to sit on that ass." Dunce complained as he finally managed to free his legs and sit up. Dunce was a Human male of below average height with brown eyes, dark hair and caramel skin. While a great pilot, he was near useless when it came to tasks involving eye to hand coordination. They had originally called him Clutz but switched it to Dunce after he was placed on disciplinary leave after an incident involving the officers table and a large container of still living Grassstriders.

    Dunce stood to his feet and gave Harpy a playful nudge while saying "Not that I didn''t appreciate you letting me know you were thinking of me."

    Harpy grinned playfully and smiled her wide shark smile. Harpy was a Slaaveth female of above average height. Tall and with the powerful shoulders of a natural born swimmer, she had a vigorous look to her. While she was generally a cheerful and sunny person, she had a vengeful streak. She had picked up the name Harpy after she had ruthlessly hunted down a thug who had harmed one of her previous squad mates and sent them to the ER with her bare claws.

    Harpy looked at Savage and asked "You two are here. Where''s Strong?"

    Dunce chimed in "He is probably already in the hangar waiting for us, you know that big guy is nothing if not punctual."

    Ginger agreed with him saying "He''s never late, if he isn''t here, then he is ahead of us. It''s kinda eerie actually. I wonder if it''s some sort of Vinarfel thing?"

    "I can guarantee it isn''t, I once knew this Vinarfelien chick who was never on time to anything." Dunce said briskly.

    Harpy turned to him and feigned shock as she asked "You dated a Vinarfel girl? How promiscuous of you!"

    Dunce spluttered for a moment and tried defending himself as he backpedaled "I never said we were dating, and so what if I did. Strong is Vinarfel, and I don''t see you complaining about him?" Harpy just looked at him with that same sharp toothed smile as his face went from defensive to annoyed. "Oh I get it, you are just fucking with me aren''t you?"

    "Not on duty, I would never." She said sweetly. Dunce just rolled his eyes and went back to putting on his gear.

    Ginger smiled to herself as she finished putting on her own gear. Her smile faded as she once more thought about the message she had received from command. She was being assigned to a new craft today, her old Voidbane Mk III was in storage and she had been training in the simulators on a new ship whose design she had never seen before. The simulation had called it the Lancer-E, but in her eyes it looked more like a flying hammer.

    Savage seemed to pick up on her mood change, probably due to her enhanced predator senses. "What''s wrong Ginger?" She asked concernedly.

    Ginger sighed and said "I get the privilege of flying that new bucket of bolts that I told you about. I have plenty of training on it in the combat simulators, but I''m going to be flying it for real out there, any mistakes and I''m toast. It doesn''t help that this thing is supposed to be able to take out a cruiser, you know."

    Dunce poked his head over in her direction as he grabbed his helmet from his locker "What takes out cruisers?" He asked.

    "My new craft." She said flatly as they made their way into the hangar. They walked between rows of sheltered alcoves that held the various fighter wings of the Any Port.

    "Whoa, I knew you were getting a new toy but I didn''t know you were getting the big boy toys. How in Luck''s name does a fighter disable a cruiser?" He asked her.

    She passed her long fingers over her horns as she tried to settle her insides, the Lancer was essentially a series of medium laser arrays rigged together through various beam focusers and combining arrays to form the five lasers into one. And the purpose of this was to achieve the power density of a heavy laser in a package small enough to mount in a fighter. A heavy laser was much too long to mount in a fighter, and a medium laser wasn''t powerful enough to reliably penetrate the armour of most destroyers or cruisers.

    "The short answer, Dunce, is that they put a dangerous amount of laser cores into much too fragile a frame and now expect me to do something useful with it." She told him.

    He looked thoughtful for a moment before asking "But it can cripple a cruiser? That''s awesome. Imagine what that would look like to them, it''s like getting a broken leg from a horsefly." He said enthusiastically.

    Ginger knew what a horse was, and she had seen flies before, but she had no idea what a horsefly was. She thought about asking and then decided not to. Every time she asked Dunce about something from that helhole he called a homeworld she ended up having nightmares.

    Instead she contented herself saying "Yes, if it works, if I can fly it effectively, if I don''t get blown to pieces by anti-fighter missiles. I flew it in simulations, it''s fast alright, but not very maneuverable." She grumbled.

    Savage said "I''m sure you wouldn''t be asked to fly it if it hadn''t been exhaustively tested. They would have no reason to put you in such danger without a reliable ship."

    Harpy snickered and said "That doesn''t sound like the SCU at all." Ginger shot her a look as they finally reached their alcove. To the shock of nobody, Strong was there waiting for them. He was a Vinarfel male, looking similar to a six-meter-long centipede from Earth, his forward third was reared up in a slight S shape and his upper body possessed five pairs of grasping arms.

    Strong was not really that much stronger than an average member of his people, but after the fifth time someone had remarked ''Wow, you''re strong'' while he was moving something heavy, he had just hissed in annoyance and said ''Yesss I am, and who are you?'' After that, they had taken to calling him Strong as a sort of inside joke that he tolerated with a grim attitude.

    "It isss good to ssee you have arrived in time. We sshould get ready for warp exsssit." The large man hissed.

    Ginger said "Good to see you as well, he''s right, we don''t have a lot of time, we need to get ready."

    Dunce and Harpy sprung towards their own Voidbane fighters while Strong scuttled to his like a flash of lightning. Savage grined at her and made her way over to her bulky Steelwoods Fighter/Bomber.

    Ginger watched them all for a moment before turning towards the strange new ship that would be her space coffin if the mission went poorly. The Lancer was a long ship, about twenty two meters in length, much longer than the sixteen meters of a Voidbane or the eighteen of Savage''s ship. It looked like a hammer, with a long ''handle in the front where the laser arrays were housed and combined while the ''head'' near the rear housed the cockpit and flight control systems. There were thrusters along the length of the front as well, but the main thrusters were clustered at the back of the ship in a diamond configuration.

    She stepped over to the strange ship and pulled herself onto the control surface of the left wing and entered the cockpit. There various dials, gauges, and digital readouts that made her eyes swim for a split second before the numerous hours in the training sims kicked back in and she began to run a pre-flight checklist.

    After assuring herself that the ship was ready for combat she heard another series of klaxons and noticed the announcement saying "One minute to warp exit, Combat roles to battle stations."

    Ginger shivered in excitement. This was what she lived for, the feeling of tense anxiety in her gut receded as she prepared herself to enter space with nothing but a thin suit and piece of industrial plastic protecting her. The carrier exited warp with the all too familiar twisting lurch, the nauseating feeling crashing through her almost too fast to detect, almost.

    She winced as her insides twisted in discomfort but quickly suppressed the feeling and ran a quick double check on her new ships systems, everything came back in the pink. The lights should have been green, but it looked like the check lights were still set to Nerivith military standard, pink for all clear, yellow for trouble and blue for critical malfunction. Ignoring the issue, she linked her helmet into the squad comms. The comms used old school light speed lasers for communication, but were still effective for the relatively short ranges the fighters would be operating at.

    The klaxons blared again and the overhead lights flashed red and white as the main hangar doors unfurled and the thin gravity barrier was revealed holding in the thin atmosphere above the launch rails. These older style carriers still used the antiquated electromagnetic rail launch systems to offload their fighter complements instead of the new and improved gravity launch arrays. The new ships would just line up their fighters and then project a slight gravity field at a ninety degree angle to the deck to pull the ships into space. It was effective and allowed for the mass launching of up to half a carrier''s fighter complement all at once if necessary, although they generally only launched about three squadrons at a time. The Any Port was an older Ishka class and was unable to match those numbers, launching only five fighters per minute.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    As her squadron was the second to launch, she waited for a minute before receiving the all clear from the ships comms relay and rolling her ship forwards into the launch bay. She rolled to a short stop right next to Savage in her fighter bomber combo and gave her a quick wave, Savage grinned widely and then looked forwards as their ships were grabbed by the electromagnetic rail and moved into launch position. Their front wheel was equipped with a protruding armature that slotted into the rails in the ship''s floor and would drag the rest of the shuttle out of the bay into space at about sixty meters per second in only about two seconds. While this acceleration should have broken her neck, she was protected by her fighters inertial compensators that countered the gravity by producing an equal and opposite effect canceling the original force out.

    She screwed her eyes tightly shut for a second and said a quick chant to the powers that be before she felt a slight tug of acceleration, snapping her eyes open she took control of her new ship as it shot out of the carrier''s launch bay. ¡°Savage you read me? This is Ginger.¡±

    She waited for a second before she heard the husky voice of Savage respond ¡°I read you loud and clear Ginger, Harpy and Strong are next then we are just waiting for Dunce.¡±

    ¡°Copy that Savage. Harpy, form up on us when you are free.¡± Ginger said knowing that she would do just that.

    After another minute of loitering around the vicinity of the carrier, Harpy, Strong, and Dunce had joined them and were all relaying tactical data to each other so as to better coordinate. Ginger took the leftmost position beside Strong, and Savage took the rightmost position beside Dunce as Harpy took the center. Harpy¡¯s voice flooded the comms as she said ¡°Ok Green Squad, this is a hot zone, and I just got updated information from the Any Port, Commander Greisse has relayed the positions of our targets to us. While Red, Yellow, Blue and White squadrons are distracting the main bulk of the enemy, we are going to be slipping around the sides and taking shots at their support ships.¡±

    Savage growled over the comms and said ¡°We are taking out the big girls huh? What do they have, a couple of cruisers?¡± Strong made a small noise of agreement over the comms before Harpy answered.

    ¡°Negative, there were supposed to be two cruisers and a support carrier here, but it looks like our intelligence was wrong on this one. Thay have two cruisers and a carrier all right, but they also have a Meteor class heavy cruiser, that''s one mean son of a slurrge that we are responsible for disabling.¡± Harpy said over the comms.

    ¡°What? There is no way we can disable a heavy cruiser. This thing has a hard enough time with regular cruisers. Not to mention as soon as we get within five kilometers of it we are going to get blasted out of space by its secondary guns.¡± Savage said over the comms.

    ¡°That''s why we got the new toy, or rather, that''s why Ginger got the new toy. Did she tell you about its operational capabilities?¡± Harpy said.

    As they flew through space, they were rapidly covering the fifty-kilometer gap between the two opposing fleets. Ginger wished she could just focus on the lessening range counters, but instead she spoke up in response ¡°The Lancer-E experimental anti capital fighter is equipped with a five cell medium laser fusion array. It combines the power of five medium laser arrays into a single beam, this combined beam is capable of piercing the armour of even a battleship at close range, or most small attack or support ships at long range.¡± she recited from memory.

    Dunce sighed over the comms and said ¡°Yes you have said that before, and it''s nice, but what does that actually mean? What kind of range are we talking about here? Three thousand meters?¡± he finished with a snort.

    Harpy answered him saying ¡°If my understanding of the engineering behind the weapon is correct, the maximum effective range of her main weapon is eight thousand meters, though she may have to close to six thousand to get a killing blow.¡± The comms were silent for a few moments as they flew closer to their targets. The small pinpricks of detonating munitions could be seen flickering in the distance.

    Finally it was Strong who spoke up ¡°Six thousand meters, then, why are the rest of us here?¡±

    Ginger told him ¡°You are here because this ship is not designed to fight other fighters. He is faster than any of you in a straight line, but suffers from a lack of maneuverability and carries no small caliber weapons. I am a flying cannon, but I am only good for taking out the big ones.¡±

    ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡± Savage said over the comms.

    Harpy said ¡°Now that you are all more familiar with our purpose here, don''t be a hero and get yourself killed, we can blast these scum suckers from complete safety and then return home as heroes. Nothing to it really.¡±

    Strong made a low hiss of skepticism but said nothing. Ginger focused on the range counters as they got within twice her effective range. ¡°Alright gals, we are on the clock, let''s make it count.¡± Ginger said as they officially entered the combat zone.

    They locked their flight computers together and rocketed into the hot zone. Ginger checked her nav system and saw it was plotting an approach from the rear of the Meteor class heavy cruiser then past the two smaller cruisers and then finally across the rear of the support carrier.

    She looked out of her cockpit and could just make out the small bright pinprick of the large seven-hundred-and-eighty-meter-long ship in the void of space. It was flashing slightly with the discharge of its main guns as it threw fire out at the smaller corvettes and gunships that were dancing in front of it. With any luck its shots would all go wide and no one would be killed. Ginger held the controls of her ship as she banked slightly to stay in formation with her squad. They were coming up on her maximum range of eight kilometers, she began to charge her combined array as they passed the kill distance and the range ticked down.

    Ginger lined up her sights on the aft of the large ship, aiming straight for where its main reactors would be, she should be able to burn through its weak rear armour and penetrate the main reactor from this angle with a three second burn. That was pushing the capabilities of her new ship''s main gun, but she knew it would hold. It had been built specifically for this purpose after all.

    ¡°Ginger, any time now, we are getting really close to its kill zone.¡± she heard Dunce murmur over the comms. She ignored him and waited till her counter reached the six kilometer mark before she initiated the weapon.

    Immediately her visor darkened as a searing beam of purple light seemed to connect her to the huge ship. She could see the bright spot on the rear hull as it suddenly glowed as bright as a sun and slagged inwards, there was a bright explosion of molten metal as it breached the pressurized interior of the ship and the air whooshed over the vaporising metal burning the oxygen violently. After the three second burn was over the brilliant beam winked out of existence and she glanced at her weapon readout to see it flashing a pale yellow.

    ¡°Holy shit.¡± she heard Dunce exclaim as she looked back towards the heavy cruiser. She felt the same way as she saw the damage her ship had wrought.

    ¡°You can say that again.¡± she whispered as she saw the jagged slagged hole in the rear of the ship. The ship itself seemed to shudder and then fell silent as it lost all main power, its lights flicked out and it began to drift as it was no longer under control. A few explosions seemed to blast additional debris through the jagged ten-meter-wide hole in its rear.

    ¡°Well, it works.¡± Harpy said in a slightly surprised tone.

    ¡°Whoo, look at it burn.¡± Savage roared over the comms making everyone chuckle a bit.

    Ginger said warmly ¡°Okay calm down a bit Savage, we aren''t done yet, we can probably tag another one or two of them before they figure out what''s going on. Keep your eyes and ears open for trouble.¡± Harpy made an affirmative noise and Ginger saw their plotted course alter slightly.

    They whisked onwards towards the next target, the cruiser was a much softer target and Ginger programmed her weapon to make two short one second bursts, one on its main engine room, and the other on its backup generator. Again she waited till they were near the minimum safe engagement range before she opened up. That brilliant beam was so startlingly beautiful, even as it burned a terrible hole into the rear of the ship. The smaller five-hundred-and-fourteen-meter ship listed into a spiraling arc as it lost main drives and the resulting explosion knocked it violently off course. Again she was struck with awe at the sheer power of the weapon she was piloting. The Lancer was swatting cruisers out of space like it was a battleship.

    Ginger knew the surprise wouldn''t last, and as they approached the third and final cruiser, it started to turn its heavier frontal armour towards her. She made a few calculations on her ship''s computer and then grimly set the main gun to fire at maximum intensity for a punishing four second pulse. This was going to be dangerous, if she pushed the array too hard it could stop working before the cruiser was disabled leaving her and her squad mates dangerously exposed with no hope of safely retreating. Some of them would undoubtedly die if that happened. But if she didn''t push it hard enough the effect would be the same. Ginger decided to trust her gut and the engineering prowess of her people, no one in the known galaxy was better than the Nerivith when it came to producing large scale lasers after all.

    Reaching the minimum safe engagement distance of six kilometers from the defending cruiser she made another short chant to the higher powers and initiated her main weapon. Her heart dropped as for two seconds nothing seemed to happen, then she blinked as the prow armour of the cruiser seemed to lose all integrity and the deadly beam sliced into the main core of the ship. For the better part of two long seconds the energy of a star was focused into the small beam that she was projecting into the enemy ship. Then with a flash of brilliant light something critical in the ship''s core detonated.

    She squinted as her visor didn¡¯t darken fast enough and the wave of light washed over her ship. The cruiser was gone, in its place was a massive blown out carcass, its interior supporting structure looking like the titanic ribcage of some vast creature. The lifeblood of its atmosphere burned away instantly as chunks of debri were hurtled outwards at incredible speeds. Sheltered as they were from the worst of the debris due to the armoured front of the dead ship facing them, they weathered the blast and continued onwards towards their last target.

    ¡°Whoa, what in the Mother¡¯sss name wass that?¡± Strong hissed agitatedly.

    ¡°I think I may have overdone it a bit.¡± was Ginger¡¯s only reply.

    Dunce cut in and said ¡°You sure did, blew the absolute fuck outta those rebels. I would be surprised if anyone made it out of that mess.¡±

    She nodded to herself numbly and once more looked at her readouts seeing the main gun had now turned a solid blue. She had overdone it, and now she couldn''t complete her mission, they would have to retreat as the final carrier was too heavily defended to be disabled by the fighters and corvettes alone.

    Ginger spoke up in a solemn tone ¡°Harpy, I have some bad news.¡±

    Harpy immediately responded in a concerned tone ¡°What kind of trouble, are you hit?¡±

    ¡°No, nothing like that, but my weapon is dead. I must have overloaded the capacitors and when I fired that last burst, it seems to have overheated the laser cores. I am flying a dud ship here.¡±

    Harpy started to respond before cutting off. She returned a moment later saying ¡°Well in that case I have some good news for you, the rebel carrier just surrendered.¡±

    It took a second for the words to sink in, Savage seemed to growl in minor frustration and Strong hissed in surprise as she spoke up ¡°Wow, well. That sure is lucky I guess. So what do we do now?¡±

    Dunce spoke up ¡°We head back and get wasted, yeah drinks on me!¡± he exclaimed excitedly.

    Harpy giggled and said ¡°Dunce is correct, our new orders are to return to Any Port and disembark. Our shuttles will be rearmed and checked over, not that they need it, and yours seems like it''s roasted. But hey, mission accomplished right?¡± The plotted course changed to lead them back to the fleer carrier and they banked away from the carnage.

    Ginger looked at her readouts and sighed as she saw how close she had been to blowing herself up instead of the enemy ship. She thought about all the lives that she had just ended and wondered for the first time in her military career what the point of it all was. Dark thoughts threatened to drown her in misery, but her dark brooding was shattered by the sound of laughter.

    ¡°Oh c''mon, it was a perfectly reasonable joke.¡± she heard Dunce complain.

    Harpy shot back ¡°I don''t agree, I will make you pay for that one you scaleless sluurge.¡± she gurgled at him in a disapproving way.

    Savage interjected and said ¡°Don''t be so hard on him Harpy, we both know why he''s so on edge after all.¡± they shared a small giggle as Dunce grumbled over the comms.

    Strong addressed her privately and she smiled as he said ¡°Ginger, you are quiet. I hope you are not thinking about the cruisser your weapon destroyed.¡±

    She switched to the private channel and said ¡°I was, what''s the point Strong? I just wiped out hundreds of people, people who were only following orders.¡±

    Strong hissed in a disapproving way and said ¡°The point is they made their choice, asss did I. We all have a part to play in the grand scheme of life, it''ss not ssshameful to take life in battle.¡±

    She replied ¡°I know that Strong. It''s just that I was wondering why it even matters.¡±

    ¡°It mattress to me, and I know that I matterss to you. We are as a brood, we mussst look out for each other. Now cease your troubled thoughtsss and ssmile, the way I ssee it we are owed a drink by Dunce. And that iss causse enough to rejoice.¡± Strong told her. She smiled in spite of her darkened mood and switched back to open comms.

    She smiled as she was once more immersed in the bickering of her family. ¡°Hey Dunce, what was that you said about buying us all a drink? You didn''t say where, and I want my drink from the deepest, scummiest dive bar we can dig up on our next shore leave. Savage, we are going to get into some fights too. And Harpy, they won''t know what hit them.¡±

    A chorus of affirmations and excited comments were roused by her short speech. She leaned back into her seat and allowed the auto pilot of her ship to carry her onwards, knowing that as long as she was with her family, everything would turn out okay.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Out of Breath

    Out of Breath

    Quetzie was trapped, her whole life she had always wanted to travel the stars, see alien worlds, and meet fantastic people.  But now, now she would die in space.  Alone, and unmissed.  She had left her small underwater village when she turned twenty and had joined a freighter crew that had been looking for new hands.  She couldn''t have known they were smugglers at the time.  Although once she had learned the truth, why had she stuck around?  She should have left then, reported them to central authority and gotten far away from that life.  But instead, she had stayed silent and kept her mouth closed.  And now look where that loyalty and commitment had gotten her.

    Quetzie studied the readouts again as she tried to find a way, any way, to remotely fix the ship''s damaged reactor core.  The ship was old, and had a very antiquated fission reactor that required active cooling to stay operational.  The space debris that had killed the rest of the crew had also damaged the cooling systems to the reactor causing it to slowly build up heat.  She couldn''t switch it off because she didn''t know if she would be able to turn it back on.

    The air was close and stale as she took another shaky breath, the air scrubbers were mostly damaged and the few that were left were barely doing an adequate job of filtering all the toxins out of the air.  She took another slow measured breath, she couldn''t afford to get excited or panicked.  Both would lead to mistakes and faster oxygen depletion.

    She was wearing a pair of gray engineer''s overalls that did little to take the edge off the chill that was developing in the ship.  While not very dangerous for an endotherm, she was Slaaveth and cold blooded, she knew that she only had a few hours to live before the cold caused her body to shut down.  First her heart would slow and she would lose consciousness, then her other major organs would begin to fail and she would suffocate as her lungs stopped.  She was used to colder temperatures than this back on her homeworld, but there they had protective gear and electric clothes that kept them warm in the winter.

    In her loose fitting coveralls, she might as well have been wearing nothing.  The oceans of her peoples homeworld of Abyss were much warmer than most oceans as their planet orbited quite close to its star.  Life evolved to survive under the water as the strong radiation of their star could cause permanent damage to those who strayed onto the surface.  Her people had evolved to breathe both air and water however as they would take pilgrimages over the small volcanic islands to gather rare resources they couldn''t find in the ocean.

    The lights in the ship were out, but it didn''t hamper her very much.  Her large black eyes were designed for piercing through the gloom of the deep sea and she could see as if the room was lit by lantern light.  It was dim, but she could tell what her surroundings were.  If she was underwater she would have used her voice to create sonic waves in which to scout out her surroundings, but the process wasn''t well optimized for the open air.

    Passing her clawed hands over her frilled head, she stood and moved over to the small console she had been using the day before to monitor the ship''s subsystems.  It was dimly lit and had more blinking red lights than green, but it was her only link to the rest of the ship.  The door to engineering was blocked by a large fallen support spar and while she was not weak by any means, she wasn''t as strong as a female Yeown to go and lift the thousand pound spar single handedly.

    She thought back to that morning when the captain had decided to try and take a shortcut through a small nebula in order to shave seven hours off their travel time.  They had gotten almost all the way through before something massive passed close enough to disturb their warp field and the ship auto disengaged warp so as not to overload the drive.  They dropped out of warp just outside the shipping lane and were almost immediately bombarded by debris.  It seemed as though a rogue comet had decided to travel in the very same direction as well and she listened with horror as the others were killed by hull breaches or shrapnel.  She was the only one spared, but she didn''t celebrate.  If she couldn''t get help soon this ship would become her tomb.

    She had sent out an emergency pulse immediately, but it was only a light speed communication, it might take days for it to propagate far enough to be noticed, and she would be long dead by then.  She hung her head in shame and told herself it was all her fault.  She should have told the captain it wasn''t a good idea, she should have stood up for the ship and crew.  But the captain had been a bully, he had been mean and rough.  She remembered the time she had made a mistake and cost them a full day of time as she fixed the problem.  He had waited for her to deliver the news and then punched her in the gut before telling her if she ever made that mistake and cost him that much time again, he would kill her.

    She was glad the savage old man was dead, she had always been told the Atraxses were nice, if a bit grumpy.  But he had been cruel and had taken great pleasure in the suffering of others.

    Quetzie was shivering now, she wrapped her scaled arms around her middle and huddled her legs to her chest as she tried to conserve heat.  She was a little out of shape for a Slaaveth, her people were generally toned and naturally athletic in appearance from their childhoods spent almost entirely underwater swimming.  While they could come above water while young, their lungs didnt fully develop untill they neared sexual maturity.  What evolutionary reason this served she didn''t know, but that''s the way things were.

    Quetzie once more thanked herself for eating all those extra snacks and putting off her swimming exercises as they had resulted in a thin but insulating layer of blubber under her skin on her chest and belly, legs and upper arms.  It was this thin layer of insulation that had kept her alive this long.  Her breath misted the air as the air had dropped below freezing about ten minutes before, it was still dropping.  The ship''s life support was gone and the oxygen scrubbers were offline.  But she had plenty of air.

    No, she would freeze long before she asphyxiated at this rate.  A small orange light blinked on next to her on the control panel.  She looked at it and her mind swam as she tried to remember what it meant.  She jerked upright in the freezing air as she realised what it was, it was a request to open communications alert.  Someone had found her distress call.

    She hesitated before she pressed it, her clawed fingers hovering over the button as she thought frantically.  What if it was pirates or worse, flesh carvers?  They were rumored to operate in this area of space, the horrid stories she had heard as a young pup about cannibalistic murderers in spaceships covered in bloody spikes flashed through her mind.  She looked around for anything she could use as an improvised weapon and sprang from her padded chair as she saw a bent length of pipe that had been shorn off the wall near the door.  Hefting it in her left hand, she walked back to the console and sat before pressing the accept button.

    Immediately a prerecorded voice came through the speaker.  Her already cold body turned to ice as she recognised the voice of an Arraxses as he said "Unknown vessel, this is the IS Arctic Heart, are you in need of assistance?  You are no longer broadcasting a distress call."  The voice cut off into a hiss of static for a moment before the message looped.

    She pressed a few buttons on her console and replied in as calm a voice as she could manage "IS Arctic Heart, this is the IS Borialis, we have suffered critical damage and have lost life support.  Please, it''s so cold¡­"  she said through chattering teeth.

    She sat huddled in her chair for a few minutes with no reply, just as she was beginning to give up hope she saw a notification light pop up.  They had replied.

    Pressing play on the message she heard the man say "We read you, we can see your debris field from here.  We are about six minutes from your location, just hold on."

    They were too far for direct communication then she noted.  She sent another reply that simply said "Hurry, I don''t have much time left."

    Quetzie could feel her arms and legs going numb slowly, the sensation moved up her extremities and towards her core.  She knew that if it reached her chest she would die, but she was so cold she couldn''t move.

    After an indeterminate amount of time that felt like a lifeage, she began to hear small noises through the metal door of her prison.  She cracked her eyes open, she was so cold.  She tried to call for help but all that came out was a puff of mist and a slight gurgle.  She tried to move but ended up falling off the chair to land on the cold metal floor.  She groaned softly in pain and fear as she felt the last bits of warmth leach out of her into the unforgiving surface.  It greedily sucked in her life force and left her empty, she felt hollow.  Her large eyes seemed to start to fade.  Her vision began to turn gray.

    Suddenly she heard a mighty crash, loud and close enough to shock her awake.  She watched weakly as the doors to her tomb shuddered under a heavy blow, and then began to slowly move apart.  She watched as a large figure, powerful and wearing a void suit, forced the doors open with a large bar.  The figure saw her and she tried to talk but her mouth only moved silently as she couldn''t make any noise.

    With a growl of effort the huge figure grabbed the massive metal spar in front of the door and with a titanic heave, wrenched it out of the way.  They rushed in on heavy feet and scooped her up off the cold floor into their massive arms as if she weighed no more than a doll.  She saw herself being carried through ruined halls as a mask was placed over her face and warm air began to play over her.  She looked up into the mask of her rescuer but couldn''t distinguish their features through their reflective visor.  Her vision grayed and she lost consciousness, falling into a deep dreamless sleep.

    **********

    Quetzie awoke, her consciousness dragged itself from the brink of oblivion like an avalanche, slowly at first before quickly gaining momentum.  She opened her outer opaque eyelids and then the nictitating membrane under that.  As her eyes adjusted to the relative brightness of the room, she began to make out shapes and colors.  The room seemed to be a muted grey similar in color to storm clouds on the horizon.  It made her feel calm, she gurgled softly in pain as her muscles seemed to not obey her will, instead they remained stubbornly still.  She tried again but was unsuccessful.  Giving up on it for now, she tilted her head as far as she could manage and saw she was covered in soft white sheets of some sort of fluffy material.  It was white as was the bed next to her and across from her, she surmised that she must be in some sort of medical wing.

    She laid her lightly scaled head back down on the pillow as she tried to remember how she had gotten here.  There was an explosion and then she remembered coldness.  She shivered as she thought about it again.  Then she remembered the sound of the doors being forced open and the figure that had rescued her.  She blinked her eyes and sighed, they didn''t seem to be pirates, and the fact she wasn''t handcuffed said they weren''t law enforcement either.  They must be honest travelers or merchants that happened by in the nick of time.  She thought about how close she had come to death and she shuddered again.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    She heard a faint noise outside the medical room door, she turned her head to see the door open and a huge fluffy figure step into the room.  She shrunk in fear slightly until she realised that this wasn''t the scourge that was her old captain.  This Atraxses looked somehow softer, more friendly.  Their big sad faces were hard to read at the best of times, but she thought she read concern on the face of this titan standing before her.  Holy Current they must have been at least two meters tall, most likely more.

    As they lumbered over to her in that strange knuckle walking gait, she tried to think of what to say to her potential rescuer.  She had never met someone that would run into a dying ship that close to a rogue comet to rescue a single person who was in all likelihood already dead.  The large creature reached her side and then checked the monitor beside her bed before turning to her and asking a question.

    ¡°Hmm, I am glad to see you are recovering.  You were nearly gone when I found you, another two minutes and you wouldn''t have made it.¡±  It was the voice she had heard over the intercom before she had been rescued, this must be captain Tark.

    She swallowed heavily and croaked out ¡°Thanks, for saving me¡­¡±

    She wanted to say more but wasn''t sure where to start.  She jerked as the man put a hand on her right arm and asked her in a deadly serious voice ¡°Are you a pirate?¡±

    She stared at the man, her rescuer.  She saw through the kindly veneer they were wearing to the boiling rage that simmered below, the wrong answer here could mean death.  But she feared what lying would do if they found out.  ¡°Yes¡­but¡­¡±  she tried to say before he cut her off.

    ¡°Pirates almost killed my Uncle, they tried to board his ship, this ship, and take his cargo from him.  He complied, with the stipulation that they spare him and his crew, the pirates lied to him and said they would.  If it hadn''t been for the intervention of an unlikely ally they would have been slaughtered.  I hate pirates¡­¡±  he said with a dangerous hiss as he tightened his grip on her arm ¡°Almost as much as I hate lies¡­¡±  he finished.

    She squirmed slightly as he tightened his grip to almost painful levels.  ¡°I can explain everything.  Please don''t kill me!¡±  she said desperately with the wild light of fear in her eyes.  She began to sob even as the man let her go and stepped back a pace, seemingly shocked at her reaction.

    ¡°What?  I wasn''t going to kill you.¡±  he said quietly, seemingly distressed at the thought.  ¡°Why did you think I was going to kill you?¡±  he asked her.

    She tried to tell him but wasn''t able to through the crying.  She rolled on her side facing away from him and curled into a ball, still crying but more softly now.  She felt the bed sag and then a hand on her back, she stiffened but didnt pull away.

    ¡°Please, I just want to know what happened¡­¡±  the man said softly, more gently this time.

    Quetzie started to calm a bit, her sobs subsiding slowly as the large hand patted  her upper back and shoulders consolingly.  She began to tell her story, starting with her dreams to travel the stars.  She told him how she was bullied in school and how the others said she was too worthless to ever go to space.  She had studied hard and graduated top of her class before taking a job in an engineering firm that worked on the starships.  She told Tark how she had been approached by an Atraxses asking her if she would be willing to work for him on his ship.  She told him about the cruelty, the beatings, the threats of death and violence.  She wasnt a pirate, she had been a slave, and he had freed her only to threaten her as well.  She began to sob quietly again as the man moved away and she heard his footsteps recede till the door closed behind him with a faint hiss.

    A long time later, Quetzie was awoken by a noise, she opened her eyes to see the door was open and captain Tark was walking towards her again.  She knew now that he was unlikely to hurt her, but she still instinctively cowered away from him.  He gave her a sad look before he set the tray he was carrying down on the table next to her bed.

    ¡°I think we met together on rather thin ice, I would like to apologise for my behaviour,  my name is Tark, captain of the IS Arctic Heart.  She isn''t much, but she¡¯s mine, and that''s all I ever wanted.  I made you some breakfast, I''m sure you are hungry, please, dig in.¡±  He made a slow gesture towards the food and then sat heavily in the bed next to hers.

    She gave him a slight distrustful look before sitting up and moving to the edge of the bed.  She was dressed only in her underclothes and the large man averted his eyes in an embarrassed way as she sat bare chested before him on the edge of her bed.  She smiled to herself, this idea of modesty isn''t lost on her as her species generally wore clothing to protect their reproductive organs, which were internal, from casual view.  But she had no need of a shirt as her mammary glands were internal and her nipples were protected in shallow pockets to the sides of her chest.  Her general streamlined shape was designed to glide through the water with as little resistance as possible, and the large breasts that some of the other species of the SCU exhibited were a ridiculous idea to her.  No wonder Humans and Nerivith were awful swimmers.

    She smiled softly at this slight weakness displayed towards her and she asked ¡°Should I put a shirt on?¡±

    Tark glanced at her and averted his eyes again before he said in a slightly higher voice ¡°Er, yes please, and some pants too maybe.¡±

    She looked down at her bright blue smallclothes which she had heard referred to as a bikini or panties.  They covered the bare minimum of her toned figure and allowed her to swim almost unimpeded through the water without causing an undue amount of distress to those around her.  She stood and went to the table Tark had indicated and found a set of clothing that was obviously not made for Slaaveth, but would fit her well enough.  She slipped into the wide pants and loose shirt and tucked it into the pants to keep it from billowing out too much.  As she turned around she caught Tark staring at her, he quickly flicked his gaze somewhere else and she raised an eyebrow.

    It seemed that the good captain Tark was interested in her a bit more than he was letting on, she decided to pretend she hadn''t noticed and walked back to her bed before sitting and grabbing a pronged spoon from the tray.  As she ate, she heard Tark begin to speak about himself and his own life experiences.  She found herself genuinely interested, especially as he recounted his Uncle''s tale of his encounter with a bloodthirsty pirate named Medrigil.

    She shuddered as he described the casual violence he had entreated upon the captain and his crew before she gasped in disbelief at the story of his Uncle''s rescuer.  Tark described the titanic metal monster that had called itself Skorr, their burning eyes full of madness and hate, their indestructible body, their incredible strength.

    ¡°So this creature, they found it in deep space, on board a wrecked Slaaveth ship?¡±  she asked.

    ¡°That''s what my Uncle Filch told me.  He said the debris he had been cut from looked ancient and when he had the metal dated later it was clocked as being well over fifty million years old.¡±  he said in an ominous voice leaning forwards and wiggling his huge fingers in a spooky way.

    She giggled and replied ¡°Fifty million, pfft.  What was that guy chewing, I want some!¡± she burst out laughing, the slight gurgle in her voice becoming more pronounced as she was caught in her laughing fit.

    Tark slapped his hands on his knee and said ¡°I know right, what a loon.  But the rest of the story is true, I have some pictures, you want to see?¡± he said excitedly.

    Quetzie sobered immediately and sat upright.  ¡°Yeah, show me.¡±  she said animatedly as she bounced slightly on her bed.

    Tark nodded his large head and smiled widely as he raised his wrist worn assistant and tapped on it for a few moments.  He pulled up a small image folder and leaned forwards to show her but she hopped up instead and plunked herself right next to him on his other side.  He made a surprised noise but didn''t move and she smiled again.  This guy was a big ol softie after all, probably never even had a girlfriend, not that she could brag about her relationships either.

    She said ¡°Come on, I want to see!¡±

    Tark nodded at her a little dazedly and moved his assistant closer to her.  She looked on in amazement at the crisp images of a huge titan of dark metal.  The pictures seemed to be stills from some sort of security footage and showed scenes of the huge monster killing a group of pirates.  She gasped in shock at one particularly grisly image of the titan stomping a man into goo under one of its huge taloned metal feet.

    She looked up into Tarks face and said breathlessly ¡°Wow that''s incredible, I wonder what it is?  Some sort of robot?¡±

    Tark looked at her and then blinked a few times before he answered ¡°It''s a, er, no.  It''s some sort of, cyborg¡­¡±

    She blinked her eyes up at him and smiled.  He really was a good guy, maybe she should try and catch him.  He had a ship and a crew, and she wouldn''t need to do bad things anymore.  She could be free.  But she couldn''t lie to him now, not after garnering so much trust.

    ¡°You need to destroy that ship.¡±  she said suddenly, leaning away from him to get his attention.

    ¡°I huh?  Destroy the ship?  But what about the salvage, I know it''s probably not all good but there is a lot of good scrap there.  And unless you want to claim it, it''s free to take according to congressional salvage codes.¡±  Tark said in response.

    She gurgled in frustration and moved to stand in front of him with her hands folded across her chest.  ¡°No, you don''t understand.  They were bad people, they were smuggling some bad stuff, it needs to be destroyed, all of it.  I heard they were on their way to some place called Geodrome to deliver the goods when we got hit by that comet.  The goods must never arrive, please trust me.  Does this ship have any weapons?¡±

    Tark looked at her for a few moments before he sighed.  ¡°I still don''t even know your name, and now you ask me to give up a potential haul?¡±

    She gave him a stern look and said ¡±I didn''t survive the impossible to waste your time, and my name is Quetzie by the way.¡±  she said hotly.

    ¡°Quetzie¡­¡±  she heard him whisper in his not so quiet bass.  She rolled her eyes, this guy really was interested in her.  She would give him a chance to get her attention later, but for now she needed to focus on destroying that poison on her old ship.  She didn''t remember the name of it and it was likely unimportant, but the cargo was deadly, dangerous genetic research and noxious chemical experiments were on board from what she had gathered working in the engineering area.  They should not be allowed to survive, they need to be destroyed.

    ¡°Listen Tark.¡±  she placed her hand on one of his shaggy shoulders ¡°Please trust me.  I trusted my life to you, allow me to help you in return.  There is nothing on that wreck but death.  It must be destroyed, do you have any weapons?¡±

    The large man nodded silently before he shuffled sideways a bit and stood.  He raised his assistant and spoke into it ¡°Veela, That ship is carrying hazardous materials and could be contaminated.  We need to destroy it.¡±

    A small voice came through the speaker, the high musical quality marked the speaker out immediately as a Swanith.  Veela said ¡°What?  Destroy it, but it is just loaded with illegal modifications, we could turn those into the station for a big fat paycheck.¡±

    Tark looked at her again before he responded ¡°Yes I''m serious, I got it on first hand knowledge that it''s better off lost to the void.  Charge the canon and blast its fuel cells.  That should do it.¡±  he grimaced at the mention of such wanton destruction.  The Atraxses were generally a rather gentle race, abhorring violence in all its forms and practicing patience and tolerance.  Except for that son of a sluurge that had tricked her into slavery.

    Tark pulled up an external feed of the wrecked ship on his assistant, Quetzie watched in fascination as a bright purple beam stabbed into the mess and a second later the wreck flashed into molten slag as the reactor fuel cells detonated like a bomb.  The wreck was consumed in the fires and its remains scattered to the void.  It began to recede from view and Quetzie realised they were moving away from the scene now, probably back to whatever they had been doing before they had picked up her distress beacon.

    Tark stood beside her, a full forty centimeters taller than her, she reached up and grabbed a handful of the shaggy fur under his chin and pulled his head down.  He began to protest before she planted a kiss on his leathery cheek.  Letting go of his beard, she smiled at him again and said ¡°Thank you Tark.  I hope I never see anything to do with those scum again.  In the meantime I want to go for a swim.  Do you have any pools of large tubs on this ship?¡±

    Tark just stared at her, open mouthed, so she grabbed one of his hands and tugged him after her saying ¡°C''mon captain.  I want to go swimming.  Do you ever go swimming?  I could teach you, you know.¡±  she giggled as he made a few stuttering sounds while they walked down the hall together.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Paragon of Battle

    Paragon of Battle

    A huge ship floated in the void like some great predator from the depths of the ocean, its dark gothic looking hull painted a deep blue that was nearly as black as the space surrounding it.  The lines of small weapons adorned its sides and its great armoured plates reflected the harsh light of the system¡¯s blue giant star.  Twin great spires struck outwards and forwards like the barrels of a titanic gun, the architecture that adorned them just as dark and ornate.

    In the far distance a conflict raged, small explosions and the bright beams of light that stabbed out spoke to the ferocity of the conflict.  Debris and outgassing wrecks were strewn about as each side of the battle tried furiously to slaughter the other.  It was a dirty slugfest and neither side looked to be gaining the upper hand.  The large ship sat back, far from the fighting.  It did nothing aggressive, made no moves towards the battle that raged nearly one hundred kilometers distant from its safe vantage point.

    Inside the ship was another matter entirely.  On the bridge of the ship a furious dance of minor officers and enlisted rushed in a flurry of activity that looked like chaos.  This chaos was cleverly orchestrated; however, each individual member of the titanic ship¡¯s crew had their own individual goals and mission, the culmination of all these disparate parts coming together to form a whole that was much greater than the sum of its parts.  At the head of the bridge a single figure stood and watched the battle unfold through dispassionate eyes, their calm calculating demeanour a constant source of strength for the beleaguered crew.

    Suddenly the figure¡¯s horned head turned, the battle had changed.  Several new bursts of flickering light announced the arrival of reinforcements to the enemy, including a huge behemoth of a ship.  The new ship was dark and brooding, covered in sharp angles and bristling with guns, it swatted several frigates from the space around it as a child might swat a fly.  The figure on the bridge of the dark ship saw this new threat and nodded their head to a subordinate.  Suddenly the enemy behemoth was surrounded by a dark red indicator on the main viewscreen.

    The deadly hum of the ship''s extraordinary power plants built like some great storm approaching on the horizon.  The hum and tang of ozone filled the air as the wail of the capacitors charging rose to a fever pitch.  With ears ringing and eyes watering, the many technicians and engineers scrambled too and fro to prepare the mighty Paragon beamer for discharge.  A single mistake could spell death to them all and so there could be no mistakes.  Everything was checked and triple checked as the great gigawatt power stations of the ship fed the hungry capacitors more and more energy.  Soon the capacitors were satiated, the incredible power contained within mind numbing to imagine.

    The enemy ship was a hundred kilometers away.  Safe as it could be from the large predator that observed it hungrily, or so it must have thought.  As the hum of the generators ceased all fell silent aboard the large ship, the many crew understanding the significance of the moment.  Many could be seen to pull dark goggles over their eyes as many more simply put their heads down on desks with arms and eyes covered.  The figure atop the command platform smiled, their perfectly straight teeth flashed in the light of a nearby console as they uttered a single word.

    Stolen story; please report.

    ¡°Initiate.¡±

    A simple phrase, but that was all that was needed.  All at once the gigawatt capacitors fired in unison, the energy releasing with a powerful sound that was so all encompassing it was more akin to a solid wall of force that reverberated through the ship.  The twin long spires at the front of the ship suddenly glowed brightly, the discharge of energy funneled through a complex series of mirrors, focusers and concentrators till twin beams of brilliance stabbed forth.  The beams traveled the space between the two ships so fast as to be instantaneous, the eye searing brilliance of the beams causing immediate and permanent damage any dumb enough to have looked at them directly.

    A hundred kilometers away the beams impacted the giant enemy ship.  Its dark armour plates were vaporized in an instant.  Tons of molten slag, bits of machinery and the charred bodies of her crew spewed out into the unforgiving black of space.  The beams didn''t stop there however, they burned through the entirety of the great battleship in seconds and then one impacted one of the remaining enemy heavy cruiser¡¯s amidships.  This touched off its munitions stockpile and the resulting explosion tore many smaller supporting craft around it to splinters and razor shards from the glancing hit.

    The confusion amongst the enemy lines was immediate and ultimately the thing that would bring about their downfall.  The enemy flagship had been drawn out of hiding, the promise of an easy battle having gotten the better of its impetuous captain.  As the twin glaring lasers ceased all  that could be seen through the molten slag was ruin.  The once great battleship had been reduced to so many hunks of ruptured metal and debris.  The main bulk of the tattered hulk now spiraled lazily out of control, the bright white plumes of outgassing bulkheads were in stark contrast to the deep dark of the void.

    The battle continued for another few minutes as word of the devastation must surely have spread through the enemy lines.  But the imposing dark ship and her silent captain hung back.  They had revealed their presence and in doing so had shown their hand.  There was to be no glorious charge into the throngs of enemy ships, there would be no need.

    And indeed as the shock spread through the opposing forces ships stopped fighting.  First one by one and then in a flood surrender codes were transmitted from the once hostile vessels.  All at once the battle was over, the enemy was rounded up and their escape pods reclaimed.  Twenty thousand prisoners were captured along with a dozen capital class ships, all at the cost of a few of their own.  Only the slowly tumbling forms of burnt out wrecks showed that hostilities had ever taken place.  And in a few weeks the salvage rigs would have cleaned up even that leaving no trace that anything had ever even occurred.

    The figure aboard the long dark ship smiled, their long pink sinuous tail lashing in their pleasure at the desired outcome of the conflict.  They had decisively won the battle, and it had only taken but a single shot.  Once more the monstrosity of a ship they commanded showed its value in both tactical and literal engagements.  Three hundred more hulls of similar design had been laid down and were in various states of construction, when they were complete this war would come to an end.  One way or another, the fighting would cease and the galaxy would be returned to peace.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Heavy Infantry

    Heavy Infantry

    Explosions rocked the small bunker causing sergeant Kaiden of the Union army to shift slightly.  It wasn''t that he was afraid, it was kind of hard to be afraid while wearing the equivalent of an infantry fighting vehicle¡¯s worth of heavy powered armour.  He was nervous.

    He always got nervous before an operation, especially since the last failed raid on the rebel supply lines a few days ago.  They hadn''t lost anyone thank Luck, but his whole squad had been embarrassed by their failure.

    Kaiden was wearing a set of Mark III demolisher powered armour.  The heavy plates full of protective systems and augmenting synthetic muscle fibers that gave him the ability to move with such weight.  The armour itself weighed more than eight hundred kilograms unloaded with ordinance, far too much for him to have possibly moved without the assistance of the synthmuscle fibers that made up the suits underlayer.

    Kaiden turned to his second in command corporal Ixie.  The tall nerivith woman was wearing her species equivalent of heavy assault armour, a set of Mark III Plackart armour.  It was similar in design to his own, with thick armour plates over a synthmuscle undersuit.  But that¡¯s where the similarities ended.  Where his suit was simplistic in design hers was sculpted and smooth, where his was rugged her armour had flair.

    A distinct difference in their two people¡¯s fundamental cultures.  Whereas humanity had always excelled at war through the application of pure brute force, her own people had always seen war as more of a dance.  Those that got good at the dance became death incarnate while the less experienced fell like wheat to the scythe.

    He smiled inside his helmet at the thought of her dancing.  The nerivith were a female dominant society making their taller and longer horned females very direct with their emotions.  With their tendency to dance for potential partners, a nerivith dance meant more than a simple gesture.

    Putting thoughts of his best friend out of mind he turned towards the station watch commander, a small slaaveth man named Grulren by his name tapes.  The slaaveth were an interesting species, partially aquatic, they possessed both gills and lungs though their lungs remained underdeveloped till they reached sexual maturity in their late teen years.

    The short scaled man motioned for Kaiden to come closer and then slapped a webbed hand down on his small holotable.

    ¡°We need to push the bastards back over the western trenches.¡±  he said a bit vehemently.

    Kaiden pointed at the western trenches on the small tactical map.  They were marked as orange, indicating that they were under direct threat but the conflict had not yet been resolved to either faction¡¯s benefit.

    ¡°The rebels have infiltrated that entire region in force, but they were unable to sneak heavy weapons or armour over no man¡¯s land.  There is no way they could have carried any kind of heavy ordinance through that quagmire.¡±  He said confidently.  He would have been surprised if they had even tried.

    Grulren nodded his frilled head, his pupilless black eyes fixing on the bright blue glow of Kaiden¡¯s helmet eye slits.  ¡°Then I am depending on your squad to clear them out.  If we lose the west then the Deep cursed rebels will have a direct run on our artillery park.  Those Monsoon SPAs have almost no ground defense after yesterday¡¯s shelling.  And I don''t think I have to tell you what happens to us all if we lose artillery support.¡±  the man said menacingly.

    He didn''t.  This entire war had devolved into a stalemate only punctuated by desperate rushing attacks and the constant fall of heavy munitions.  The near constant artillery duel had been ongoing for more than eight months.  Kaiden was tired and a little apprehensive, he had a hard time imagining what the regulars were going through.

    As a member of the Union¡¯s more elite forces, Kaiden and his platoon were ground pounders.  A more highly trained section of the Union¡¯s armed forces that used powered armour exclusively.  Generally to great effect.

    It had been a tough few months however as the unrelenting stalemate had stretched both logistics and manpower to their limits.  He thought about the war itself, it had been almost six years since the Hegemony of Independent Systems rebellion had started with the unprovoked attack on Sector Eta.  Millions of Sapient Congressional Union troops and their families dead in a few hours in what had become known as the worst surprise attack in the Union''s long history.  Worse than the terroristic attacks of the Dust Worlds rebellion by an order of magnitude.

    He nodded after what must have seemed to the station commander to be a short pause.  ¡°Understood commander.  I will take my squad there directly along the abandoned trenches to save time.  They should be clear of hostiles by now.¡±

    Grulren just waved him away and turned to his aide.  His attention now focused on some other crisis.

    Kaiden walked over to Ixie and said ¡°Assemble the squad, we are moving out in one minute.¡±

    She gave him an affirmative noise and turned away.  Her tall and slightly leaner form having to duck to make it under the bunker¡¯s low doorframe.

    He followed her and looked around.  The bunker was situated in a wide section of the trenchworks, the ground covered in wooden ties and metal plates so that heavy vehicles could traverse them without getting stuck in the mud.

    It was lucky that the location they were in didn''t seem to be very wet, the skies rarely choked with clouds.  That didn''t mean it was a desert though, the mornings were often wet and damp with fog that obscured vision and eroded the earthen walls of the simpler front trenches.

    He sighed.  The war had taken him from his home on Dreyvan II across the Union and then back again.  This new invasion of his homeworld was the second desperate attack by a foe that knew they couldn''t win and so were trying to burn it all down.

    Dreyvan II was a major military armament supplier to the Union¡¯s military and the Hegemony knew that.  Thus, the siege had begun as a heavy kinetic bombardment.  Once it was clear that they had failed to destroy the planet from orbit the enemy had landed millions of troops on the planet.  This invasion swept over part of the world, taking an entire hemisphere before it was slowed and then finally stopped.  By the time the Union had sent a task force large enough to deal with the problem it was too late.  The enemy had dug themselves in like a cancer, setting up anti-ship defenses and a million miles of heavily defended trenches.  They made it clear that they were here to stay.

    What was worse in his mind was that not all of the towns they had taken had resisted, there was a not insignificant amount of Hegemony support on Dreyvan II that had facilitated the invasion''s overall success.

    Kaiden¡¯s blood boiled at the thought of those traitors calling themselves Drevanians.  They weren''t fit to live on the planet, they had betrayed their own for what?  A misguided notion of control?

    He shook his head and stalked to his squad.  His heavy footfalls thudded along the metal plates underfoot.  After a moment he got close enough to pick up on the ultra-shortwave transmission Ixie was broadcasting.

    ¡°And then we will move along to the hot zone.  Once there we will engage and destroy the enemy with extreme prejudice, any questions?¡±  she said, her slightly husky tenor voice filled with calm.

    Hearing him, or perhaps feeling the weight of his footsteps approaching, Ixie turned and motioned to him.  ¡°Here he is now.  Sergeant, any additional words you would like to add before we move out?¡±  she asked him.

    He shook his head and said ¡°No.  I trust everyone has their weapons charged and ready?  Cooper I¡¯m looking at you.¡±  he said to one of his squad.

    A male voice spoke over the comms ¡°Oh come on, it was one time¡­¡±

    Before Kaiden could say anything more a female voice spoke up.  The figure it came from was large, even in comparison to Kaiden¡¯s power armoured form.  It was Draff, the yeown woman big even for her species.  Her slightly hunched and werewolf-esk form intimidating in her Mark I Tactical Assault Armour.  The bestial faced helmet designed to strike fear in the hearts of her enemies and the deep red glow of her suit¡¯s eyes making it look as if it was coated in blood.  Well, red blood at least.

    She spoke, her voice deep and rough. ¡°Cooper didn''t forget, I made sure of that.¡±  She chuckled as Copper grumbled something under his breath.

    Kaiden shook his head, it was a well known secret that the two were lovers, though how the man was able to hold his own against the huge, muscled alien was a hotly debated subject.

    Again he was forced to clear his mind and get himself back on track.  A lack of decent sleep and few good meals had been making him feel as though he was being pulled apart slowly.  But he was a ground pounder, one of the toughest motherfuckers the Union had the misfortune of training.  He wouldn''t let a little thing like deep emotional trauma and near crippling fatigue keep him from completing his mission.

    Kaiden stood as tall as he could and commanded ¡°Okay, enough fooling around.  Form up and move out.  Ixie, take point two.  We will follow the plan.¡±

    She nodded her horned head, the purple glow of her helmet¡¯s eyes giving nothing away.

    Immediately after he finished talking half of his squad moved to stand behind him while the other fell in line behind Ixie.  Kaiden started off towards the contested area, moving at a steady fifteen kilometers per hour on the wide roadway of the supply and command trenches they made good time.  Soon they had to slow however as the trenches started to narrow and the ground became first wooden boards and then hard packed earth.

    Soldiers in dark blue fatigues moved out of their way as they rushed by, the men and women looking just as tired and worn as he felt inside.  This war was taking a heavy toll on both the defenders and the defended civilians further to the rear.

    He swore silently as he thought of the selfish actions that had led to this point.  Screw the rebels for starting this war, and screw the Union bureaucrats for not seeing this coming.  The entire rebellion could have been avoided if the policy makers of the central government had just paid more attention to the frontier worlds needs.

    He had to jump suddenly as he rounded a corner and several soldiers were blocking the path with a large wheelbarrow of loose soil.  He cleared the cart easily and landed on the ground with a solid thump that left two small craters in the hard soil.  He sent a small obstruction warning to the troops behind him with the flick of his eyes and a muttered word.  The internal helmet display of his armour giving him fine control over its systems without much effort.

    He spared a glance to make sure none of the other¡¯s had been slowed and was happy to see that they had all in fact gotten his warning.  Either jumping over the obstruction like he had or dodging around it using the fast twitch synthmuscles of their armour.

    He continued on, taking a myriad of turns in the twisting labyrinth of the trench networks.  Almost as if a switch had been thrown, he took another turn and the atmosphere changed instantly.  These trenches were unlit and unoccupied, their earthen walls crumbling and the swill of neglect pooling in their acrid bases.

    Insulated as he was in his armour the noxious toxins and chemicals had no effect on him, though he did his best to avoid the worst of the slime holes.  The residue was terribly difficult to clean from the exterior plates of his armour and could sometimes start to eat into its surface if left unchecked for too long.

    A short distance traveled along these derelict channels and the unmistakable sounds of combat reached his suits'' active sensors.  He held up a hand in the reduce speed command and slowed.  While he was protected in his heavy armour, only a fool would barge directly into unknown turmoil without at least trying to scope out the situation.

    He motioned for Ixie to move up alongside him.  They were operating on direct connection comms, where they had to be in physical contact with each other to speak.  It worked by sending a small electrical signal through the gauntlet which was picked up and translated by the other¡¯s suit.  It was their in-combat version of whispering while maintaining radio silence.

    Until they actively engaged the enemy there was no need to unnecessarily alert the rebels to their presence.  The element of surprise was not easily bought and quickly lost.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Ixie asked, her hand on his shoulder.

    He placed one of his gauntlets on hers and replied ¡°It sounds rough, we need to move in but I don''t want to do it blindly.  Can you have Cooper send a peeper?¡±

    She nodded before walking towards Cooper.  Cooper was their recon trooper.  His Mark I Blackout armour was the newest design in reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.

    While its armour was not nearly as heavy as his or the others, it was more than adequate for the kinds of small arms fights they most commonly participated in.  It''s not like they were wearing superheavy battle plate and could go toe to toe with armoured vehicles.

    Kaiden frowned, he had always wanted to try piloting one of those behemoth suits.  The latest versions weighed well in excess of a tonne and a half and could shatter buildings with their hands.

    His train of thought was cut short by the sound of a small object whizzing by him.  It was Cooper¡¯s peeper, the small surveillance drone designed for stealth.  It had noise canceling toroidal blades and electromagnetic reflectent skin to hide from radar and thermal.

    Cooper piloted the small device via a virtual joystick and his eyes.  Accessing the feed via a direct laser link, Kaiden saw a small feed pop up in the corner of his vision.  It showed the abandoned trenches zipping by at high speed.  The drone was piloted through a combination of passive communication and intermittent active pings that allowed the man to pilot it remotely without drawing much attention.

    After another moment the drone popped up into the open air and uncovered the full scale of the attack.  Dozens of entrenched defenders on the Union side were being rushed down by what had to be several hundred rebel troops.  The old saying of three to one defense came to mind.  It looked as if the defenders were outnumbered almost five to one here, they would surely begin to fail in the next few minutes without intervention.  For while many tens of attackers lay dead or dying in the toxic mud, the defenders were beginning to fall a few at a time.

    Switching to ultra-shortwave comms Kaiden said ¡°Okay, we are moving in, no obvious heavy weapons from the rebels but that doesn''t mean they aren''t hiding them specifically in case of armoured assault.  So I want you all to be careful and pay attention.  Cooper, put your peeper on standby or passive overwatch.  We move out in ten seconds.¡±

    He took a deep breath, the blood rushing in his veins as the adrenaline started to course through them.  It was humanity''s unique curse, the effects of the natural combat stimulant both helping and hindering his performance in battle.  On one hand it heightened his senses and made him stronger and faster.  On the other hand it narrowed his emotional and rational fields of view, making violence appear as the only option when quick thinking and wit might have been better served.  That''s why he was so grateful for Ixie, the nerivith being wired completely opposite of humans.

    Where he ran hot headed in battle, prone to force and instinctive action, she was cool headed and more likely to spot minor exploitable gaps in her enemies defenses.  The nerivith¡¯s natural inclination for battle making them peerless warriors and point to point tacticians.  A human might have a better grasp of the war or battle as a whole, but a nerivith would almost always outwit a battle enraged human in personal combat.

    He felt a hand on his shoulder, a direct message from her that only he could hear as she said ¡°Remember what I have been teaching you.  Be still and think of my voice.¡±

    His eyes opened as the ten seconds ran out, without a word he threw his arm forwards in the universal signal to advance and charged towards the enemy.

    There was no wind in his hair and no mud in his eyes as he charged, his suit isolating him strangely from the more visceral feel of combat.  It was a strange way to wage war, contained in a prison of numbness.  His body registered his movements, but he didn¡¯t feel anything.  Not the hard cracked dirt under his heavy armoured boots, not the chill noxious wind in the air, nor the sounds of battle up ahead.  His suit registered them all however and did its best to mirror the information to him.  But it was obviously artificial.

    He hadn''t always fought this way, once upon a time he had been a raw faced recruit.  A mere private in a vast military that didn''t care about his existence.  There had been no war then, no galactic scale conflict.  The most intrusive actions in his daily routine was PT and the constant psych evaluations.  He had fought pirates and brigands, protecting the commerce that kept the vast Union alive.  Several times he had even had to fight against flesh tearers, the monstrous cannibals that preyed on unprotected shipping lanes.

    This was different, there was no downtime, no breaks.  Just days, weeks, months of grinding unremitting warfare.  Blatant in its cruelty and savage in its nature.  He had grown to hate himself for enjoying it, but part of him knew this was what he had been born to do.  He was a killer, always had been.

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    These thoughts crossed his mind as he burst through a weakened section of trench right behind a pair of rebel soldiers.  He pulled up his M2-Mk12.  The heavy machine gun far too bulky for a soldier to wield, unless they were wearing powered armour.

    The rebel soldier on the left, a tall nerivith female in light armour, has just enough time to notice him before he squeezed the trigger of his huge gun.

    The bright staccato flashed lit the carnage like pictures from an old fashioned holoplay.  The two rebels were ripped apart by the force of the massive bullets as they tore through their fragile bodies.  He stopped firing as it was clearly apparent the two wouldn''t be getting back up.  He walked over the corpses, bones cracking beneath his heavy tread as he scanned the trench for more targets.

    A small cutout of the trench in front of him lit up as something fired on him.  He didn''t even feel the impacts of the bullets against his heavy armour.  Instead he simply returned fire, aiming slightly to the side of the trench trusting that his weapon would cut through the intervening earth.

    His efforts were rewarded with a gurgling scream and the twitching ruptured body of a rebel falling out from behind their destroyed cover.

    He shook his head and paused for a status check.  Sending out an active ping he received a full nine green pings across the board.  He smiled, that meant that his squad was still in good condition after first contact.  Leaving the status board in the corner of his display, he moved along the trench, making sure to keep a watchful eye for potential movements.

    He looked up sharply as a spray of purple lines seared across the darkened sky.  The lines so bright they left slight after images that persisted for several seconds even as he looked away.  That would likely have been Ixie firing off her Tri-Beamer Combiner, the heavy near ultraviolet laser weapon more than capable of punching through light armour at close ranges.

    He continued walking for another few steps before something sailed through the air and landed at his feet.  He had just enough time to realize it was a fragmentation grenade before it exploded with a tremendous bang.  Withering hails of shrapnel slashed against the thick titansteel duramite layered armour he wore.  With a muted grunt he was knocked back a step, his armour straining to keep him upright.

    His suit won, leaving him standing and almost entirely unscathed, much to the surprise and dismay of the five rebel troops that rushed around the corner.

    With a cry of ¡°Kill the bastard!¡±  They charged him.

    He only had time to fire a short burst that smashed the leftmost rebel from her feet before they were upon him.  He heard the impacts of weapons and some point blank fire.  He needed to clear some space before one of them swung a shiversteel blade or voltaic bayonet into the gaps of his armour.  Even the aggregated hyperdiamond-buckyweave of his undersuit would not protect him from such close range attack, so he chose the best option he could think of.  He simply swung the heavy barrel of his gun in an arc, knocking three of the rebels to the ground and sending the fourth into the side wall with bone shattering force.  Three of them scrambled back to their feet, one didn''t.

    Kaiden quickly slung his gun back to his side, the heavy plasteel chains holding it in place snugly.  He reached down and drew his close range weapon, a heavy thermomace.  The flanged armour piercing head quickly began to glow orange as he thumbed the activation switch and he lashed out at one of the rebels with it, smashing their arm.  The rebel he had struck spun away with a scream as their smoldering arm hung limply from their shoulder, the wound instantly cauterized.

    Turning to the other two he noticed they had drawn close range weapons of their own.  The tall human on the right wearing medium combat armour had drawn a heavy voltaic powersword, electrical arcs dancing along its length and ionizing the surrounding air giving the weapon an ominous purple glow.  The other, a large yeown female in heavy armour, had drawn a chaintoothed axe of enormous proportions from her back.  It looked more suited to cutting down entire forests than combat, but she held it in her muscular arms like it was a toy.

    Kaiden took a step back, analyzing the situation in moments.  He smiled slightly as the familiar rush of adrenaline began to course through his blood, he was about to rush them when another sound drew his attention and caused him to freeze.

    From behind him he heard the unmistakable angry hum of a shiversteel weapon being activated.  Turning his head slightly and allowing his peripheral cameras to pick up his rear he cursed.  The man he had wounded had popped an adrenaline spike and drawn a vibrosaber, the weapon vibrating at such a high frequency it seemed to turn incorporeal.  The sword looking like a ghostly mirage in the man¡¯s remaining hand.

    This had just gotten more dangerous, the two in front alone he could have dispatched easily, but surrounded and with almost no room to maneuver?  He would be hard pressed to win this fight unscathed.  But he was a Union soldier, Kaiden squared his shoulders at the thought and raised his now white hot thermomace into a defensive position.  He wouldn''t go down without a fight.

    Each weapon of choice had its own strengths and weaknesses.  His thermomace would cause pain and minor burns from even a near miss, its surface temperature nearly four thousand degrees celsius.  Direct strikes on armour plates would damage them, but his weapon¡¯s effect was vastly decreased against armoured targets.  The yeown¡¯s chaintooth axe would be devastating to him however, it was equipped with TBAM cutting teeth, the material almost infinitely harder than his powered armour''s tungsten alloy.  If struck, he could expect the brutal weapon to take chunks out of his protective plates, maybe even dig deep enough to damage the synthmuscle fiber bundles beneath.  The resultant loss of mobility to his heavy suit would leave him incredibly vulnerable, so he needed to avoid the weapon at all costs.

    The voltaic powersword and vibrosaber were dangerous to unarmoured targets, but less effective against his thick carapace.  With this in mind he struck out quickly, swinging his long handled mace in a terrible overhand swing directly at the yeown¡¯s great furred head.

    To his dismay she seemed to have expected his attack and leapt back out of harm''s way.  His mace smashed into the side wall of the tunnel and stuck, smoke billowing from the quickly atomised mud.

    He jerked in surprise as the tall man slashed his exposed side with his powersword, the electrified blade carving a small furrow in his side plate and discharging a tremendous amount of current into the powered armour as well.  His systems were temporarily dazzled by the sudden burst of raw electricity and he lashed out in a bland panic.  His mace made slight contact with something and he heard a muffled scream of pain.

    He put his back to the wall and shook his head, mace up in a guard position.  His vision cleared, the static of the attack disappearing as his suit compensated for the charge.  He took stock of the situation and noticed the vibrosaber slashing towards his throat almost too late.

    He brought up his forearm in a desperate block and the weapon skated off his rounded vambrace taking several flakes of his armour with it.  The man had tucked his useless arm into his flackjacket and tied it off.  A veteran it seemed.

    There was a momentary lull as the three attackers sized him up.  The tall man held his side, smoke curling from his exposed trench coat made Kaiden smile.  It seemed the man had not gotten away from his attack scot-free either.

    Kaiden grinned under his helmet and activated his external speakers.  ¡°You should give up now, lay down your arms and surrender.  I respect your strength and will abide by the code of war allowing no harm to befall surrendered combatants.¡±  he said, not expecting them to comply.

    The tall man looked at his buddy and they grinned.  The one armed man brandished his saber and replied ¡°Never to you, you thrice beaten son of a Union dog.  I would rather eat my own arm than surrender to the likes of you, a coward and a traitor to the people.¡±  The yeown woman growled deep and loud at the remark, nodding her pointed eared head and giving Kaiden a savage predatory grin as the man finished speaking.

    She added ¡°Yes, and you are the one who should be surrendering.  We have scored blood on both sides, your honor is met.  If you surrender now you may just live to see the morrow.  Or don''t, it makes little difference to me.  Though I do tire of killing the Unions whipped kids, give me a foe worthy of my time.¡±  she finished with another growl.

    Kaiden shook his head sadly, he would have to kill them all then it seemed.  He looked at them and spoke, his mace held up like a templar¡¯s sacred sword before him.  ¡°So you have chosen death.  I can''t say I am disappointed.  Let''s get this over with then.¡±  he said casually.

    The trench was narrow and the night was dark, the lights of starburst flairs being the main source of guttering light that lit the scene in front of him.

    Kaiden took a step forwards, his thermomace glowing bright enough to light the trench like dusk, in response the three hegemony soldiers shifted as well, matching him step for step as he once more took a position in the center of the earthen works.

    This time however the tall man was behind him, the one armed man and the yeown female in front.  She revved her chaintoothed axe menacingly and raised it high, a challenge to the world and a threat for him.  He just raised his own weapon in response.

    For a few seconds they remained that way, each one waiting for the other to move first.  Then like lightning the one armed man lashed out in a straight lunge towards his exposed gut.  Kaiden dodged to the side, the vibrosaber missing his middle by centimeters.  In response he swung a powerful downward attack that clipped the man¡¯s sword and sent him spiraling away into the side of the trench.

    The attack stunned the man but was the opening move for the other two.  The tall man slashed at Kaiden¡¯s back while the yeown made an upwards cut towards his groin with the intent to split him in half.  He had to dodge backwards and to the side, the chainaxe¡¯s teeth biting into his upper thigh instead.  The cut was shallow but wide, stripping the outer layer of his cuisses off and exposing the layered duramite beneath.

    He grunted as the heavy contact bruised his leg inside the armour and stumbled slightly.  This lapse in defense was enough for the tall man to stab him in the side, the voltaic powersword burning through the underlayer of his armour and digging into his side.

    Kaiden slapped the embedded sword away with a gasp of pain.  The electrified weapon causing his muscles to freeze in agony for a moment before the weapon was withdrawn.

    He fell to one knee and swung his mace in an undisciplined and frantic arc at knee level.  He was only partially successful as the weapon tore the tall man¡¯s left leg¡¯s armour off, burning him in the process.

    The man cursed loudly and hopped back, his knee smoking and the exposed flesh underneath an angry red in color.

    Sucking in a deep breath Kaiden climbed back to his feet.  He quickly instructed his armour to inject him with local anesthetic near the site of injury and gave a sigh as the intense pain faded away like snow on a summer''s day.

    Shaking his head to clear it he noticed that the one armed man had recovered.  His sword had been shattered though and he was holding a telescoping blade now.  The weapon was much less dangerous than his original vibrosaber, but could still be deadly if used correctly.  It would be folly to underestimate the man simply because his weapon was less dangerous.

    Pride would be his downfall more so than anything else he realized.  He had to stop fighting defensively or they would cut him apart.  Piece by piece.

    Letting loose a base roar, he lunged at the one armed man who¡¯s eyes widened in sudden surprise.  Not even raising his weapon Kaiden shoulder charged the man with the entire force of his heavy armour, like a pain train of rage he smashed the man into the wall of the trench.

    The shattering of bone was so loud it made Kaiden flinch, but he didn''t hesitate.  Turning his bloodied form towards the tall man he gave another shout and charged in a similar manner, but instead of following through he executed a combat roll at the last minute.

    Dodging to the left he narrowly avoided taking the huge chainaxe in the back while also putting himself in the perfect position to strike the tall man¡¯s unprotected side.

    He lashed out in an overhand swing that connected his white hot flanged mace with the unarmoured part of the tall man¡¯s side.  A sickening crunch issued from the impact as half of the man¡¯s rib cage was smashed in, rupturing the man¡¯s heart instantly.  The man dropped without a noise, his lungs crushed and his smoldering ruin thrashing in abject agony.

    Kaiden continued through the motion and spun to his feet in time to parry an overhead blow from the yeown woman, her powerful muscles bulging under her fur as she tested her prodigious predator strength against that of his powered armour.  The whirling teeth of her chainaxe inched slowly towards the haft of his own weapon and he tensed.

    He grunted in effort as he threw her back, the fur on her arms smoking as it curled from the heat of his mace.

    She kneeled for a second before looking up at him and growling.  ¡°You killed my packmates.  For this I will tear you limb from limb metal man.  I will dig you from that armour as a vreeinth digs a snidge from its ear.¡±  the large woman snarled, her reflective green predator''s eyes flashing in the light of his weapon.

    Kaiden simply raised his free hand and gave her the universal gesture for ¡®Come get some.¡¯

    She steamed in rage and charged him, Ixie¡¯s words echoed through his mind, ¡®Be calm.  Don¡¯t let the anger take over.¡¯

    Taking a breath and holding it he dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the huge alien¡¯s charge.  Her wildly whirring chainaxe bit deep into the ground.  Sparks flew as the teeth chewed through wood, dirt and stone with equal ease.

    Yanking the screaming weapon free she turned to face him, a line of drool falling from her snarling lips.

    He let out the breath and crouched, he needed to be careful, the TBAM teeth of her chaintoothed axe would easily shred through the handle of his weapon.  He couldn''t block her again, only get out of her way.

    He dodged her again, this time receiving a series of scratches on his pauldron for his trouble.  He needed to unbalance her, get her to make a mistake.

    A thought entered his head and he grimaced.  It was a grisly idea but would no doubt be effective.

    He took a few steps back towards the corpse of the tall man all while keeping an eye on the enraged yeown.  She followed his every moment with her bright eyes, the nature of an ambush predator keeping her attuned to him in a way he could not match.

    He took a final step back and felt something shift next to him, it was the cooling corpse of the tall man, his face frozen in a look of torment.  He turned to the woman and asked in a casual manner ¡°Oh, what''s this, I seem to have stepped in some dogshit.  Better wipe it off my boots.¡±  and he made a motion of wiping his armoured boot on the dead man¡¯s pants.

    He heard her snarl and then she said ¡°Oh thats it, I¡¯m going to tear you to pieces slowly, you wont die fast.  That I promise you, you¡­¡±  She shrieked as she couldn''t finish her comment.  Instead she lowered her head and charged him on all fours.

    Kaiden only had time to realize that she had discarded her weapon before the large alien slammed into him with enough force to send the mace flying from his hand and knock him down onto his back.

    He hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of him and his vision a little grey.  It took him a second to realize that the yeown was sitting on his armoured chest, straddling him and pinning his arms to his sides with her legs.

    He tried to move but found he didn''t have the leverage to break free.  He squirmed but to no avail, the damage done to his armour was weakening him to the point he couldn''t throw the big yeown off.

    She smiled widely, her face splitting in a predatory smile.  Rows of sharp tearing teeth on display as she rested her hands on his shoulders.  She leaned down close to his face and whispered loud enough for him to hear ¡°Oh, I¡¯m going to enjoy carving you out of this suit piece by piece.¡±

    Kaiden swore loudly and the woman just laughed evilly.  ¡°This is what you get little man.¡±  she said as she produced a diamonomolecular knife from her thigh.

    She prised the small knife into the small gap between his helmet and gorget, using some force to break the seal.

    He gasped in pain as she twisted the helmet violently and wrenched it off his head.  Blinking several times as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he felt hot breath on his face.  The woman took a deep sniff and chuckled.

    I can smell the fear radiating off of you, pathetic.  You are just like the rest of them, cowards, packbreakers.  Not worthy of a warrior¡¯s death.  He flinched away from her hand as she extended her claws.  She put a finger behind one of his ears and then with a quick motion took a notch out of it.

    Kaiden jerked and swore.  ¡°Shit, okay, you got me you fuzzer.  Just kill me and be done with it.  This toying is sadistic.¡±

    She shook her head and ran a hand through his hair almost tenderly.  ¡°No, this is nothing.  You will beg me for death much harder than that before I''m done with you.¡±  he jerked and struggled more, but again found that he was helplessly pinned.

    Just before she had torn his helmet off he had tried to send a distress pulse, but without his helmet¡¯s heads up display he had no idea if he had been successful or not.  He sighed internally as he tried to ignore the blood running from his ear.  It either had and he would be saved, or it hadn''t in which case he was looking at a very unfortunate evening.

    The woman dragged her blade down his chest, scouring a thin line down the tungsten alloy plates.  As she reached his belly she stopped and started to dig the knife under the heavy chest plate before she froze.  She whipped around and started to stand when a brilliant purple light stabbed completely through her head.

    The now very dead yeown dropped like a discarded puppet and slumped across his chest.  He struggled to extricate himself from the body as he heard heavy footsteps approaching.  He had a feeling it was friendly, but it never hurt to be careful.  Rolling to the side he scooped up his M2 and pointed the barrel down the trench towards the direction of the beam.

    All he could see was a near blinding light.  He lifted a hand to cover his eyes and shouted ¡°Who goes there?  Identify yourself or I¡¯ll open fire.¡±

    The light turned off as he said it and a tall power armoured figure walked up to him carrying an impressive looking weapon.

    Ixie¡¯s voice issued through the suit''s external speakers and she asked ¡°What is this Kaiden, I leave you on your own for five minutes and you almost get yourself tortured to death?  What would command say if they saw the great Sergeant Kaiden now, destitute and defiled by a Hegemony whore?¡±  she asked him with a chuckle.

    He frowned and said ¡°That¡¯s not funny.  I got four of them, the last one caught me by surprise.¡±

    Ixie extended a hand towards him and he took it gratefully, groaning in pain as he rose to his feet.  He shifted uncomfortably and announced ¡°I have multiple stab wounds and at least two fractured ribs, one might be broken entirely.¡±  he finished.

    He couldn''t tell what she was thinking as her face was covered behind the helmet she was wearing, but he got the impression she was grinning at him.  ¡°She just gestured to the dead yeown and giggled ¡°Now you know what Cooper feels like I¡¯ll bet.¡±

    Kaiden shook his head and protested ¡°No, that¡¯s not funny.  Take that back!¡±

    She shook her helmeted head and told him ¡°It¡¯s going to cost you.  Now what could you offer me that might keep my mouth shut?¡±

    He threw his hands up and hefted his gun.  ¡°I have know idea what psycho¡¯s like you enjoy.  You keep your secrets.  I''m tired and hurting.  How are we doing?¡±  he asked her in a more serious manner.

    She waved for him to accompany her, before he did he walked over and recovered his hemet.  Placing it over his head it reconnected to his suit and immediately a seal warning popped up on his HUD.  He turned it off, he was no longer safe from chemical or radiological attack, but that was of little concern to him at the moment.  Instead he listened to her as she rattled off kill statistics and injuries.

    He asked her ¡°So Mal¡¯conet was injured too.  Shot in the chest by an RPL5.6, he should be okay.  Though that thermal damage is going to fuck up his scales.  Ok, it looks like we''re pretty much done here.  Aside from a few minor injuries we are all fit for travel.¡±

    Ixie walked a few more steps before pausing.  ¡°What did that reverse ecdysiast say to you?¡±

    He chuckled at her chosen description of the rebel soldier and shook his head.  ¡°Oh the usual, she was going to chop me up, make it a slow and painful death.  Nothing too disturbing.¡±  He paused and then turned to face her.  Lowering his tone he said ¡°Um, thanks for saving me Ixie.  I would have been a peeled frubble if you hadn¡¯t shown up when you did.  I do owe you a special thanks.  But we¡¯ll talk about it later.  For now let¡¯s just get this wrapped up and head back to base for some rest.¡±

    Ixie walked over and slapped his shoulder saying ¡°Anytime Kaiden.  Anytime.  Now, I believe we have a few more rebels to flush out.  Maybe they will be sporting and put up a little bit of a fight this time eh?¡±  she said as she nudged him.  He nodded and smiled.

    ¡®If only they put up less of a fight.¡¯ He thought to himself.  As she walked away he said ¡°Okay, I have a few ideas that might be to your liking.¡±

    He saw her helmet turn slightly as she asked ¡°Oh, and what might those be?¡±

    He just smiled as he thought of the many things he knew she liked.  The benefit of working so closely together for years.  He caught up to her and hefted his gun, alert for danger as he began to speak covertly over a private channel, her laugh warming his cold and aching heart.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Behemoth

    Behemoth

    Outside his small prison a storm raged, a storm of steel and fire, hatred and rage.  Overlord Gremble sat in his small command center deep in the body of his Behemoth class super heavy combat walker.  He checked his consoles and smiled grimly as he saw they were still making steady progress on the rebel lines.  Those Hegemony dogs wouldn''t even know what hit them when Mary Ann¡¯s weapons came into range of them.  A tremendous clang suddenly rang Gremble¡¯s whole body like a bell.  He cursed loudly and opened internal communications to Mary Ann¡¯s Pilot ¡°Huans, what the hell just hit us?¡±

    Hauns took a moment to respond as he grunted in effort.  He answered ¡°Sorry Captain, we got locked by some sort of infrared beam, and then we got rocked by a missile barrage.  We don''t have any active protection kits left on our port side.¡±  he finished with a verbal shrug.

    ''"So what are you telling me, the point defenses aren''t working?"  Gremble asked the man.

    Hauns replied quickly "I''m not sure, they seem to be having difficulty locking incoming projectiles.  I can maneuver us around that ridge at two o''clock.  That should shield us from the line of sight of their spotters at least."  The pilot responded.

    Gremble nodded to himself as he pulled the forward image up on his scopes.  Yes, it would make decent cover, they could use it as a hull down position as well, give the main gun some action.  "That''s sound tactical advice Huans, get us in cover ASAP."  He commanded the man before the link cut.

    He pulled up the diagnostics on Mary Ann.  He smiled as he saw that there had been nothing but cosmetic damage from the strike, she was a tough old girl after all.  She had carried her crew of fourteen through many engagements, while this had been the hottest one so far, he was supremely confident that they would make it through.

    He pulled up the tactical charts to check up on his backup.  He had gone into this engagement with three full platoons of Quinten Main Battle tanks and two platoons of Warhammer Class Heavy Beam Carriers.  The Quinten''s had 140mm main guns that could deliver an explosive or armour piercing projectile at incredible velocities.  The Nerivith manufactured Warhammer HBCs were equipped with heavy beam cannons that fired a beam of near ultraviolet light, they were adept at piercing thick armour but vulnerable to side attacks.

    He had set the Quinten''s to cover the right flank as they moved forwards in a slight pinwheel formation.  The Quinten MBTs had encountered heavy resistance, losing one of their number, and so he had called for an artillery strike on the enemy''s position.  The rebels had responded in kind and knocked out two of his eight Warhammer HBCs.  The burning wrecks lit the scrubland in a hellish glow as the HBCs capacitor banks overheated and exploded in gouts of blue sparks.

    He scowled, whoever he was fighting against was a capable commander indeed.  He felt the subtle vibrations of Mary Ann''s legs as the massive command walker stomped into position behind the ridge.  He opened the channel to his Commander first class Francis.

    The woman answered immediately as he connected to her and he said "Tell Marco and Jalliinn to ready the 225, we are likely to have targets over the ridge that need exterminating."

    She replied smartly "I''m sure Marco won''t have an issue with that, Overlord.  Is that all?"  She asked.

    He said "For now yes, we need to regain the upper hand.  Time for the big guns."  He said smiling as he looked at the tactical readout on his many displays.

    **********

    Marco bared his teeth in a savage grin as Francis gave him his orders.  He was to eliminate the enemy with extreme prejudice when they crested the hill.  Jalliinn stood beside him, the Gre''vahn barely fitting in the cramped compartment with his large stature and quadrupedal build.  He operated the main gun''s autoloader and selected ammo types for Marco.  He was also Marco''s best friend as they had known each other since basic training.

    "Alright, looks like we finally get to blow something up."  Marco said as he fist pumped the air in the cramped turret.

    Jalliinn snorted and turned his wide features to him before he asked "And what is it you find so fascinating about explosions again?"  The normally jovial tone of the man''s voice now a bit muted.

    ¡°I don''t know, they are kinda just, well you like explosions too right?¡±  He asked his friend.

    Jalliinn just shook his head and said ¡°I don''t understand you Humans, I don''t think I ever will.¡±

    Marco grinned as he peered through his gunsight and said ¡°You and everyone else.  But I think Keeps is starting to understand me.¡±  he said with a chuckle.  He couldn''t see anything out of his scope, they seemed to be behind some sort of embankment.  They must be hunkering down for some reason, maybe it had something to do with that nasty rap they had taken earlier.

    Jalliinn asked him ¡°You are still trying to get her attention are you?  You aren''t even the same species, your biologies are entirely incompatible.¡±  He lectured.

    ¡°Au contraire, our physical biologies are quite compatible, believe me I did my research.¡±  he added.

    ¡°Oh so that''s what you call that disgusting behavior.  Just keep your research to yourself, I don''t want to walk in on that again¡­¡±  Jalliinn said with disgust.

    Marco smirked to himself.  It was a stressful job, and he had needed a release.  ¡°Hey, at least I had the decency to apologise, you just walked in without saying anything¡­¡±

    ¡°Leave it¡­¡±  his friend said with a wave of an arm.  Jalliinn was a Gre¡¯vahn, and while they had the body shape of a mythical centaur, they had the prim attitude of aristocrats.  He shook his head as the large man turned around to check the autoloading system.

    The Mary Ann¡¯s main cannon was a whopping 225 millimeters in diameter and fired incredibly heavy shells.  Far too heavy for any except maybe a body building Yeown to heft.  They did have a Yeown in the crew, Nathan was his name.  He was actually the second gunner, in charge of the port beam cannons while Keeps was Nerivith and in charge of the starboard Beam cannons.

    He had yet to meet the Yeown man, but from what he knew of his race the males were the smaller and weaker gender.  He wondered what that translated to, he had seen a female Yeown before, and she had been muscled like a professional bodybuilder.  Not really his cup of tea, he was more interested in Keeps, the Nerivith were from a slightly lower gravity world than Humans and it showed in their tall graceful forms.  Add on the fact that she had fiery rose colored skin, horns like a succubus and a sinuous tail and it checked all of his boxes for mysterious and exotic.  It certainly helped that the Nerivith were a lot tougher than they looked, more than capable of drinking till the sun came up and getting into some brawls.

    He smiled at the memory.  He shook his head to clear it as they were in an active hot zone, not the place to get lost in day dreams.

    His comms buzzed as he received orders from Francis.  Checking them he smiled and said ¡°Looks like we¡¯re up.  Get ready with the ammo selector, we might need it.¡±

    He turned back to his targeting array and scanned the scope, nothing ahead of them yet, but he could see that they were now climbing the large hill they had taken refuge behind.  Another few seconds and the turret would be able to fire over the top and potentially into the enemy.

    ¡°Cmon, give me something to blow up¡­¡±  he muttered to himself as the scope started to clear the ridge.

    He swore as a gleaming projectile wizzed over the top of the turret mere centimeters from hitting his scope.  That would have sucked.  He turned in the direction the shot had come from and saw a pair of Sharptooth MAVs on a ridge about a kilometer away.  He measured the range while shouting ¡°Load semi armour piercing!¡±

    ¡°Semi armour piercing aye!¡±  Jalliinn shouted back, in a moment the massive shell was rammed into the insulated breach and he targeted the leftmost vehicle.

    The vehicle started to pull back into cover but wasn''t quick enough as he depressed the firing trigger and the gun erupted in fire and smoke.  The shell crossed the thousand meter gap in an eyeblink and struck the Sharptooth with enough violence to rock it up onto its rear wheels.  It only stayed like that for the barest instant before the semi armour piercing shell¡¯s explosive core detonated, tearing the armoured vehicle apart in a spray of razor sharp fragments of semi molten metal.

    The other Sharptooth slewed to the side as a large chunk of its companion destroyed its rearmost wheels.  It started to turn its large main gun in his direction but he fired off another shell before it could get a bead on them.  He smiled savagely as he watched the vehicle get torn to shreds by the massive battle cannon.

    Checking his scope for additional targets he saw an unarmoured troop transport fleeing the scene and said ¡°Load high explosive!¡±

    ¡°Loading high explosive.¡±  Jalliinn intoned.

    The turret creaked slightly as he made a small adjustment to the inclination of the main gun and fired.  The high explosive shell traveled slower than the armour piercing shells and it took almost a full second for it to reach its target.

    ¡°Damn, missed.¡±  he grumbled as the shell struck the ground a full three meters to the left of the transport.  He shrugged as he watched the blastwave crumple the side of the transport like it was paper, the heavy vehicle sent flipping end over end before its power cells ruptured and it exploded in a brilliant white flash of chemical fires.

    He scanned the horizon and turned to look at Jalliinn as he said ¡°All clear, nice job, not even a millisecond of lag on your selections.¡±  his friend nodded severely and remained silent.

    Not all races in the Sapient Congressional Union were good fighters.  Many simply lacked the stomach or resolve to do what was necessary.  But he admired Jalliinn, the Gre¡¯vahn were a rather peaceful race, but when Jalliinn had learned of the Hegemony¡¯s unprovoked attack on Gorlich station he had decided to fight.  He had put aside his fears and doubts and taken up arms in the defense of the Union.  That was something brave, not like himself.  He had only joined because his veteran father had told him too.  Until the rebellion had started his heart had not been in it.  Then he had seen the footage of thousands of innocent civilians being sucked into the freezing cold void of space as a cowardly Hegemony vessel rammed the megastation.  The looks frozen on the faces of children as their eyes burst and their blood boiled, the images would haunt him forever.

    He realised he was breathing heavily and felt a large furred hand on his shoulder.  He turned to see Jalliinn giving him a concerned look.

    ¡°Are you alright Marco, you seem to be having trouble breathing¡­¡±  his friend asked him.

    Marco placed one of his hands on the larger man''s own and patted it as he calmed down.  ¡°I''m, I''m fine.  I was just thinking, well.  Nevermind, we need to make sure we are alone out here right.¡±  he said, evading the issue.  Jalliinn took the hint and released him.

    He opened comms to Francis and said ¡°Commander, scopes are clear.  That looked like the last of them for the moment.¡±

    He waited a second as she replied ¡°Good shooting Marco, keep sharp though, Luck only knows how many more of those rebels are out there.¡±  He nodded to himself as the link ended.  It seemed they were not as alone as they would like to be, and there was still the matter of the rocket launcher that had to be around somewhere.

    He leaned back into his gunner''s seat as he inspected the surroundings, all thoughts of levity and lightheartedness gone from his mind.

    **********

    Huans sat in his pilot crucible silently, he managed the Mary Ann with a precision and grace that was at odds with its 350-ton bulk.  She was like an extension of his own body at this point, so deep was his concentration.

    He watched in satisfaction as the enemy vehicles were obliterated by her main gun, their flaming wrecks broadcasting their demise by belching thick plumes of oily black smoke.  They had reached the crest of the hill and now had two options, to continue into the intervening valley where they would be at a disadvantage in the low ground, or they could continue sideways along the ridge where they would be sitting ducks for any HBCs or destroyers that peeked them.

    The choice was taken out of his hands as he was given orders to descend into the valley, shrugging mentally he began the slow descent.  The Mary Ann was a big ol girl, fully twenty-five meters in length and over eleven meters tall, she was a big target.  Being a big target she needed an adequate amount of protection, she was layered with sheets of heavy armour composites sandwiched between layers of hardened steel.  Her most vulnerable areas were further strengthened with thick titansteel plates that would protect against anything but the heaviest caliber of fire.

    His crucible itself was a titansteel ball, gyroscopically stabilized to minimize distractions during combat maneuvers.  The inner walls of the ball were entirely covered in monitors connected to outside cameras and sensors so as to give him an entirely unimpeded view of the outside.  It was as if he was able to see through the walker to the outside.  There were a couple of fuzzy spots as coverage had been lost due to repeated missile impacts, but the armour itself was hardly scratched.

    He carefully navigated the Mary Ann down the steep hillside, the small scraggly bushes and misshapen trees being crushed under her wide clawed feet.  It was dry and hot outside, but inside was cool.  He stepped over a large ravine that would have swallowed a MBT whole and continued along the bottom of the valley towards the location set by overlord Gremble.

    He watched the dust from the decent drift lazily through the air for a few moments.  This whole engagement had been a bit chaotic, he was looking forwards to the end of this deployment.  There was a huge difference between guarding a trade route against marauders and fighting an organized insurrection.  Especially one of this scale, last he had heard almost a quarter of the SCU was now embroiled in this crazy war.

    Huans was a military man, he lived and breathed his work as a pilot.  He loved every second of the day he was controlling the gigantic steel monsters of the Union, but he hated to see such death.  Billions had perished already across the width of the Union''s northern side, and billions more would likely die in the upcoming years.  He didn''t even know why they were fighting, just that the others wanted him dead so he made them dead first.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    His gaze wandered to the top of a nearby hill where a plume of dust was rising.  He wasn''t worried though, the IFF tag showed it was just one of the Warhammer HBC platoons.  The large tracked vehicles crested the ridge and started to make their way down, there were only three of the vehicles, the other having been destroyed.

    The Warhammer HBCs were interesting vehicles, their main heavy beam cannons looking less like instruments of death and more like telescopic science equipment.  They were more than capable of projecting an intense beam of near ultraviolet light that could destroy heavy armour at ranges of almost two thousand meters.  Their beams were more effective at close ranges but nevertheless deadly in their own right.  The tanks themselves looked wholly alien in design with split tracks and a flexible middle joint that allowed them to make sharp turns.

    He watched as the lead tank popped its commander hatch and a horned Nerivith poked her head out.  As the females were the stronger of their species, they were the more likely to join active duty conflict, although the males were no less fierce.  Thousands of years of unrelenting castle age conflict had hardened the Nerivith to the point that they no longer felt fear or worry in combat, they were unaffected by stress and would stoically hold their position till they died.

    The Nerivith waved to the Mary Ann and he smiled, he would have waved back if he thought she would have seen it.  The moral boost Mary Ann gave to the other units was immense.  To see such a powerful symbol of the Union''s military might destroy their enemies must have been a sight to behold.  Too bad he was no longer affected by the sight in the same way.

    He opened comms to the Engineering deck and was greeted by the gruff voice of the Engineer.  "Huansss, we got a bit of a bonk there a while ago.  What did you pilot usss into thiss time, not another building I hope."  The Engineer hissed with mirth over the link.

    Huans smirked and replied "Not at all.  We were just walking through a little explosive rain.  Nothing to be alarmed about Kruups.  Though you might want to do a diagnostic on the middle portside leg, I''m getting some feedback lag on it which is making her pull to the left."  He mentioned to the Vinarfelien Engineer.

    Kruups responded "Ssure thing.  Wouldn''t want you to have an excusse for the next time you walk us through ssomeonesss back yard."

    Huans groaned and said a quick thanks before cutting the link.  That man could be so annoying at times.  He was unusually sunny of disposition for a Vinarfel, the large centipede-like aliens were usually quite dour.  But he liked the dark cramped spaces of the engine room, probably reminded him of home as Vinarfel were burrowers and liked to live underground.

    He was about to ask for instructions from Gremble when he was shocked by a tremendous explosion to their left.  He looked over in time to see a pair of Quinten MBTs roll to a fiery stop at the bottom of the hill.  He watched as another tank was rocked by an explosion, but this time the tank''s armour held.

    He saw the thin contrails that led into the sky and growled "Missiles."

    **********

    Commander second class Hooligan jerked in his command chair at the rear of the Mary Ann as multiple friendlies disappeared.  He opened a link to Gremble and asked "Sir we are being hit with indirect fire.  There must be a spotter somewhere."

    He heard Gremble reply to another crewmember before switching his attention to him and saying "Missiles, likely from a Sideswipe SPA, we need to take out the spotter.  I''m counting on you to deal with it, Hooligan."  And then the link was cut.

    Hooligan gurgled in minor frustration.  What he wouldn''t give to be relaxing in his pool back on the base.  All this dry air was making his scales itch, and getting shot at by invisible missile carriers was not helping.

    He did a quick scan and cursed as it came back empty.  He swore as another missile barrage struck the valley floor, one of the HBCs losing a track to a near miss.  He scanned again, this time while adjusting the frequency to eliminate the chances of missing something.

    Success, he smiled widely, revealing his shark like teeth and said to himself "I got you now you little sluurge."  He had detected a tiny signal return from directly above them.  A tiny unmanned drone was lasering them from above and he directed the twin linked 30-millimeter anti air gun to deal with it.

    A second later the tiny drone was falling in pieces as the high explosive rounds tore it from the sky.  He opened a channel to Gremble and reported "Spotter is down, but they still have range on us, I recommend we take evasive action."

    Gremble didn''t reply but a moment later he felt Mary Ann shudder as she started to move.  Looking through his optics he saw that the other tanks in their convoy had started to move as well, spacing out so as to avoid being hit by the same fire.

    He heard a series of beeps as another volley of rockets was detected a split second before they impacted the ground in a series of detonations where they had been not five seconds before.  The blast waves from the missiles rocked the Behemoth slightly and he smiled grimly as he registered the miss.  He connected the radar to the point defenses and tried to get them to sync up, but there appeared to be some sort of damage to the radar system.  He swore silently and switched to the backups, no wonder the point defenses had not been firing, they had been blinded.

    The secondaries came online and the point defense turrets began to scan the skies for threats.  He leaned back into his seat briefly and let out a gurgling sigh.  He scratched his head fin with his webbed hand and nodded.  They should be safe from additional missile strikes now.

    **********

    Nathan was angry.  Why were these Hegemony fucks trying to destroy the Union.  What had the Union ever done to them?

    He understood the need for freedom, he was a Yeown himself, his bestial features screwed up into a snarl as he watched his comrades in arms destroyed by cowardly indirect fire.  He was ashamed that his people, his people''s homeworld of Bright Moon had gone into revolt.  Just because he was a Yeown didn''t mean he was a traitor, despite what some people seemed to think.

    He had seen enough Human and Vinarfelien soldiers in the rebel ranks to know it was bigger than that.  But it didn''t change the fact that the first world to rebel had been the Yeown colony of Mountain Veil.  People blamed the Yeown for starting the war but it wasn''t so simple.  The second world to join the rebels had been a Human world after all, why weren''t they as suspicious as he?  Because they were the founders of the Union?  That was a bunch of yentin shit.

    They began to move shortly after and he gripped the trigger of his twin linked beam cannon array tightly in his large furred hands.  His claws unsheathed slightly as his anger boiled up but he pushed it back down.  Now wasn''t the time to get riled up, he needed to stay calm.

    Several explosions went off in the air above them as the top mounted vulcan rotary guns spewed a stream of lead at the incoming missiles.  He smiled, looked like the point defenses were back up.  Now if they could just find where that fucking SPA was they could stop the missiles at the source.

    His forward sensors were still fully operational giving him an unimpeded view out of the front of the Behemoth.  His beam cannons were charged and ready to go, with a maximum range of twelve hundred meters, anything that tried to come over the top of the hills next to them would be well within his range.

    He kept his guard up as the remaining MBTs and HBCs rolled towards their objective with them.  They were trying to reach a small mining settlement about ten kilometers from their current position.  Orbital reconnaissance had suggested that there was a significant rebel presence in the region and they were using the town as a refueling and resupply point.

    The rolling hills of the arid landscape provided ample cover even for the massive bulk of Mary Ann.  The same could be said for their enemies.  With neither side having achieved air superiority, they had no idea what lay beyond the next ridge, there could have been an entire battalion and they wouldn''t have known.  Being blind as they were, he was extra on edge, his green eyes tracking every swaying bush and puff of dust on the horizons as he expected an attack to show up at any time.  It was his scrutiny of the ridgelines that alerted him to the attack just before it swept over the hilltop to their left.

    Nathan spotted an irregularity that sat ill with his eye.  Trusting his honed instincts, he zoomed in on the spot and his eyes widened as he made out the tube of a rocket launcher.  The Daggertooth launcher started to swing in their direction so he reacted, aiming his twin linked beam cannons at the camouflaged soldier holding it he fired without warning.

    One moment there was a malevolent figure on the hill, about to do harm to one of his fellow Union soldiers, and the next a pair of blinding purple beams seared through the air and the man was vaporized.  Another man whom Narhan has not seen went rolling away from the blast, his ghillie suit alight and writhing in agony as his flesh burned from his bones.

    All at once the ambush was sprung, but the element of total surprise had been lost.  The other vehicles of the convoy were already turning their weapons to the hilltops when the rebel forces started to stream over them.

    **********

    "Whoa what the hell¡­. CONTACT!!  Load high explosive!"  Marco yelled as a twin beam of purple light stabbed out from the front of Mary Ann and vaporized a pair of unfortunate rebels.  Not as unfortunate as the next group that were utterly destroyed as Marco sent them a 225 millimeter care package.

    As the pieces went spiraling away he noted that his scope, which had shown the all clear just seconds before, was now swarming with contacts.  The Mary Ann was the lynch pin of their defense and was receiving targeting data from not just her own scopes and sensors, but those of the convoy as a whole.  Enemies that were not in his direct line of sight were still marked as red chevrons by allied units as they sent their telemetry data his way.

    He registered a tracked vehicle cresting the ridge to his left, swinging the massive battle cannon to bear on it he depressed the trigger and felt the whole vehicle rock under its tremendous recoil.  The tracked vehicle, an M3A2 Edward IFV, crested the hill and fired a trio of shots with its autocannon before Marco''s shot impacted its frontal armour at an angle.  The high explosive shell detonated on contact caving in the front of the IFV and flipping it over onto its back.

    As a trio of wounded soldiers crawled from the wreckage they were cut down by the copilot Jeebs as he worked his 12.7 millimeter heavy machine gun over the ruins.  The soldiers were torn to pieces and Jeebs directed his stream of armour piercing tracers to another patch of light infantry.

    Marco called back to Jalliinn "They have light armour support, but might bring in heavier guns, load the semi armour piercing."

    Jalliinn responded quickly "Semi armour piercing aye."

    Marco smiled.  No nonsense was just the way Jalliinn liked to do things in combat and it suited him just fine.  When they made it through this he and his friend would go back to their usual joking selves, but now in the midst of combat.  They were laser focused.

    As soon as the round was loaded he spotted another troop carrier coming over the hill, he squinted as he noticed it was a Vinarfel design.  Shrugging internally, he fired anyways and was rewarded with the HAPT-D67 heavy personnel carrier rocking onto its side, only one set of wheels on the ground.

    As it slammed back down he frowned, why hasn''t it exploded.  "Luck damn it Jalliinn!  I said semi armour piercing, that was armour piercing!"  He shouted to the Gre''vahn loader as he realized what had happened.

    Jalliinn replied "It must have been loaded into the ammo rack incorrectly, it was indeed drawn from the semi AP section."

    Marco grunted loudly in frustration and said "Well load me up another and tell me if it''s correct this time."  He turned his attention back to the transport which had opened its back ramp and was just starting to disgorge its troop complement.

    "Semi armour piercing loaded, correctly!"  The other man yelled and Marco fired on the same target immediately.  Only one of the rebels had time to dive out of the way before the heavy troop carrier detonated like an overripe fruit.

    "Hell yeah, that''s more like it!"  Marco shouted.  Keep us on semi for now."  He said to Jalliinn.

    As another round thumped into the hungry maw of the gun breach, he scanned for another target worth his shot.  He saw a multitude of light utility vehicles crest the ridge to his right.  Both Yeown manufactured Sharpclaw LUVs and Human designed Valor M3 LUVs joined the mad dash towards their lines.  They were only two hundred meters away and closing fast.

    "Load high explosive next."  He said as he fired on the lead truck.  The semi armour piercing shell punched through the Valor''s engine block and buried itself a meter in the dirt under it before exploding.  The blast lifted the three and a half ton truck off the ground and sent it cartwheeling end over end before it smashed into a nearby Sharpclaw.  Both vehicles then careened out of control before the Valor''s power cells detonated in a blinding flash of light.

    The sensors of his gunsight automatically darkened the blast and he fired the high explosive shell as it loaded.  The high explosive detonated on the ground in between two of the approaching light vehicles smashing both to splinters and splashing their occupants across fifteen meters of dry soil.

    That was three down, but there were still seven of the LUVs approaching, he was only going to get one more shot before they were on top of him.  He aimed for two more trucks that hadn''t gotten the memo to spread out and put a HE shell right between them.  The forward truck was sent end over end, its rear drivetrain shredded.  The other one suffered an immediate detonation of its capacitor banks as red hot fragments were sent slashing through its forward section, the bright flare of a chemical fire visible for a split second before it wrecked into the crater his shot had left at high speed.

    He sucked in a breath as the other five vehicles screamed towards them, and let it out in surprise as they were all destroyed by intense beams of purple light.  He looked to the side and saw all five of the remaining HBCs turning away looking for new targets.  He grinned widely, they weren''t alone in this fight, they still had their allies.

    As he looked across the battlefield he saw the rebels were falling back in disarray.  Their last ditch charge had been broken utterly and the remaining soldiers were either cut down as they fled or captured as they surrendered.

    He turned to look at Jalliinn and smiled at the large furry alien.  Jalliinn shuffled on his four clawed feet and crossed his arms saying "It still wasn''t my fault the rounds were not loaded in the proper location."  He heard him grumble.

    Marco laughed, he laughed hard, finally he wiped his eyes and said "No, it wasn''t.  But if you''re willing, we can track down the son of a bitch who messed it up together and invite the poor bastard out for a drink.  I think I need a drink anyways."  He finished as he sobered.

    Jalliinn nodded and said "Sure, why not.  This is a Human custom I am familiar with."

    Marco just nodded and turned his attention back to the scopes.  The enemy had fled, but the wrecks littering the valley floor could still be hiding hostiles.  Until the area was cleared he would remain alert.

    ***********

    Gremble sighed as he leaned back into his chair.  The firefight had been over for almost two hours now and they had been forced to hold their ground as one of Mary Ann''s legs had taken a direct hit from an enemy armour piercing shell and needed to be repaired.

    Command had dispatched backup in the form of two Crocodile AFV engineering tanks and a platoon of Longbow Class laser anti armour wheeled tank destroyers.  The Longbow LAAs would help to cover their losses of HBCs.  Though not as powerful as the Warhammer HBCs, the Longbows were much more maneuverable and could cover ground faster than their heavier counterparts.

    He watched the plume of dust approach slowly over the top of the ridge they had crossed two hours before.  Using the magnification on his scope, he could just make out the four LAAs and the two chunky Crocodile AFVs as they approached.  A minute later and his comms went off as he was hailed.

    "Overlord Gremble this is commander Thomas of the seventeenth engineering corps, I heard you got yourself in a bit of a bind and I''m here to dig you out."  A sturdy voice said to him.

    "Thank you kindly, Commander Thomas.  Always can count on the corps to dig us out of a hole.  We are immobilized and in need of emergency repairs.  Our orders are to then move to the mining site to secure it."  He said.  Gremble heard the man give an acknowledging grunt and asked "That should not be too difficult right commander?"

    The man was silent for a minute before he spoke.  "Our orders were to assist with repairs, not to pursue the enemy."  He said reluctantly.

    Gremble shook his head, that wouldn''t do.  "And what if I told you those orders were bullshit commander?"

    He could hear the man grin through the link as he answered "Then I would be forced to agree with you sir."

    Gremble smiled in response and said "Then welcome aboard Thomas.  This is Mary Ann, she''s a very special lady and should be treated with care and dignity.  We need to be able to move out in a minimum of two hours."  He finished.

    Thomas responded immediately "From what your diagnostics say it will probably only take us about one.  Sir."  He added.

    Gremble nodded to himself, they were stuck, but it was only a minor setback.  They would push those rebel scum out by nightfall.  "Tell your crew that we are grateful for their help.  And good luck."  He added.

    The link severed and he looked once more at the carnage of the battlefield.  He was proud of his crew, damn proud.  Today they had been ambushed and surrounded, but rather than tremble and fear, they had girded themselves with fury and destroyed the enemy.  The burning wrecks of Hegemony vehicles attested to that.

    He decided that he would invite them all to have a drink when they got off duty.  It was only fair, plus he really wanted a drink as well.  He smiled once more and looked off into the middle distance towards their target location.

    "Soon."  He said aloud.  "Very soon."

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Forest of Monsters

    Forest of Monsters

    Heidi ran, the thick jungle leaves whipped her face as she floundered through them with wild abandon, it was behind her. Heidi couldn''t see it but she could hear it, a low shuffling, the snap of a branch, the thud of footsteps. Tears blinded her vision as she cried in terror.

    She had been on a routine survey mission with her best friend after their exploratory ship had warped into this uncharted system. To the surprise and elation of the crew, they had discovered that the fifth planet was habitable. The system was unnamed as was the world, but it was a verdant green jewel, covered in endless jungles and vast rivers. This planet was perfect, millions would eventually call this world home, but for now, Heidi called it hell.

    She cried out as a thorn cut her cheek but didn''t dare to slow, her labored breathing almost drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in her ears, she took great heaving breaths but knew she couldn''t run much longer. Staggering to a halt, she leaned against a large smooth barked tree that was draped in yellow vines.

    As she struggled to catch her breath she heard a noise that caused her blood to freeze to ice in her veins. A chilling scream echoed from somewhere behind her, not a scream of a panicking creature, but a scream of blood maddened hunger.

    Heidi groaned in fear as she resumed her headlong flight into the emerald unknown. She and her crewmate had set down on the planet to do some preliminary sample gathering and routine tests before the main survey party set down. Normally she relished these moments, where she and her best friend were the only two people on the entire planet, they could pretend they were the only two people in the universe.

    Her breath was ragged as her tortured lungs screamed for relief, but fear fueled her limbs and she ran. She ran like her ancestors had run from the terrifying primordial predators of ancient earth. She ran like her life depended on it, because it did. Once more a blood hungry scream rang out through the dense jungle, as she lost her concentration for a moment she stumbled and almost fell. She caught herself using the vines hanging from the nearby trees, their surfaces rough and leathery to the touch. She remembered when it had gone wrong.

    She had been walking around the perimeter of the ship when she had stumbled into a steep sided ravine, she was only a few dozen meters from the ship and so had called out loudly for her friend''s help. Unfortunately for her, her shouting had attracted something else, something hungry.

    Heidi pushed her way through a particularly dense patch of undergrowth, the damp leaves soaking her to her skin but doing little to alleviate the sheen of sweat that coated her from her excursions. As she clawed her way through she heard another scream, this one was closer, how was it closer, she was running as hard as she had in her whole life. What was this thing, what would it do to her if it caught her? With images of horrific rending teeth and shredding claws playing across her mind she once more ran through the undergrowth, she didn''t know which direction and couldn''t even see the suns due to the thick rooftop canopy.

    Her wrist mounted assistant was busted, it had likely broken during her tumble down the ravine''s steep embankment. She had tried desperately to claw her way back up the steep earthen wall, but the soggy soil had crumbled between her fingers and she had given up. That''s when she had tried calling for help, leading to her current situation of being chased by some invisible nameless predator in some luck forsaken jungle in the middle of uncharted space.

    Her booted feet slammed into the moist ground with a squelch as the soil became swampier, she growled in breathless anger as she felt herself slowing, looking desperately for a dryer route she spotted a fallen tree to her left. Squelching over to it she scrambled up its smooth barked side and straddled it for a moment, trying to catch her breath in the thick cloying air of the jungle. Her body felt as though it were on fire as all of her muscles screamed in agony.

    Groaning in effort, she managed to get to her feet through sheer force of will alone, and slowly at first, made her way across the fallen tree. She noted with a small part of her brain that the tree was truly enormous, in life it must have stretched almost forty meters into the deep blue sky. She glanced up wistfully, what she wouldn''t give to see the sky again, she had been trapped in a ship for months, and now that she had finally gotten planetside, the sky was not visible.

    She reached the end of the titanic log and slid down onto firmer ground. With any luck her actions had thrown the predator off her trail. She stood for a moment listening in silence, her hair stood on end and a prickling sensation ran down her spine as she felt the eyes of something observing her from the impenetrable jungle. She tensed and then bolted in a new direction as she swore she heard heavy breathing.

    She jerked in fear as once more the hungry scream wormed its way through the foliage to her. It sounded farther away now and she prayed that it had lost her trail as she made an attempt to go the way she had come. But without her assistant to guide her, and no way to see the sky, she couldn''t be sure she was even going in the right direction.

    Stumbling blindly through another thicket she screamed hoarsely as she lost her footing and tumbled to the ground, she let out a woof of air as she hit and laid there for a few seconds, dazed. Scrambling to her feet she looked around her, looking for something, anything she could use to defend herself. Leaning down she grabbed a large stick off the damp jungle floor, but it crumbled to pieces in her hands, too rotten to be of use. She tried to tear a vine from one of the surrounding trees, but found that it was as strong as braided rope. She began to walk backwards slowly, sure she would see the shining eyes of the predator any second. But there was nothing, perhaps it was just waiting for her to tire, or let down her guard.

    Heidi scanned the forest wildly, looking for anything that may indicate a threat, but saw only the colors and shapes of the jungle. She began to walk briskly, no longer blind with fear she searched for a weapon, vowing not to go down without a fight. She stumbled as her foot caught on a protruding root as she was busy looking for something to defend herself with. As she fell she put out her hands and winced as she fell on her wrist in a bad way, she felt the joint roll painfully and she tried to keep from crying out.

    As she rolled to her feet, she held her injured wrist in her other hand and moved it experimentally, it stung but didn''t hurt too bad. Great, she had sprained her wrist, but it could have been worse. As the thought left her mind her head whipped around as another blood curdling scream echoed through the dense undergrowth. It sounded much closer, within fifty meters for sure. She stood and began to run again, but not the headlong, senseless pace from earlier.

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    Continuing her pace, she kept vigilant of her surroundings for any sign of something dangerous with which to fight off this unseen enemy. She continued on like that for a short few minutes till to her horror she ran across another steep embankment running across her path. Looking first right, then left she decided to go left.

    She dodged and weaved through the thick clinging fronds and leaves as she tried to stay ahead of the predator hunting her, as she rounded a particularly large tree she skidded to a stop in panic, the embankment turned sharply and formed a shallow curve in front of her, she was trapped. She started to make for the way she had come but stopped dead as she saw her pursuer for the first time.

    It was large, about the size of a motorcycle. It had six long legs made for running and jumping that ended in wicked claws made for slashing and climbing. Its head was wide and blunt, a slavering mouth was opened and revealed a jagged tusk lined maw, like the horrific broken teeth of some huge comb. It''s dark greenish gray fur blended into the shadowed undergrowth almost perfectly making it seem to swim in and out of sight as it stalked towards her, low to the ground as if ready to pounce.

    She backed up as it fixed its shining yellow eyes on hers and let loose another piercing scream. She tripped as she tried to back away and raised her arm in defense as it tensed to spring, but suddenly it raised its furred head and seemed to cock it as if listening intently to some faint noise. It rose to a standing position and screamed at something she couldn''t see before she heard it. The unmistakable sound of something massive crashing through the undergrowth towards them.

    The predator leapt straight up in apparent surprise and tried to flee, but was slammed into by a huge dark blurr. The new monster was heavy and large, almost impossible to make out in the dim undergrowth as it grappled with the predator. She caught an impression of a multitude of insectoid legs and multiple larger appendages before the predator screamed in rage and bit at the monster. The monster seemed unaffected as the predator''s tusked maw bounced ineffectually off its thick carapace armour.

    The monster swung the predator to the side as it grappled, slamming it into a tree, the predator screamed again and Heidi heard a bone chilling hiss of anger from the newcomer as the predator rammed into the monster with terrific force. It was all she could do just to watch this horrific clash without fainting in abject terror. The monster reared up as if to strike at the predator, its many fighting appendages spread wide, before slamming them down on the predator''s back and causing it to screech in pain. It swung a heavy clawed blow at its attacker but its claws again rebounded off thick chitinous armour.

    Heidi watched, transfixed, as the monster tackled the stunned predator and seemed to wrap around it, coiling itself like a snake. It began to constrict the predator, the predator screamed again, this time in fear and agony as its bones began to crack and its muscles tore with sickening snaps. With a final crackle of splintering bone, the monster crushed the life from the predator and uncoiled, releasing the now limp and sundered corpse to the jungle floor with a slight thump.

    Heidi watched as the monster seemed to rear up like a snake, the forward third of its nearly six-meter-long body raised up in a cobra like manner. Suddenly it turned her direction, her breath froze in her throat as she made out a pair of compound eyes, glinting in her direction.

    Suddenly the monster shot towards her, faster than anything of that size should have been able to move. She yelled in alarm as she felt it sweep her off her feet and coil itself around her in the same way it had to the now dead predator.

    But death did not follow, instead the monster spoke "Heidi, what were you thinking? Running away like that on an uncharted planet? You could have been killed, If I hadn''t been able to follow your personal beacon you may very well have been." She heard the monster say from beneath its heavy coils.

    "Sorry Yvonne, I didn''t mean to run off and almost die, it was an accident I swear." Heidi protested weakly, but in reality she was relieved beyond words for the timely arrival of her friend.

    Finally releasing her from her prison of heavy coils, Yvonne let her go and scuttled back a meter to let Heidi regain her bearings. Heidi brushed herself off in mock indignation, but was in reality just trying to gather her thoughts. She stopped and looked at her friend.

    Yvonne was a Vinarfel, an insectoid race resembling a massive centipede, but with five pairs of arms and a multitude of short, knife-like legs. She had two compound eyes and two long antennae that she generally kept folded down her back like a pair of braids. Her back was covered in heavy armour plates and her chest was armoured in much thinner and more flexible sheets of chiton. Her underbelly was rather soft and unarmoured but was held close to the ground due to her scuttling walking posture. The front third of her body was reared up in a vaguely S shape like a cobra and her mouth was a series of chitinous plates arrayed over a slit like mouth in which was situated her radula, an organ resembling a toothed tongue used for stripping meat from bone.

    Yvonne looked Heidi over and asked her concernedly "Are you fit to head back to the shuttle, I know that Human endurance has its limits, and being chased through this Motherforsaken jungle by a ravenous wild beast has got to top that list." Heidi chuckled at her comment and nodded.

    She began "Thanks, Yvonne, if you hadn''t shown up¡­" but the Vinarfel female cut her off with a three armed wave.

    "But I did show up, so let''s not speculate on the alternatives, please." Yvonne grimaced at the thought.

    Heidi smiled as the huge female swayed slightly in discomfort, her antenna twitching. Heidi reached out and patted the woman on her armoured flank saying "It''s all over now. You got to me, everything is fine."

    Yvonne nodded in sympathetic understanding and straightened, turning with surprising flexibility, she pointed to the carcass behind her. "Should we bring that thing with us? Maybe it''s edible."

    "Oh you''re impossible, you are always thinking with your stomach you greedy bug." Heidi said in exasperation.

    Yvonne shrugged and pulled a large skinning knife out of a sheath on her side "No sense letting it go to waste, plus it''s all tenderized just the way I like. When are we going to get a chance to eat fresh killed meat like this again? In two years?" Heidi sighed as she watched her friend butcher the animal with practiced ease.

    "Okay, but at least let me scan it before you start to eat it this time. We aren''t going to have a repeat of the last time you found something ''tasty''." She said with air quotes.

    Yvonne winced at the memory and said "Okay, that''s fair. But you are going to have some, right?"

    Heidi smiled and replied warmly "Of course I will, I''m not a bloody herbivore for luck''s sake." She laughed at Yvonne''s expression as she mentioned herbivores. She walked over to the large insectoid woman and gave her a ferocious hug that seemed to surprise the large alien.

    Rather than push her away, Yvonne lowered her antenna and brushed them over Heidi''s face, the two shared a moment to enjoy each other''s company before turning back to the task of butchering the dead predator.

    As the two of them hoisted chunks of meat and shared a last look at the dead creature, they began to laugh. They laughed as they walked off into the jungle, knowing that together, nothing in the universe could harm them.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Rain of Terror

    Rain of Terror

    It was Saturday, that most holy of all days.  Trevor was done with his homework and his mother had told him he could go for a hike in the woods to his favorite place all by himself today.  She usually made him take his younger brother Brent, he was really annoying, but he was still his brother.  Trevor knew that his hometown of Hollistown was not really that big of a place, but it seemed plenty big to him.  He usually liked to get away from the relative bustle of the city and out of town when he had the chance.

    Trevor was wearing his hiking boots and a sturdy pair of denim shorts as he made his way through the woods to Greytop Mountain.  It wasn''t really a mountain, but it was the largest hill overlooking the shallow valley that Hollistown sat in.  The view from the top was incredible, you could see for ages in all directions.  It''s as if the entirety of Fresholm fell away to the horizons and he was standing on the top of the world.  He loved the feeling.

    Stopping at a small brook, he took the chance to refill his water bottle from the fresh spring water runoff that ran alongside the trail.  His bottle would automatically test the water for contaminants and then filter them out, but the taste of the fresh groundwater was still a luxury that he savored.  He sat on a nearby log and sipped the cool water for a few minutes as he looked at his surroundings.

    Fresholm was one of those rare planets that''s biosphere was naturally inhabitable to the vast majority of the known races.  Humans, like himself, enjoyed wide open spaces and blue oxygenated skies.  The Yeown, he had been told, liked more enclosed places, big trees and dense forests.  The Vinarfel liked tropical jungles and high humidity.  And the grumpy Atraxses like frigid, frozen ice balls.

    Trevor looked to the small shrubs and bushes that surrounded him.  There were trees here, but they were small scraggly things.  Only a few meters in height.  His mother had told him that their homeworld, a place called Dirt or something like that, had higher gravity than Fresholm, but Trevor liked it here just fine.  ''Why would anyone want to weigh more when they didn''t have to?''  He thought to himself.

    Trevor stood as he finished sipping his water and refilled the bottle from the stream again before clipping it to his small hiking backpack.  He had made sure, well, mother had made sure that he packed a nice healthy lunch to eat once he reached Greytop peak.

    Trevor once more started up the narrow trail that wound its way up towards the highest part of the mountain.  He looked out for roots and other things that could trip him, while his eyes were down he spotted an interesting looking rock.

    Picking it up he saw that it was tan with a funny blue stripe going through the middle of it and he smiled.  His father liked to collect odd rocks and minerals and would surely appreciate this find.  Trevor stuck it in his pocket to give to his father when he returned later that evening.

    As he walked he whistled a tuneless song, the sound of the wind as it whispered through the bushes was his only company.  The native wildlife on Fresholm was mostly limited to aquatic life and small insects, most of which were completely harmless to him.  Though he was always on the lookout for pinchflies.  They looked like a small five segmented insect with large pinchers instead of a mouth.  While they were not venomous like bees from Dirt, they did deliver painful pinches to anything that strayed into their territory.

    Trevor remembered the first time he and Brent had found some of the nasty critters when they were on vacation at the coast a few years ago.  They had stumbled upon a small buried hive of them as they were walking along the beach and the bugs, angry at the disturbance, had swarmed them and covered them in painful pinches.  Brent and him had run crying back to their parents who had calmed them down and explained their biology to them.  Trevor had been interested immediately, but Brent had not cared.

    Brent was fourteen, only two years younger than him, but he was a pain.  Always complaining about boredom and talking about hologames, Trevor never understood his younger brother''s lack of interest in the natural world.

    Trevor knelt down by the edge of the trail as he spotted a ripe brickleberry bush, he knew the berries were inedible to him, but that they were the favorite treat of his pet Groint.  He had found the large insect under the garbage can behind their home one afternoon and kept him.  They were large, about ten centimeters long and kind of cute.  He had tried to find what they ate and had discovered they liked the native equivalent of fruits and berries.

    Trevor had named his pet Groint Jerry and given him a large glass aquarium to live in.  The Groint were unique in the fact that they could live to be almost eight years old and seemed to be mildly intelligent.  It was assumed that they were the planet''s equivalent of Dirt''s rodents.

    Trevor put the small handful of foraged berries in a plastic bag that he then put into his pack.  Jerry would have a feast when he got back home.  Trevor smiled, the way Jerry''s little feeler antennae would perk up when he saw Trevor made him sure that the little bugs were smarter than people gave them credit for.

    Trevor kept walking up the path, it was a beautiful day, the bright yellow sun was high in the pale blue sky.  There were a few wispy white clouds skirting lazily along the distant horizon, and he could just make out the glint of the nearby gas giant Helias II in the sky.  It was a lot further away than it looked, but it was big enough, and reflected enough of their star''s light, that it was visible even at midday.

    A new sound reached Trevor''s ears as he neared the top of the mountain, a series of distant cracks, like something big hitting the ground very far away.  He scrunched his eyebrows at the strange noise but kept walking, it was probably a trick of the wind.

    Scrambling up the last steep bit of trail, Trevor turned to look the way he had come from.  He saw the entire valley laid out below him, arranged in a small patchwork of urbanized scrubland.  The city looked so much smaller from up on top of the world.  He frowned again as something about the scene didn''t seem right, there was something wrong but he couldn''t place it.

    Again those distant cracks sounded and Trevor jumped as he finally noticed what was off.  The sun was almost directly overhead and should have been lighting up the valley brightly, but instead there was an ominous gloomy shadow over the city.

    Trevor looked up and saw no clouds.  He looked higher and gasped in shock, hanging high in the sky, almost invisible through the atmospheric haze, was a titanic starship.  The ship was huge and dark, bristling with all manner of strange devices that looked like guns to him.

    Trevor was mesmerized by the sight, this massive object, seemingly hung in the sky as if by magic.  He knew it was probably still in space and using its engines to stay aloft but it was hard to tell from so far away.  He jumped again as he heard those strange crackling thumps, each hitting like a small fist of solid air now that he was in the open.  It was now that he realized something was falling from the massive ship into the atmosphere.  Tiny little dots fell into the atmosphere, heating up as they passed through the air at incredible speeds, before slamming down to the ground around the edges of his hometown.

    Trevor didn''t know what they were but didn''t like what was happening nevertheless.  He pulled out his small cellular phone and was about to call his mother when a flash lit the valley in a harsh light.  Trevor looked up and whimpered in fear as he witnessed a massive explosion tear through Hollistown.  He saw the local supermarket get hit by another object, this one sleeker and somehow deadlier looking before the entire structure detonated in a tremendous explosion moments later as the ordinance exploded.  The shattered remains of the building left burning trails through the air as they sailed hundreds of meters from the blast to cause more damage and destruction.

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    Trevor felt his knees getting weak as he watched the destruction, explosion after explosion tearing great burning gouges out of the place he had called home just hours before.  He saw his school hit directly as it was flattened completely, the stadium where he had been playing sports with his friends only two days before was smashed to splinters by a wave of force that traveled the kilometers to him in seconds and hit him like a hammer blow to the gut causing his eyes to tear up.

    The tears kept coming, streaming from his eyes as his knees gave way and he fell to the ground.  He couldn''t look away from it though, by the grace of luck, he couldn''t look away.  A sob tore through him as he saw his dad''s workplace smashed flat in a fireball and spray of burning debris.  He shook his head as another explosion tore a twenty-meter crater into the neighborhood his house was in, the tiny silhouettes of entire cars and trees being tossed away like grains of sand in the wind.

    Trevor saw more destruction and knew in his heart that this was wrong, who could do something like this?  Something so heinous.  He screamed in rage and pain as the shelling continued.  He threw his hands in the air and cursed the small ship in the sky to every bad place he could think of, and a few that he made up on the spot.  He tried to stand but his legs wouldn''t obey him as he was rocked by more hammer blows of force.  The heat from the explosions was so great that even at this distance the air quickly grew hot and dry.

    Trevor shut his eyes but still saw the flashes and knew that there were screams carried on the wind that he couldn''t hear from this distance.  He knew his family was dead, his friends, his teachers.  Hell Jerry was gone too, he shuddered at that.  Jerry had been his responsibility, if he hadn''t taken him in he would probably be alive and happy out in the wild somewhere.  For whatever reason the realization that he was probably directly responsible for the small bug''s death hit him harder than the scene of carnage played out before him.

    He fell to his side and curled up into a ball, as tight as he got he couldn''t block out the ground shaking explosions or eye searing flashes of light.  Spots swam behind his eyes as the spots the flashes had burned into his eyes swam in his mind.  Trevor didn''t know how much longer it went on, or even what time it had started, he just stayed curled up like that trying to ignore the fact that the entire world was dying and he couldn''t do anything about it.

    Trevor awoke in a cold sweat, he didn''t remember falling asleep, but he had.  He shivered as the fact it was dark caught up to his overwhelmed senses.  He prayed that it had been a nightmare but was hit with a fresh wave of horror as he sat up and saw the ominous glow in the sky to his east.  He stood shakily to his feet and sobbed openly as he saw the cratered, burned remains of Hollistown.  Nothing remained, not a single building, not even a power pole.  It was all gone.

    He jumped as he thought he heard a faint crack.  He relaxed as he remembered there wasn''t anything out there that could really hurt him, still, it was better safe than sorry.  Trevor pulled out his small pocketknife that his dad had given him on his birthday last year.  He sniffled as the memory brought fresh tears to his eyes.  He jerked his head up as he heard another small noise.  There was definitely something in the darkness, he knew it now.

    "H-h-hey!  Stay back¡­  I, I have a knife!"  He shouted into the gloom.  The gloom didn''t answer back and he stood there with his arm raised threateningly for a few more moments before he relaxed again.  It must have been his imagination, luck knew it had been a traumatic day.  He was surprised he was still conscious and functioning, he knew enough medical stuff to know that he was probably in some sort of shock and needed to get warm before his body began to shut down.  But part of him didn''t see the point anymore.   There was nothing he could do, nowhere to go.

    He sat down on the ground next to his pack and opened it to grab out his jacket.  As he saw his small, packed lunch he smiled grimly.  Good ol mom, always lookin out for him.

    Trevor began to cry openly now, the tears ran down his face as he sobbed quietly, clutching his jacket to his chest.  He heard another small noise but ignored it this time, if there was something that wanted him dead he was okay with that, he had nothing to live for anyways.

    Suddenly a voice came to him through the darkness and he screamed in terror and tried to jump to his feet.

    "Hey, don''t be afraid kid, whoa hey, calm down buddy.  I''m not here to hurt you¡­"  Trevor groaned as his legs cramped up and he sprawled to the ground only a few meters from where he had been sitting.

    Looking up he saw a hooded figure step out of the darkness and his heart froze in his chest.  The figure walked slowly with its hands up before taking off some sort of headgear and placing it on the ground.  Trevor''s eyes widened as he saw the scaly head of a Slaaveth female looking back at him, her dark eyes glinting in the near darkness of the night.

    Trevor looked at her warily as she spoke again.  "Hey kid, I''m not here to hurt you, I''m here looking for survivors.  This is a rescue mission.  Can you stand?"

    Trevor nodded and stood slowly to his feet, hunched and ready to bolt.  The woman smiled at him and he had to remind himself that she was trying to be friendly, though her rows of dagger-like teeth made her smile feel a little less inviting.

    "Who are you?"  He asked the woman quietly as he inched towards his bag.

    She made no move to get closer or impede his progress as she answered "Union Search and Rescue, we got an alert of a natural disaster and shipped out to your system immediately, luckily we were only a few hours away.  When we got here however, we found what looked like the after effects of a war zone, not a natural disaster.  We searched near the ruins but found nobody.  We were about to give up hope of finding anyone when one of our drones picked up your heat signature on top of the hill.  They sent us to investigate and here you are."  She explained as he reached his bag and pulled out the small sack lunch.

    If he was going to be here a while he might as well eat and so he pulled out the sandwich and took a big bite before asking "You said here we are, who is we?"

    She smiled at him and stood tall as she said "USAR team Gamma thirty, we are here to help.  Come on out guys, don''t be afraid, er.  What is your name?  Mine is Jrulsh."

    "Jrulsh?"  He said, rolling the strange new name around on his tongue.  She smiled and nodded, she was kind of pretty he realised.  In an scaly alien sort of way at least.  He smiled back at her and said "Trevor, Trevor Dean."  He stuck out his hand and she looked at it curiously before gripping it and shaking.

    She smiled again and said "A handshake, that means we are friends right?"  She said.

    Trevor was a little confused but answered "Yea, definitely."

    She bobbed up and down making her frills sway as she said excitedly "Yay, this is exciting.  Don''t worry Trevor, you are going to be okay, we are going to take care of you."

    Trevor felt tears threatening to well up in his eyes again but he shoved them down, there was no way he was going to cry like a baby in front of a girl.  What would she think of him if he did that?  Trying to be casual he watched as several more figures wearing brown uniforms stepped out of the shadows and turned on their head lights. "So, do you know what happened here?"

    She shook her head and said "No, I was hoping you could tell me.  If it''s not too painful."

    Trevor stood straight and squared his shoulders, he put the sandwich down on his pack as he began to recount the tale starting from when he had left his house that morning.  His eyes teared up a bit as he talked about Jerry and Jrulsh stepped a bit closer to him.  He reached the peak and recounted what he had witnessed, several of the team members standing around him gasped as he described the ruthless attack.  The lack of mercy displayed by the orbital bombardment against a civilian population made one of the rescue team weep openly.

    Trevor stayed stoic, determined to be strong like his father even as tears leaked from the corners of his eyes.  His shoulders quivered from the effort of holding his feelings in and Jrulsh stepped to his side with a concerned look.

    "Trevor are you all right, you are shivering¡­"  she asked him in a concerned voice.

    "I''m fine¡­" he croaked out through gritted teeth, but he wasn''t.  The shock of what had happened finally washed over him as he started to shiver violently.

    Jrulsh gurgled in surprise and jumped forwards to catch him as his knees once more gave out and he started to fall.  She caught him before he hit the ground, her hands were cold as she cradled him in her arms.

    Trevor felt the world spinning around him as he looked into her eyes and he whispered through chattering teeth ¡°Please don''t leave me¡­"  before darkness swarmed his vision and his world descended into welcome oblivion.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: The Man in the Black Suit

    The Man in the Black Suit

    Avery scratched his furred head in puzzlement, there had to be more here. Why did he always get three quarters of the way down the rabbit hole before he hit a dead end. No footage, no pictures, just a witness account from a man that might be crazy. At least this time he was sure he was on the right track. The man had been in Harrison Plaza when the Capitol building was bombed by an extremist group, such a tragedy that day was.

    These anomalies all happened for a reason, he was sure of it. But why was there no surveillance footage? All the cameras near to where the man had been had malfunctioned and their data had been corrupted. This alone was proof enough to Avery that he was getting closer. If only he could talk to the man himself, but alas, the poor man had taken his own life shortly after the incident.

    He shuffled through a few of the scattered documents on his old desk, other papers flung to the floor in his wild search for the one document he sought. He knew he was obsessing over this, but how could he not be? He might be close to uncovering the longest standing myth in all of Human history among others. ¡®Well, one of the longest.¡¯ he thought to himself grimly.

    He gave a little shout of triumph as he pulled the document he sought. It was an old photograph, one of the kind taken with a mechanical camera, no electronics. It was one of the only photographs he had of the anomaly, at least from Earth¡¯s history. He actually had another similar photograph from Sabith, the homeworld of the Swanith.

    Avery looked again at the object of his fascination, the picture showed a snapshot some tourist had taken of the Pennsylvania countryside back in the year 2128 AD of the long gone United States of America, only moments before the end of the old world. The photo framed a picturesque scene, the background lit by the bright flash of nuclear detonations along the eastern coast of North America as the third world war came to its fiery conclusion. The woman in the center of the picture had a startled look on her face and her features were blurred as she turned to see the blasts over the horizon. The other few people in the crowd all seemed similarly affected, all that was, except one.

    The old mechanical camera had captured a historic event, the end of the United States. The image was interesting to Avery for another reason though, on the far edge of the picture near the front of the crowd was a nondescript man. The man was bald and could have been from anywhere, his bland features and medium colored skin blending in with almost any culture and his age impossible to determine. His clothes were strange as well, while the tourists all wore casual clothing and hiking gear, this man was wearing a clean black suit and tie. His very nature is at odds with the whole scene. His hands were folded behind his back and his head was tilted slightly to the side as if curious, not alarmed.

    One of the most disturbing things was the next image taken only heartbeats after the first as the panicked photographer double pressed the capture button. While the first image showed a total of twenty two people, the next taken less than a second later only contained twenty one. The man was gone, vanished into thin air. It was as if he had never even existed, not even scuff marks in the dirt to confirm his presence. But he had been there, the first picture had not been altered nor the second. One moment the man in the black suit had been there and the next he had vanished.

    Avery had only one other image of this man, and it was disturbingly from an alien world light years from Earth and almost two hundred years later. It was a picture from the discovery of the Swanith, their first contact with Humanity and the Atraxses in the year 2348 AD or 0 PU. The picture was taken on an old style polaroid camera, apparently the Swanith photographer had been a fan of the classical and had been using an old hand me down camera to capture the event. It showed a large crowd of delegates arranged in a wide semicircle near a landing pad that was being touched by the first shuttle to reach the surface of their world. And despite the fact that no Human had yet set foot on the surface of the world, there the man was.

    In the shadows of a structure to the far left of the picture the man stood. Impossibly in the same position, hands behind the back and head slightly cocked to the side. The sun glinted off the top of their bald head which just stuck out of the shadow. Moments later another picture was taken, the shuttle all the way on the ground and the doors opening, and the second picture was a single figure short.

    It was impossible, and he didn''t know why it had taken five hundred years for anyone to try and piece it together. There was even an old report that the man had appeared in a Druth Felman episode, but the records were impossible to find, the episode having been scrubbed from history apparently. Damn Union information censoring, it was a crime, but one he couldn''t prove definitively.

    He had discovered other secrets in his crusade for the truth; he had been particularly surprised to learn that Sabith was not the Utopian society that the Swanith projected it to be. The small avian aliens were considered by almost everyone in the Union to be a quite peaceful race, not prone to the violence and rage that others like Humanity, the Vinarfel, the Slaaveth and the Nerivith were. Humanity and the Nerivith especially.

    No one liked a good scrap quite like those two, Humans thrived on violence, the danger literally activating their pleasure centers and flooding them with adrenaline, a stimulant more potent than any the military had yet to devise. The Nerivith on the other hand had the opposite reaction, combat seeming to calm their minds and send them into a quasi meditative state where their instincts took over, ice cold to Humanities fiery rage.

    The Swanith liked to show the rest of the Union a facade that they were civilized and morally upstanding while in the background they held a secret as dark as any that the inexplicable Humans held. In truth they were just as corrupted and ruthless as any of the other warlike races. The reason their planet was such a peaceful utopia was due to the fact that they had exterminated all the large predators on their homeworld, destabilizing the biosphere of their whole world and nearly leading to a total ecological disaster that they narrowly survived.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    They had a chaste system, while those of the upper classes used and exploited those down below and so on till you reached a bottom class that was subject to the whims of all others. It was from this lowest class that recruits for their highly specialized assassin guilds were chosen. They used these child soldiers to infiltrate and destroy behind the scene while only showing delegates from other races the gold exterior of their predacious society. While the lower class were working, fighting, and dying for their masters, they profited little and the rich only grew richer. He wished in his heart that he could do something about it, but the informant who had given him the information had assured him he would be dead before the information spread to the right people. Killed by a Wingterror assassin or worse. So he kept it to himself, none would hear from him, not in this life at least.

    The same man, on two different planets hundreds of years apart, and now the verified report from earlier that year during the bombing of the capitol building. Avery sighed and hung his head. He had hundreds of vague sightings and possibilities over the years that ranged from hearsay to myth. But he only had the two concrete pictures, though that evidence was damning, it was too uncanny and improbable to be taken seriously without more evidence. That''s why he had taken to carrying an old mechanical camera with him wherever he went, if the opportunity presented itself he would not be found wanting.

    He closed the notebook he was scribbling in and shuffled his papers back together. It was getting late and he would need to leave soon if he was to catch a ride on the unreliable automated public transportation. He put the papers and notebook away in the secret compartment in his office, no one would think to look there and he knew his crazy theories were safe from prying eyes. The historic studies building had stood for two hundred years and would likely stand for a thousand more, the perfect place to work and go unnoticed.

    Avery locked his small office behind him and started down the long darkened hall, his padded feet made little noise on the ground as he shuffled along nervously. The hairs on his shoulders prickled and he snapped a glance over his shoulder, certain he was being observed. But the hall was empty, not a soul in sight. He chuckled to himself at his own show of paranoia and started down the stairwell to the ground floor.

    He reached the large open main atrium and looked around. It was late at night and the room was deserted except for Earnie, the old Gre¡¯vahn custodian that worked in his wing. He waved to the large man and got a tired wave in response, thus known, he exited the building and out into the brisk night air.

    His thick fur insulated him from the chill and he breathed in deep, happy to be free of the stuffy interior. The other races of the SCU like it too warm for his tastes, all but the Slaaveth who also did not have any adverse effects to chill air due to their scales and cold blood.

    He started walking down the sidewalk in front of the building and started to hum to himself quietly. It was a clear night and he looked up, though the light pollution from the surrounding city made it more difficult, he could make out the stars and the span of the milky way just barely. He smiled at the sight, it reminded him of his camping trips with his father when he was young.

    Suddenly he stopped as the feeling of being watched came over him again, he looked around and froze in shock as he saw what looked like a dark figure watching him from the other side of the street, in an area where the street lamps didn''t quite reach. Fumbling for his camera he took his eyes off the figure for a split second to pull it out of his waist pouch. As he looked up the figure was gone and he swore. He took three steps out into the dark street and then stopped as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He slowly turned and saw the same figure further down the road to the side of the street, this time illuminated in the light.

    Avery gasped, it was the man, clear as day and staring him full in the face from no more than thirty meters away. He raised his camera and snapped a quick photo. It was stored on the internalized film, he would have to take it home to develop it.

    Avery looked up from his camera, the man was still there, he was about to walk towards the man and call to him when he suddenly heard the noise of a vehicle fast approaching. He whirled around and exclaimed with fear as an automated bus barreled towards him. It should have slowed, it should have sensed him, but for some reason the optical sensors were not working and the bus impacted Avery with bone crushing force. It smashed him out of the way and continued on as if nothing had happened.

    On the ground to the side of the road was a limp figure, Avery had died immediately upon impact, his camera smashed and lying next to him, the film with his discovery lying on the ground.

    **********

    The watcher stood impassively and watched as the man died to the primitive machine. Such machines were reliable but so easily abused. It was a pity to see such a brilliant mind perish, but it was necessary. The watcher walked slowly and with measured steps, he approached the body of the man. As he reached it he moved his hands from behind his back, the fingers long and clawed. He slowly bent and retrieved the small round cartridge of film from the smashed camera. He held it up to the light and a slight smile cracked his face as he muttered three words quietly ¡°Still looking good.¡±

    The watcher stood and replaced his hands behind his back, still holding the film, and then was gone.

    **********

    The morning was cold and silent as a tomb. An old woman walked down her favorite sidewalk to a small bench where she liked to feed the small avians that roosted in the buttresses of the historic studies building. She slowed as she spotted a large mess of blankets along the edge of the road. Darn rapscallions, leaving their dirty laundry on the side of the road.

    The woman walked slowly over to them to pull them out of the way when she stopped, her small bag of bread crumbs dropped from nerveless fingers and she sputtered. The bundle was not some other person''s dirty laundry, it was a dead man. She screamed and tried to run but tripped over something and fell. As she crawled painfully to her feet she saw an ancient camera smashed to pieces on the sidewalk, her terrified mind never questioning why its film was missing. The woman dialed emergency services on her assistant and talked frantically to the operator.

    Weeks later the small cramped office of Dr. Avery of Historic studies was cleared out, everything moved from the room. In the commotion none of the movers noticed the small irregularity in the wall near the farthest ceiling tiles. The room was marked as unoccupied and the door was locked as the building was not terribly busy, and would not be opened again for a long time.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: That Which Watches

    That Which Watches

    Nothing, void once more.

    No, less than the void.  That Which Watches observed the space without space in the time outside of time.  They felt nothing but the cold though, that frozen darkness full of chaos and silence.

    *Blink*

    They bore witness to a vast darkness, or was it blindingly bright?  It was hard to be sure in such a chaotic realm.  This non-darkness moved, large beyond words and powerful beyond measure.  This mass of chaos and creation seemed to pause for the briefest moment, its mass contracting or pulsating strangely as it stopped.

    After an unknown length of time the non-darkness moved on, and what was left behind was a small pearl of something new.  Form from nothing.  It called to That Which Watches and they drew nearer, but dared not touch.  While the orb was tantalising beyond contemplation, That Which Watches knew that to converge upon its majesty might undo them completely.

    So That Which Watches kept its distance, watching as they always did.

    *Blink*

    Time passed, That Which Watches observed without eyes or senses that bright orb once more.  It had changed, no longer a tiny sphere of pure light, it was now a vast dark thing filled with innumerable smaller lights.  The lights danced in the dark, seemingly never touching yet so close in this new place.  That Which Watches wanted to look away, for it knew the danger that getting too close poised.  But it was hard, the sparkling lights inviting with their strange familiarity.

    With a supreme effort, That Which Watches tore itself away, the narrow space between them and infinity smaller than the mind could process.  That had been a close call.  That Which Watches observed the anti-space around them once more.  It was normally so empty, the occasional passing horror or conjoined nightmare sometimes drifting by.  But the space around this new orb seemed to be filled with many things and anti-things.  For the most part they canceled each other out, but there would remain a great rare occasion for a part of one to remain.  These twisted horrors fell upon the outer boundary of the orb like a blizzard of dread.

    That Which Watches saw many others like unto themself scramble to the boundary, their forms seemingly burned away as they touched the outer edge of that terrible orb.

    They didn¡¯t see any make it through the boundary though, the sealing had been done while they had looked elsewhere.  But surely some of the fragments had slipped through, they always did.  And with the horrors came the sickness, and the death.

    They turned away, it would be over soon and they had no wish to see it rent from within by the non-things that infested the beyond around them.

    *Blink*

    They remained.  They watched.  It seemed strange, but the orb remained too, a little darker, a little bigger.  The lights that twinkled within danced more slowly, many of them growing brighter for instants before they too fizzled out as so many orbs had before.

    But this one seemed different.  Time was the basis of That Which Watches concept of everything, and time was cruel.  But this one, it had lasted longer than most.  In fact it was already far older than it had any right to be by their internal reckoning.  They didn¡¯t know why, but they knew that something was different about this one.

    That Which Watches peered closer.  Closer and closer to the tiny dancing lights and their chaotic order.  They saw many things, smaller and nearly infantile in their understanding.  But they were truth and light, the opposite of the darkness that spawned them.  That Which Watches withdrew, the closeness burning them even as they realised the truth of the orbs.

    They were not dead like the horrors and bits that drifted, they were alive and full of those vibrant lights.  For the first time in That Which Watches¡¯ entire existence it felt lonely.  It felt so alone in the space without.  But how to get in without concluding?

    They moved away once more.  Their fragmented mind awash with concepts and this new pervading pain.

    *Blink*

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Time had once more passed, and the orb had only increased in complexity and function.  It was large now, so large as to fill the space without space completely.  And yet as they willed it, That Which Watches could move away and this supposed vastness faded to a pinprick of hope in the distance.  For the space without space was endless and could not be escaped.  Not truly.

    That Which Watches peered into the orb again, the twinkling lights seemed to call their name as they moved closer once more.  The burning as That Which Watches drew near was intense, but nothing could truly mask the new pain of being alone.  It was worse than the burning, tearing sensation, worse than the blinding non-light and far far worse than the cold dark crushing black of the neverspace.

    They moved closer, so much closer.  They could see it now, the lights were themselves entire systems of complexity and danger.  But they still seemed to shine through the darkness in a way that nothing That Which Watches could remember.  They seemed solid, real.  Not like the infinite nightmares of the space without space.

    They stopped on the very threshold, the pain had mounted until all they could distinguish was the tearing, the folding of their mind into a tiny box.  They fled, the vastness of the orb fading away into a point of light that itself seemed to fade slowly as the non-space between them grew.  That Which Watches fled until they no longer could remember why they were so afraid.

    *Blink*

    Time passes, slowly by this one¡¯s reckoning.  That Which Watches began to wander once more, their mind a twisted chaotic thing.  Thoughts of light drove them on through the horrors made of living darkness and the vast consciousnesses that dominated the anti-space.  It seemed that nothing would break through the darkness until That Which Watches saw a distant light like a candle from across a canyon of terror.

    Moving closer That Which Watches observed a vast sphere of complexity and light, the barrier seeming to shimmer as tiny cracks spread throughout it.  A memory sparked and they stopped.  That Which Watches began to remember their experiences before.  The lights looked dimmer though, small and faint.  Not the strong bright fires that they remembered, but dull white spheres that seemed to pulse slowly as if horribly alive and dead at the same time.

    That Which Watches watched in the silence.  Time passed.

    *Blink*

    Time had passed, That Which Watches had not been aware of all of it.  From time to time they lost their grip on consciousness as awareness fled into the more protected corners of their mind.  The darkness had slowly consumed the orb now.  The fading lights were all but gone, the shimmering was now replaced by a depressing and heavy stillness.

    They moved away as the orb seemed to expand faster and faster.  The boundary now flew towards them as fast as they could retreat.  That Which Watches felt fear once more, if the orb consumed them would they become part of that darkness too?

    Before the question could be answered the orb seemed to lose cohesion, the buckled and tattered boundary that had previously surrounded it seemed to snap under incredible tension.  The orb rippled as the shell was broken and seemed to stop before slowly contracting.

    This contracting surprised That Which Watches.  The new feeling was strange to their mind.  They began to follow the orb as it traced its own expansion back along its previous path.  They followed.

    *Blink*

    The orb was smaller now, though it was hard to be certain for the inside was so unlike the outside.  No space and no reality to grasp made it difficult to reference anything, and with the total darkness inside the once bright orb, That Which Watches had no way to tell if it was truly any larger than it had been in the very beginning.

    This contraction continued till it seemed to stop once more.  The orb fluctuated, growing slightly then shrinking slightly more.

    This back and forth seemed to speed up, the anti-space around seeming to exert some dark pressure on the orb from the outside while the orb itself seemed to desperately push back against the horrors that scrabbled at its unprotected flanks.

    It was strange.  This all seemed at once so familiar and yet so new.  That Which Watches would have cocked its head if it had one, but alas, it was formless thought in a realm of maddening contradictions.  So it contented itself to observe.

    *Blink*

    The orb was gone.

    No, not gone.  Transformed rather, but into what?

    That Which Watches peered closer with eyes that cannot see but was interrupted.  Their mind a slight haze from the close proximity of one of the vast non-darknesses.  It roamed near to the orb but did not seem to notice it as it moved slowly and inexorably in the direction of That Which Watches.

    That Which Watches shrank away, their mind temporarily focused on their own survival instead of the mystifying changes the orb was undergoing.  But as they looked back they realised in horror that the orb was now nowhere to be seen.  In the infinite anti-space they searched for it, but they could not find it.  With no lights to guide them they felt lost.  Alone in a place that crawled with such potent lunacy.

    Time passed once more.  They felt themselves losing their grip once more and so fell into themselves, trying to preserve what sanity remained.

    *Blink*

    Darkness¡­ madness.  Chaos and nightmares.  But above all, nothing.  Void once more.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: The Fate of Lost Hope

    The Fate of Lost Hope

    The endless starry expanse glittered in the void like diamonds on a sheet of the blackest velvet, the harsh glare of a million distant infernos shone from all directions.  Those lights had shone for a billion years and would likely shine for billions more.  The eerie scene was violently interrupted by a shadow, this shadow approached faster than should have been possible.  Faster even than the light from the distant stars themselves.

    Suddenly the shadow burst like an overripe frubble fruit and cast shimmering motes of light in all directions.  From this explosion of light emerged a chunk of corroded alloy and composites, an old starship.  The thin walls of this fragile vessel were all that stood between its four-person crew and a most assuredly painful demise in the deep dark of space.

    The ship was relatively inactive for a moment, its crew recovering from warpshock, but then it seemed to shudder.  Its main engines lighting and propelling it slowly further into the small planetary system it had entered, but it quickly gathered speed as the twin red plumes of hyper-velocity ions were ejected from its engines in bright lines.

    Lomb leaned back into his commander¡¯s chair and rested his great shaggy-haired head on a single large six fingered hand.  He was atraxses, tall and wide with thick white fur across his whole body.  He looked somewhat akin to the legends of the Yeti from Earth, but with a bit more alien features.  His eyes were a deep blue like packed ice and his slightly wrinkled features were scrunched even further by the annoyed look on his face.

    Lomb turned to the lithe pink skinned alien sitting in front of him and to the right slightly and waved a large hand towards the blank display screen at the front of the small bridge.  ¡°Kesp, where is my image?  We have been in system for almost two minutes, what is the delay?¡±

    Kesp was nerivith, her slight form tall and lanky.  Hailing from a low gravity world, her species was known for their agility and war-like nature.  Kesp flicked a long sinuous tufted tail in response to Lomb as she shook her horned head.  ¡°It is there, the sensors are reading the inner system just fine, there seems to be a lot of interference.  Switching to low band microwaves.¡±

    Lomb watched the screen and frowned again, he could now just make out the small pinpricks of light in the dark red mist that seemed to fill the ship¡¯s viewers.  The mist wasn''t really there, it was simply a comparatively thick gaseous medium that seemed to ring the inner system.  It filtered out the main star¡¯s light leaving only a dim reddish glow to trickle through.  Lomb grunted to himself, he was a senior prospector for Wolverine Excavations Unlimited, he should be above these sorts of low budget shrac shows.  But then again the money was good and he had no real reason to turn the assignment down.

    He checked his wrist worn assistant, the small electronic device functioning as both his personal computational device and communicator.

    ¡®What system had he been saddled with again?¡¯ he wondered to himself idly ¡®The floss system or something like that?¡¯

    The wrist assistant pulled up the relevant information he was searching for.  The Fooes System it was called, right on the lower edge of the Yellow Scale nebula.  Apparently the system had been scouted almost forty years previously, but nothing of major note had been marked down and so it was thrown away and overlooked.  But now that most of the more lucrative sites in the nebula had been heavily exploited it was now worthy of further investigation.

    Lomb watched his console¡¯s sensor readouts for a bit, the old computer screens seeming quite archaic compared to more modern designs.  The old high definition monitors having nothing on more recent developments.  He leaned back into his large chair and gave a sigh, it was hot on the ship.  Well, not really hot.  The internal temperature was a cool twelve degrees celsius, about as cold as he was able to set it with Vaspnarr on board.

    Vaspnarr was vinarfel, the large female alien having a long armoured body with a multitude of legs and ten chitin covered arms.  Her species was cool blooded and so he couldn''t crank the life support down as much as he would have liked, but it was bearable.

    His ship drifted through the dense molecular cloud slowly, the WES-2 Prosperity¡¯s Lure was a wastelander class prospecting vessel.  And the old girl was just a bit over one hundred years in age.

    Lomb smiled as the thought crossed his mind, the ship had been in his family for almost four generations, and when his nephew was old enough to take over from him then it would be.  The smile faded quickly though as his generally dour demeanor reasserted itself.  Grunting in relative annoyance, Lomb turned back to look at Kesp.

    ¡°What is the situation shaping up to be?  According to the old preliminary survey this system has abundant ice fields we can fill the water tanks with at the least.¡±  The ship had a fission powered electrosplitter that was used to decouple water molecules into their constituent atomic parts, this hydrogen and oxygen could then be stored in large tanks and used to power the ship''s chemical reaction thrusters.  The extra oxygen could also be used for life support as well, keeping the ship in tip top condition.

    Lomb looked back to his old console, the screen flickering ever so slightly.  The old girl was showing her age, but that didn''t deter him.  A good high quality ship of her class could easily last two or three centuries if properly maintained.

    Suddenly he heard another noise from the hallway outside the bridge.  The main bridge airlock was open, but as he wasn¡¯t wearing a spacesuit he saw no particular reason to keep it closed.  They were in open space, not so much as a pebble had been detected within a hundred kilometers of the Prosperity¡¯s Lure.  The clacking noise drew closer, like the footsteps of some plodding mechanical automation.

    The source of the noise was soon made apparent as an incredibly tall figure slouched under the two and a half meter tall bridge doorway and stood to their impressive three meter height.  Their body was tall but lean, almost stretched looking and covered entirely horn to hoof in a dark environmental compensation unit, or ECU suit.

    It was Umraar, the umraghj male¡¯s species requiring the ECU suits in order to survive on the ship with the rest of them.  The umraghj were from a tiny worldlet with only about sixty percent of standard gravity and their chlorine enriched atmosphere made breathing the same air as the rest of them a slow death sentence for the tall furred alien.

    The mechanical exoskeleton of the engineer¡¯s ECU suit made faint whirring noises as they stepped over and around the obstacles in their way.  Lomb watched in mild amusement as the somewhat ungainly looking creature made its way to the seat next to Kesp and sat, their long legs stretched out far in front of themselves as they sought to find a relatively comfortable position.

    The umraghj were probably the most enigmatic species in the whole Union.  Less likely to be seen off their chlorinated space stations and colonised moons than even the generally reclusive jeseo.  Come to think of it, what was Umraar doing on the bridge, Lomb wondered about the enigmatic man¡¯s purposes.  He knew that the tall spindly alien had an unlikely close friendship with Kesp, but he should have been down on the engineering level watching over the old ship¡¯s main drives.

    Lomb gestured towards the pair ¡°Umraar, what is your purpose on the bridge?  You should be monitoring the main drives and coolant levels.¡±

    Umraar took a second to nod to Kesp as he finished saying something.  The tall alien¡¯s mask turned his way and Lomb shivered just slightly involuntarily as he could just make out a pair of large yellow rimmed brown eyes that seemed to bore through him for a moment.  Then the man spoke, his voice filtered through the voicecasters of his ECU suit.  ¡°I have finished all checks on the ships systems and found them to be running in better condition than one can reasonably have expected for a vessel of such age.  I am continuing to monitor them remotely via my assistant, captain Lomb.  I assure you I am keeping a close eye on their status.¡±

    Lomb just folded his arms and let out a humph of annoyed acceptance.  He couldn''t argue with that kind of sound logic, and it wasn''t as if the ship''s engines were far away.  The Prosperity¡¯s Lure was only eighty-four meters long.  Hardly a ship of the line requiring many hundreds of crew.

    Kesp looked over towards her secondary monitor suddenly as if surprised, Lomb knew better than to distract her if she was homing in on a promising signal.  So instead he sat back into his chair and pulled up a clone of her console on his own to see what she was looking at.  He cocked his large squat head as the data jumped out at him like a beacon.  There was a signal alright, far too strong to be anything other than metallic alloys.  But that was impossible, unless they were picking up the returns from some flotsam that had been left here when the last expedition had left forty years before.

    But no, that was unlikely, the signal was far away.  Far enough that it would have had to be considerably large to radiate such a return, maybe on the order of a hundred meters or so in length.  The only thing he could think of that it was likely to be made his warm blood turn to ice in his veins.  There had been scattered reports of flesh tearers seen in the vicinity, surely they had not stumbled accidentally upon one of those barbarous monsters ships.

    Lomb immediately considered turning the ship back and fleeing, but a small part of him raged at the idea.  He was already here, his ship had weapons on it.  His ship was equipped with a twin-linked autocannon turret and a missile launcher array, but he was loath to fire unless absolutely necessary.  The amount of paperwork he would have to turn in if he was forced to fire on another ship would be degrading.  Instead he motioned to his screen and grabbed Umraar¡¯s attention.

    ¡°Umraar, what is the condition of the ship¡¯s offensive armament?¡±  He tried to ask it as casually as he could, but immediately the large alien¡¯s eyes scrunched as they saw through his calm veneer.

    ¡°You believe that the return may be hostile?¡±  Lomb frowned at the umraghj¡¯s straightforward comment.  Never ones for much subtlety were they.

    At the vocalized question Kesp jerked and stared back at him ¡°Hostiles?  Like what, unless.  No, you don''t think it''s carvers do you?¡±

    Lomb stood, his somewhat squat form only about two thirds the height of Umraar even though he was much wider at the shoulder.  ¡°I don¡¯t know anything for sure, and the only way to know is to skate up and ring their doorbell.  If it is tearer¡¯s then we would likely find ourselves in a tight spot.  That return is larger than we are, and if their vessel is partially concealed by the ice surrounding it then it could easily be much larger than us.  And much more heavily armed.¡±

    He paused.  Tapping his wrist worn assistant he spoke into the smart device.  ¡°Place a call to Vaspnarr.  A second later the device pinged and a slightly annoyed hissing voice issued from his assistant.  ¡°Yesss Captain?  What iss it this time?  I am in the middle of some important maintenance work on the refinery system.¡±

    Lomb shook his head slightly causing his shaggy white fur to flutter around.  ¡°I understand, but we may have a situation here.  I need you at your weapons station as soon as possible, it¡¯s not an emergency¡­ yet.¡±  He added on for good measure.  The link severed without another word and he gave a small sigh.  ¡°Kesp, keep us a few light seconds away from them, I don''t want to close to more than half a million kilometers until Vaspnarr is on the bridge.¡±

    Almost before he finished speaking he heard a noise once more coming from the corridor behind him, towards the bridge¡¯s main airlock.  It was a loud scuttling as if many hard objects were being smacked into the deck plates in rapid succession.  It was the sound of Vaspnarr running, her fifty-two sharp stabbing legs carrying her at terrifying speed onto the bridge.

    As the nearly six meter long vinarfelien woman sped onto the bridge she jerked to an abrupt stop, only the rapid twitching of her long delicate antennae giving away her anxiety.  Her two large yellow compound eyes took in the entire bridge at a glance and she moved to her weapons station in a more sedate manner than she had entered.

    As she coiled herself in front of her chairless station Lomb saw her glance towards him, those large yellow faceted orbs seeming to stare straight into his eyes.  He knew it was simply a trick of the light however as she had no pupils to focus on him specifically.  ¡°What iss the emergency captain?¡±  She hissed out in a cool yet respectful manner.

    Lomb gestured towards the main screen at the front of the bridge.  It was made out of a type of superhard transparent material called glazmite, this could in turn be used as a projection medium for holographic images, one of which was showing to the right side of the screen as he looked.

    It was a slightly grainy picture taken by one of the ship¡¯s optical telescopes.  It showed a large ice floe, the blocks of primordial ice and dust in constant motion around each other, grinding and shearing each other to ever smaller pieces that in turn were compacted as the entire process began again.  In the center of the image was a bright spot, unassuming at first till the images rotated slightly revealing the unnaturally straight lines that its shadows were casting on the surrounding ice.

    ¡°That, is the problem.  It seems obviously artificial but we as of right now don''t know what the shrac it is.¡±  Lomb gestured angrily.

    Vaspnarr reared up a little higher as she took in the information.  ¡°That does not look like a Union vesssel.  At least not one I am immediately familiar with.¡±

    Kesp nodded her horned head and pulled up some additional data.  ¡°I can¡¯t tell what material it is made from either, it is reflective to virtually all waves of light.  Anytime I try to scan it I just get an amplified return with no serviceable signal change.¡±

    Lomb sat back into his chair heavily with a grunt.  His left hand¡¯s large fingers tapped out an idle beat on the arm of the seat as he tried to think of the best course of action.  ¡°Well.¡±  he started, pausing as he noticed all of their eyes fixed on him.  He sat up straight and tried to show as confident a posture as he could manage through the anxiety that threatened to crush his heart in his great barrel chest.

    Lomb nodded to Kesp.  ¡°Okay, take us closer, but be careful and alert me if there is any movement.  If you see so much as a puff of maneuvering thrust you better say something.  Understood?¡±  he asked her with a growl in his throat.

    The pink skinned nerivith nodded, her short, cropped raven colored hair bobbing slightly with the movement.  ¡°Taking us in, slowly.  It may be a while before we arrive at this speed¡­¡±  she trailed off, seemingly unsure as to what the best course of action was.

    ¡®A while indeed.¡¯  Lomb thought to himself silently.  Plenty of time to worry, he needed to figure out something to distract the crew as they approached what could end up being a potential hazard.  But nothing came to mind as he thought.

    Vaspnarr hissed in frustration after a few more moments of silence.  ¡°This iss a bad idea, we have no clue what we are digging into.  We might just get buried for our troubles.¡±

    Lomb saw Kesp and Umraar share a meaningful look but the two remained silent.  It was no secret that Vaspnarr didn''t really like the tall umraghj, but it generally didn¡¯t cause issues.  In such a stressful time Lomb was fine with the suited man remaining taciturn.  The wrong thing said could set the vinarfel woman off, and three hundred kilograms of angry vinarfel was difficult to stop.

    Lomb motioned to Kesp who gave him a small nod.  ¡°We need to locate deposits in the system regardless of the existence of this ship.  I need you and Vaspnarr to analyze the old prospecting data and see if you can find us a good location to begin looking.  This ice field we are heading to isn''t likely to yield any good ore deposits.¡±

    Vaspnarr just gave a small hiss but seemed to relax slightly as she was given a task to work on.  ¡®A busy mind is a mind too busy to worry.¡¯  Lomb¡¯s great uncle had always told him as a youngling.  Lomb smiled at the fond memories, growing up aboard this very ship with his father and uncle had been a lesson in the value of hard work.  But what a valuable lesson he had learned.  Everything he was today was because of his tough upbringing, his father and great uncle may be gone, but he still had family to rely on and support.

    Lomb noticed Umraar looking at him intently and shuddered ever so slightly.  Those impassive and calculating eyes were all he could make out, of course he knew what the large alien must have looked like under the suit.  He had access to the hyperweb after all.

    Lomb suddenly had an idea.  ¡°Umraar, have you finished processing the samples from site Y-778 yet?¡±  As the tall man shook his helmeted head Lomb continued ¡°Well, if you could go and finish up the sample analysis I would appreciate that.  We still need to determine if that system is even worth our time to report on after all.¡±  As Umraar walked off the bridge Lomb nodded to him.  It wasn''t entirely fair to send him away just to keep the tension on the bridge down, but as the captain he was tasked with making the difficult choices.

    The time passed slowly like molasses running down a flight of stairs.  Every moment knowing that they were likely getting closer to danger and there was nothing more he could do to prepare.  Vaspnarr had declared the weapons ready and the ship was in as good of condition as it was likely to get.  All that was left was to watch carefully and remain vigilant of their surroundings.

    The drifting chunks of cosmic ice drew nearer, at first appearing as faint pinpricks of light they gradually grew to sparkling chunks of slowly spinning ice.  Lomb felt a slight pang of homesickness at the sight, the large dirty grey chunks of ice reminded him of his home, a place he had not been in many years.  Cold clear air and the sounds of harsh wind screaming through jagged mountain peaks rose to the forefront of his mind at the thought.  He had to physically shake his head to dispel the memories, there were more pressing matters at the moment than his homesickness.

    He sat up straight instead of speaking, knowing that the crew was on edge he thought of the best way to break the tension and decided to use some smalltalk.  ¡°Those big snowballs kind of remind me of that time we got stranded on that frozen comet in Y-430, remember that?¡±  he mused out loud in a conversational tone.

    If it worked to ease the crew he didn¡¯t see it, but he saw Vaspnarr¡¯s long antennae perk up in her species version of a slight grin as she replied in the affirmative.  ¡°Yess I do indeed remember that.  We called for help but we were ssstuck on that pathetic ball of dead ice for almosst two weeksss while we waited for a fuel-mule to come and resscue uss.¡±  she let off a slight chittering hiss as the memory made her laugh.

    Kesp shook her horned head, her dark violet eyes shrouded with worry.  ¡°I didn¡¯t think it was very funny.  As I recall we all thought we were going to die.  The backup generator was running at full capacity but that pitiful little fission reactor was never designed to power the ships critical systems for that long without reprieve.  And I seem to remember that you were quite upset that you got stuck babying it for so long Vaspnarr.¡±  the nerivith woman teased lightly.

    Lomb smiled, this was good.  A bit of banter would help to take their minds off the worry that they were surely feeling.  ¡°Yes, but she got it done, and likely saved all our lives in the process.¡±

    Vaspnarr grumbled, her hissing accent slightly muted as she mumbled quietly enough that he had to strain to hear.  ¡°Indeed I did, but Gennar left because of it.¡±

    Lomb frowned, Gennar had been another one of the crew, the one that had been replaced by Umraar.  Probably the reason that Vaspnarr was so resentful of the tall man.  Gennar had been a good friend of hers and had begged her to come with him, the human male seemingly torn between his feelings for the vinarfelien and his hatred for deep space.  In the end his fear had won and he had departed the ship, much to the displeasure and grief of his abandoned friend.

    Lomb swallowed heavily and tapped the arms of his chair.  ¡°Well, I think we are close enough now to get a decent image of the object.  As if by magic the main viewscreen at the front of the bridge lit up as he spoke, looking over he nodded to Kesp as she had anticipated his request.

    On the main screen was a vastly clearer picture of the strange object.  It was indeed a ship of some sort, coated in a white substance that could have been paint or ice.  He immediately noticed two things about the vessel.  First was the fact it seemed to be partially embedded in the ice floe, its hull damaged as if it had rammed into the ice at great speed.  And the second thing he noticed was its peculiar design.

    ¡°That is definitely not a Union vessel¡­¡±  Kesp said aloud, her voice a bit mystified.

    Lomb nodded to himself as Vaspnarr agreed.  ¡°Yess, though sssomething about the dessign iss tickling my brain.  Almosst like I have ssseen it before.¡±  She hissed, her insectoid head shaking slightly as she tried to place the memory.

    Lomb wasn''t so sure, familiar maybe, but not in any way that immediately reached out to him.  The ship was long, at least several hundred meters.  That made it several times the length of his own vessel.  The class was hard to determine as the ship seemed to be made from several distinct rings that surrounded a narrow core module.  He frowned, the ship seemed to have a distinctly low tech design with the rings probably acting as centrifuges to provide some limited semblance of gravity.

    A thought crossed his mind.  ¡°Kesp, get an enhanced shot of the bridge, let''s see if there are any recognisable markings.¡±

    Kesp moved to do as ordered, her long fingers flying over the keypad as she maneuvered the optical telescope to the desired location on the large ship¡¯s hull.  After a few more seconds of this she made a small surprised noise and pulled up the new image on the screen.

    ¡°There, right behind that large observation deck.  Those symbols, the computer seems to recognise them¡­  Wait a minute¡­¡±  She trailed off in bewilderment.

    ¡°What is it, what¡¯s it say?¡±  He asked her quickly.  She pointed to the screen, on it was the image in question.  The large blocky letters were definitely not galactic common, but he cocked his furred head.  They were familiar, there one of the letters looked like a distorted E, and that one looked almost like a U.

    ¡°What iss that?¡±  Lomb heard Vaspnarr ask.

    Kesp responded as a translation appeared at the bottom of the screen, her voice tinged with a hint of surprise and something else.  ¡°It¡¯s human.  Original design, pre-contact as well.  The name reads as the UNDS Hope.  I''m searching the ship¡¯s computer for information about it now, but this ship is likely more than eight centuries old.  There is no guarantee that our limited records will have any data on the vessel.¡±

    Lomb looked at the image again.  Human, and pre-contact as well?  The humans were the founders of the Union, they had been the first race in the local arm of the galaxy to discover faster than light travel after all.  They had used this technology to reach out into the deep dark, not knowing what they would find.  They had found his people first, the atraxses and their frozen homeworld of Ho¡¯the¡¯rell.  Lomb knew of this event, it was taught in school to virtually every being in the Union.  It was as important an event as the discovery of FTL itself.

    Lomb smacked the arm of his chair causing the other two to jump at the sudden noise.  ¡°I knew it looked familiar!¡±  he said triumphantly.  ¡°The Hope was one of the first five ships sent out by humanity before the legendary UNSS Leif Erikson returned with the first interstellar travelers of my people.  Back before the discovery of the swanith and the formation of the Union more than eight-hundred-and-twenty-five years ago.¡±  It was incredible, unbelievable.  Such a historic find, the fate of the lost ships had always been speculated, but none had ever been rediscovered.  Until now it seemed.

    He smiled at the thought.  He would be famous, likely get interviewed and have his face on the hyperweb.  Thoughts of exclusive rights flashed through his mind, holovid rights and documentaries about his life and the find of a lifetime.

    His fanciful daydreams were shattered as Kesp said again loudly ¡°What do you want to do now, Captain?¡±

    Lomb looked around the bridge for a moment, taking in the drab walls and cramped spaces.  Not too much longer, he would be able to fix it all up soon.  ¡°Now?¡±  He paused for effect.  ¡°Now we make history my friends.  Take us in slowly, and be careful not to scratch her, she is worth more than you know.¡±

    Kesp just shrugged and nodded.  Lomb licked his lips, all he had to do was make sure the wreck was structurally sound and leave a beacon for salvage rights and all his troubles would be over.

    Lomb watched as Kesp piloted the Prosperity¡¯s Lure like the professional she was, bringing their much smaller prospecting ship up to one of the external airlocks of the embedded wreck¡¯s center core, just under where the bridge seemed to be.  Lomb wanted to prioritize gathering the ship¡¯s black box if it was still in place.  It would be invaluable to his claim over the salvage rights if he could prove he was the first on the site.

    The ship shuddered as Kesp extended one of the flexible omni-locks between the derelict and them.  As the ship¡¯s design was radically different to theirs, they were not directly compatible, but the omni-lock was designed for just such a situation and should provide a durable enough seal for Vaspnarr to make her way onto the ship in order to give it a check.  Of course she would have to wear an environmental suit, the large bulky affair looking more like a small vehicle than a protective garment.  That was the cost of protection for her strange body shape, her many short chitinous legs requiring the complex device to protect her from the void of space.

    Now that the two ships were locked together and Kesp had extended the AG field to cover a portion of the wreck Vaspnarr could go ahead and move out.  Lomb gave her a nod ¡°Vaspnarr, I want you to get over there and check the stability of the wreck.  I need to know what condition it¡¯s in on the inside.  The outside is looking a little shabby.¡±

    Vaspnarr gave him a three-armed salute and started moving off the bridge, her long insectoid form scuttling away much quicker than her bulk would suggest was possible.  Lomb turned towards Kesp and gestured towards her console ¡°Kesp, I want you to keep a close eye on her.  I would hate for anything to get missed because of the local conditions.¡±  he said a bit ambiguously.  Kesp didn¡¯t ask questions, she knew better than to question him directly.

    Smiling slightly, Lomb raised his assistant and spoke into it quickly.  ¡°Message Umraar, Get back to the bridge.  We may need your expertise to fully analyze the wreck.¡±

    Everything was going his way, Lomb sat back in his chair.  All he had to do was place that beacon and make sure the ship wasn¡¯t going to get crushed before he could make it back with a full recovery team.  He nearly rubbed his large six-fingered hands together in glee.  What a prospect he had found, that on top of being able to report the system as worth looking at.  Surely there might be more artifacts scattered around to uncover.  After all, this wasn''t the entirety of the ship, there were parts missing.

    Umraar clunked onto the bridge a minute later, the tall alien once more having to stoop to enter the bridge.  Lomb gave the man a nod and commanded ¡°Umraar, I need a scan of the ship.  Life forms and active electronic signatures, I want to make sure that Vaspnarr isn''t going to be walking into a ravenoid den or something like that.¡±

    Umraar gave a quick nod.  ¡°Alright, it will take me just a few minutes to complete the scan.  Do you want a penetrating scan as well?¡±

    Lomb waved a dismissive hand causing Kesp to open her mouth.  ¡°But sir, if there is any danger then surely¡­¡±

    Lomb cut her off.  ¡°We are only going to be on this ice cube for an hour or so, no need to do a penetrating scan, it would be an unnecessary waste of time and resources.  We can do a deep scan when we get back with a proper salvage team.¡±  He thought about who he would want on this operation with him.  With such a prestigious find he could probably entice one of the better equipped crews, but then again he had made a promise to an old friend to let them in on any finds.  ¡®What the shrac.¡¯  he thought to himself.  ¡®Might as well get both.¡¯

    Lomb frowned as the scan was completed.  ¡°I¡¯m not detecting much of anything, the ship¡¯s exterior is still confusing the equipment, Captain.  Perhaps if we did a penetrating scan?¡±  Umraar suggested quietly.

    Lomb shook his head again, the front viewscreen showing the Hope as a large blank spot save for a few locations with extensive hull damage.  He pointed to the aft portion ¡°See there, no lifeforms detected.  We can safely assume that if there are no lifeforms present in the aft section then there are none in the bow, right?¡±

    Umraar rubbed their helmet, the gesture making Lomb frown in annoyance.  They seemed unconvinced and so Lomb pulled up his communication link to Vaspnarr.  ¡°Vaspnarr this is the captain, respond.¡±  He looked at the blank walls that surrounded the ship as he waited for her response.  There was no danger on the ship, there couldn''t be.  There were no metalgea fields or void mussel patches nearby for celestipods or ravenoids to feed on.  There was only the ship¡¯s corpse, embedded in the large drifting ice floe of indeterminate age.

    After a moment of tense silence Lomb heard his assistant crackle with static before the link cleared and Vaspnarr¡¯s voice trickled through.  ¡°I can hear you loud and only ssslightly muffled.¡±  a slight hissing chuckle before she continued ¡°What iss it, am I good to move out?  Thiss damn sssuit iss pinching me in all ssorts of unfortunate locationss.¡±

    Lomb glanced at Kesp¡¯s concerned features and growled low under his breath.  ¡°Vaspnarr, we were unable to conclusively determine whether or not the ship is inhabited.  No life signs detected but proceed with caution.  I recommend you arm yourself.  A slammer or beam rifle would probably work best.¡±  he recommended, plus they would do the least damage to his prize in the event she had to use them.

    ¡°Acknowledged.¡±  was all she said, a few scraping sounds issuing through the mic before the link was disconnected.

    Things were looking relatively on track.  This wasn¡¯t the time to get cocky though, he needed to pay close attention to everything she found while on the ship.  The slightest thing could spell danger when in those conditions.  That combined with the fact that the Prosperity¡¯s Lure¡¯s artificial gravity field only extended a few meters onto the derelict ship was a recipe for trouble.

    But that was precisely why he had sent Vaspnarr, combined with her species'' natural abilities to get through tight locations and resist physical harm, she was also the most experienced salvage worker on the ship by a huge margin.  She was forty-two years old, almost thirty of which she had spent climbing in and out of the wrecks in post war salvage yards all across the western frontier of the Union.  It was only with the introduction to himself and her subsequent employment on his ship that she had known respite from the dangers such an environment could provide.  So he trusted her explicitly and had said so on many occasions.

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    If there was anyone on the crew more suited to the dangerous, debris ridden environment of the wrecked exploration vessel then he would eat his chest harness.  Luckily he knew that it wouldn''t come to that.

    He gave a short chuckle and then pulled up the biomonitor of her suit.  Immediately a live readout of Vaspnarr¡¯s vitals showed up on the lower portion of his main monitor, above that was a live series of video feeds from her suit¡¯s external cameras.  So far she was still on the Prosperity¡¯s Lure, but she was just exiting the armoury and moving towards the omni-lock.

    Umraar made a small sound as he turned towards Lomb.  Lomb shook his head and tapped his skull next to his eye in the universal signal for ¡®Pay attention¡¯.  He turned his attention back to his console in time to see Vaspnarr open the ship¡¯s outer airlock and slowly make her way across the extended connector.

    He tensed slightly as she reached the bright white outer hull of the wrecked ship.  How would she gain access, with brute force?

    After a moment he heard her speak over the comms channel.  ¡°Kessp, thisss door lookss like it can be powered.  If I drag a cable over could you route me some power?¡±

    Kesp nodded, mostly to herself as there was no way Vaspnarr would have seen the gesture.  ¡°Yes, just let me know when to shoot the juice.¡±

    It was interesting, Lomb thought.  The ship had been sitting for so long, no atmosphere as it looked to have been vented centuries past.  Sheltered as it was in the minor gravitational influence of the large ice floes surrounding it, it seemed remarkably well preserved.  Minimal micrometeorite scarring, almost no solar wind damage, and judging by Vaspnarr¡¯s vitals it had almost no residual radiation either.  That last one was particularly interesting as like all early human exploratory vessels the UNDS Hope was a fission powered ship.  Her four nuclear reactors should have spread at least some radioactive contaminants when the ship crashed.

    A small worry entered his mind, while that alone was not cause for alarm, it did make him think again about the ship¡¯s fate.  What had brought it to rest in so precarious a position.  He was about to ask Umraar to do another sweep for radiological contaminants but was interrupted as Vaspnarr¡¯s voice once more issued through the speakers.

    ¡°Okay, I have hooked the cabless to the door.  Let me know when the power iss applied.¡±  The video feed showed a thick bundle of insulated wires connected to an opened panel next to the derelict¡¯s airlock.  The slightly scarred outer hull of the ship giving way to the almost pristine uncorroded metal of the panel¡¯s inner side.

    Kesp fiddled with the controls on her console before giving him a glance.  Lomb nodded the go-ahead and she warned Vaspnarr ¡°Okay, I''m juicing the cables, be careful.¡±

    The view on the feed moved back half a meter as several sparks issued from the end of the cable where it was clamped onto the door¡¯s power interface.  The sparks fell from the connection towards the floor slowly, shining red like tiny stars in the vacuum of the temporary airlock.

    Vaspnarr moved to the large door and pressed a button on its exterior.  Nothing seemed to happen for a minute till one of the panels seemed to shiver slightly.

    ¡°By the Mother¡­ The door sseemsss frozen in place.  I might be able to pry it open the resst of the way with my breaker bar.  Sstand by.¡±  Vaspnarr¡¯s view moved around a bit as she twisted to grab a large metal prybar from the toolbag on her long back.  It took her only a few seconds to jam the flat end of the tool into the slight gap, she made a loud hissing noise as she applied pressure to the bar and Lomb nodded to himself as the doors finally cracked open.  Shards of ice and corrosion flaked from the inside of the doors as she forced them open just far enough to safely squeeze inside.

    The inside of the airlock wasnt dark like Lomb would have expected, instead a dim flickering light seemed to shine on one of the walls while he looked at the feed.  It seemed that the power didn''t just reach the outer doors, but it powered the inner ones as well.

    ¡°Vaspnarr, be cautious opening the inner doors.  There is no guarantee that the ship¡¯s atmosphere has been fully vented.  Pocket¡¯s may remain.¡±  Lomb warned over the comms.

    The feed bobbed slightly as she responded ¡°I was just thinking that.  I am going to close the outer lock.¡±

    Umraar chimed in without speaking over the comms.  ¡°Are you sure that is wise, Captain?  What if she needs to get off the ship in a hurry?¡±

    ¡°In a hurry from what?¡±  Lomb asked the tall alien man with a hint of disdain in his voice.  Umraar was new to the field of salvage, and it showed in his overcautious nature.  Then again that could also just be a part of his base nature, the umraghj were well known for being extremely adverse to taking risks when they could at all avoid it.

    Lomb shook his shaggy furred head slightly, this was no time to let one¡¯s inner worries get the better of them.  He looked at what Vaspnarr was doing again.  She had managed to jimmy the outer door closed for the most part, there was a small gap still, but not enough to pose a real hazard should the inner hull still remain pressurised.

    She pressed the button for the inner airlock and Lomb was a bit surprised when the door juddered and then opened silently.  If there had been any kind of atmosphere on the ship it likely would have made a loud noise, but there wasn''t and so it opened in eerie silence.  Vaspnarr walked a meter from the door and then seemed to shift slightly.

    ¡°Entering microgravity, turning on my magbootss.¡±  The picture stabilized and Lomb realised she had been floating up towards the ceiling before, the force of her walking pushing her into the open space.  With her magboots on she would have a much easier time of it, as long as the walls were not made of composites.

    Before he had a chance to ask Vaspnarr mentioned ¡°The wallss are covered in rungss that ssseem to be made of ssome ssort of magnetic alloy, mosst likely sssteel.  The wallss themsselvesss are coated in a sort of thick compossite ssubstance I can''t quite identify, but whatever it is it doesssnt like my magbootss very much.¡±  she said with a hint of amusement.

    Lomb wouldn¡¯t have laughed personally, he would have been slightly afraid, but she was practically built for this kind of work.  The feed followed along a rapidly darkening corridor, the space ringed with the metallic rungs she had mentioned.  They looked to be handholds, indeed that would make sense as the core of the ship would not have rotated like the rings making it a permanent microgravity environment.

    Vaspnarr seemed to be able to move along the rungs with relative ease, her view moving quickly despite the less than optimal conditions.  All they could see through the feed was the small cone of light that her suit¡¯s headlamps were projecting.  They were much wider than his or a human¡¯s would have been due to the vinarfel woman having a much wider field of view, but it still made for a claustrophobic and generally confusing sight.

    Unlike her, Lomb didn¡¯t have such an affinity for close and confined spaces.  The ship was already smaller than he would have liked to admit, add onto that the oppressive confinement of an environmental EVA suit and the darkness and he would have been likely to go into some sort of shock.  Vaspnarr didn¡¯t seem too adversely affected however as she reached the main airlock that led to the forward observation area.

    He watched curiously as she stopped and then looked around in an inquisitive manner.  He couldn''t tell what she was looking for so decided to ask.  ¡°Vaspnarr.  What is it?¡±  The lights of her helmet illuminated a shockingly mundane scene.  Nothing looked out of the ordinary to him, and that fact alone made his short hairs tingle in warning.

    She reached out to one of the walls, her suited hands brushing the walls near a small collection of holes.  ¡°Are you sseeing thisss Lomb?¡±  she whispered.

    He frowned at her use of his name instead of his title of captain but decided to let it go for the moment.  He enforced a strict discipline on his ship, it was the only way to keep the many disparate cultures and behaviors of his crew in any semblance of check.  ¡°Yes I see it, it¡¯s some holes.  What about the bridge?¡±  he said annoyedly, keen to move onto more important things.

    The feed moved in a bit closer and she seemed to shake her head slightly as the feed swung side to side.  ¡°No ssir, thiss isss battle damage, thesse look like bullet holess.  Chemical kineticss if I had to guesss from their ssspread and sshape.¡±

    Lomb cocked his head.  ¡®Bullet holes?  What would the crew of an exploration vessel be shooting at while that close to the bridge?¡¯  He wondered.  ¡°What do you mean battle damage?  How can you be sure it''s not just some aftermarket renovations?  The Dark alone knows what happened on that ship so many years ago.¡±

    Surely the crew of the ship had all perished in the impact that had stranded the ship.  Or maybe..  He paused as a new thought occurred to him.  ¡°Is it at all possible that the ship was already abandoned when it made impact with the ice?¡±  he said aloud with the comms closed.

    Kesp and Umraar looked at him, the latter with that same near unreadable look.  Kesp shook her head  ¡°There is no way to know, not after eight hundred years.  Any evidence would have been erased by the sheer passage of time.  Maybe if the atmosphere had not been vented we would be able to¡­ no.  that would not have worked either.¡±

    Umraar spoke, their slightly grainy voice coming through the voicecasters on their helmet.  ¡°Perhaps it is a sign of their distress that lead to their downfall?  They would surely not risk discharging powerful weapons on the bridge without dire need of them I am sure.¡±

    Vaspnarr had continued to move as they debated briefly.  Lomb heard Kesp and Umraar talking still with half an ear as he watched the lights of Vaspnarr¡¯s feed swing across the bridge area.  It looked as if an explosion had gone off, the command throne was missing as were several of the other control seats.  All around the space debris sat in small drifts all around the space.  Most of the debris had congregated along the walls and ceiling of the bridge, the minimal gravity of the ice floe just enough to exert its will over centuries of inactivity.  Vaspnarr¡¯s movements were kicking up small particles, the motes swung lazily through the vacuum like snowfall on a windless day.

    ¡°This is not a good sign.  This looks to have been done intentionally.  The explosion was not large enough to destroy the bridge¡¯s windows, but it rendered the entirety of the command consoles useless.¡±  Vaspnarr pointed out.  She had a good point, if it had been some sort of accident surely it would have done more damage, perhaps even destroyed the entirety of the ship.

    She turned around and asked over the comms.  ¡°There is nothing here, what should I do now?¡±

    Lomb shook his head, so much for getting the ship back into flying condition.  Still, it would make a lucrative museum piece, and there were any number of institutions that would pay top osmir to get their hands on it.  He gave a slight grimace at his bad luck ¡°Deploy the beacon on the bridge, then move towards the rear of the ship.  It might be buried under the ice but I want to see if it¡¯s still intact.¡±

    ¡°Alrighty, but then I think we should get out of here.  This place is starting to creep me out.¡±  That statement gave Lomb pause.  Of all the things he had expected her to say, that was likely the last of them.  Vaspnarr never got freaked out, never expressed fear of anything, death included.  She had conquered her fears so long ago that most of the time Lomb was sure she had forgotten the meaning of the word.  Clearly not.

    This time it was Umraar who answered.  ¡°What do you mean Vaspnarr?  What is it about the situation that is causing you distress?¡±

    The vinarfelien woman gave a short sharp hiss, her people¡¯s version of a snort it seemed.  ¡°What iss there not to be worried about.  A ghosst ssship that hass been undissturbed for longer than the Union hass exissted in all likelihood.  Have you ever heard of the concept that sssome thingss sshould remain buried?¡±

    The woman¡¯s cryptic words struck a chord in Lomb¡¯s heart, the slow squeezing sensation that he had been trying to ignore for a while now clamped down hard.  A feeling of dread passed through him, almost as if his unconscious mind knew something he didn''t and was attempting to scream a warning to him.  He gritted his teeth and growled under his breath, eyes screwed tightly shut as he willed the internal horror back into the shadows it had crept from.

    Kesp seemed to shake slightly as she watched the readouts on the situation.  Lomb didn''t like the direction this was taking.  ¡°Vaspnarr, I think you should get back to the ship now.¡±

    To his surprise she responded immediately.  ¡°No, it iss fine.  I can still check out the rear of the sship.  It will only take me a few minutesss.¡±

    Lomb watched the feed, the claustrophobic lights doing little to dispel the creeping feeling in his gut.  A part of him wanted to tell her to stop, to come back to the ship.  But he didn¡¯t.  The feed from her helmet cameras continued to move down the core of the wreck, the further from the airlock she got the more Lomb started to worry.  There was nothing on the ship though, not a sound could be heard in the airless environment.  Not a single object out of place in the frozen stillness.

    That thought struck him suddenly as she passed yet another heavily corroded patch of the ship''s hull.  This spot gave way to actual ice that spilled through the rents in the ship¡¯s broken hull.  He watched as she navigated by the blockage and into the ship¡¯s rear area.  As she did a part of him wondered what had become of the ship¡¯s crew, why there had been no signs of their remains.

    The view on her feed darkened as her light failed to illuminate the gloom and she reached up to adjust its brightness.  The aft section of the ship had been completely buried in the ice and so they had been unable to get a scan of its interior.  As he saw the great cavernous space of the rear hangar open up he let out a breath at its cavernous size.

    ¡°Wow, can you ssee thiss?¡±  Vaspnarr asked over the comms, her voice a bit feeble from interference.  ¡°You could fit the whole Prosperity¡¯ss Lure in here I think, maybe even with ssome room to ssspare.¡±

    Lomb glanced towards the others on the bridge, Kesp and Umraar seemed just as enamored with the grandness of the structure as Vaspnarr was, but he had noticed something critical.

    ¡°Um, Vaspnarr, there should be two shuttlecraft in the hangar.  Do you see them?¡±  Lomb was curious.  He had a hunch that the crew of the ship had experienced some tragedy and abandoned ship.  There had been no bodies on the bridge, nor in the rest of the ship they had seen.  Granted the rings had been totally overlooked, but that still didn''t add up.  The ship was large and should have had a crew of twenty or thirty souls, but not one of them remained after all this time.  If there had still been an atmosphere that might have been explained away as simple decomposition, but the pure vacuum of space was an excellent preserver of such grim biological relics.  There should have been pieces of bodies at the very least, bones and such.

    ¡°I don¡¯t ssee anything.  But thiss sspace isss very large.¡±  Vaspnarr had been looking around when her feed suddenly froze.  Her voice reached them, a tinge of concern reaching them now.  ¡°Um, I am reading some minor vibrations in the hull under me.  Are you sure the wreck is fully stable?¡±  she seemed to take a few steps back the way she had come from, her feed still dominated by the huge dark space of the hangar.

    Lomb looked at Umraar who shrugged, his suit¡¯s servos making small whirring noises as he did so.

    ¡°Vibrations, what do you mean?  Like tremors?¡±  Lomb asked her over the communications link.  He wasn''t sure what would be causing tremors on the ice floe, except maybe the impact of another large body.  He sincerely hoped that wasn''t the case, if they were about to be crushed by a fifty million tonne ice cube he was going to get very upset.

    Vaspnarr¡¯s feed turned around completely as she started to hustle towards the hangar¡¯s exit.  ¡°No, these vibrations are not synchronized.  It feels more like a large amount of small things shifting around, almost like a landslide.  But there isn¡¯t any gravity on the ship, or at least not enough to cause a cave in¡­¡±  she paused, her picture stopping as she turned to look behind her again.  ¡°Lomb..  Are you absolutely sure there were no life signs aboard the ship when you scanned it?¡±

    Lomb felt that same squeezing pressure over his heart.  ¡°We didn¡¯t detect anything with a scan.  But..¡±  he paused and looked at Kesp, his blue eyes opening wide in the beginnings of alarm.  ¡°We never did a penetrating scan.¡±

    Silence reigned on the deck for a few moments before Vaspnarr exploded ¡°You didn¡¯t do a deep scan!?!  You cheap fleshbag, you think that maybe, just maybe you were hanging my tail out to dry here?¡±  she screeched.

    He jerked as he saw something in her feed, deep in the darkness just out of her headlamp¡¯s reach the walls were moving.  No, it wasn''t the walls, it was hundreds, no thousands of small creatures.

    ¡°Voidite infestation!¡±  Kesp yelled.

    Vaspnarr swore loudly over the comms.  ¡°By the grace of the Mother, sweet burrow!¡±  Before she turned and started making her way to the hangar exit with true haste.

    Lomb stood from his seat, his blood turning to solid lead as his heart skipped a beat.  ¡°No!¡±  he breathed in fear.  ¡°Vaspnarr get out of there!  Get out of there now!¡±

    Umraar grunted in a strange way as the vinarfelien woman¡¯s panicked hissing could be heard over the comms.  Her feed jerked back and forth, all semblance of safety given over for the one thing that truly mattered now.  Speed.

    Lomb found himself bouncing on his wide clawed feet, his hands clenched into fists.  Of all the things that they could have encountered, why did it have to be voidites.  Often called whispering voidites for the subtle noise they made with their tentacles as they dragged their hard skinned bodies across metal, they were a scourge.  Only native to the Yellow Scale nebula, they were responsible for a number of disappearances and destroyed ships every year.  Their diamond hard teeth were quite capable of shearing through starship hulls, and they little monsters seemed to metabolize most types of ferrous alloys.  They also seemed to have a special sweet tooth for living beings as they would swarm and attack any manned ship that was unfortunate enough to enter their territory.

    That would explain why the majority of the Hope¡¯s outer hull was still intact.  It was a non-ferrous super hard aluminum alloy in all likelihood.  Not something that the voidites would be interested in as anything but shelter.

    Lomb groaned as Vaspnarr stumbled on some loose wreckage, momentarily losing her footing on the ship¡¯s core.  She was so close, only fifty meters from the airlock.  It was then that he remembered that the outer airlock was closed.

    Before he had a chance to say anything Vaspnarr let out a shriek and her view turned to show one of the pale horrors had managed to leap through the airless corridor and land on her back.  It had sunk its superhard teeth into her suit, the molecular diamond chisels cutting straight through her unarmoured garment and the chitin underneath.

    She jerked before the round headed creature was smashed from her back by a small cloud of fast moving projectiles.  She had pulled out her shotgun and blasted the voidite into dark green sludge.  Lomb watched helplessly as she fired into the pale squirming mass behind her, dozens of the foul hungering terrors bursting like overripe fruit, but it was far from enough.  Hundreds more scrambling over the torn bodies of their kin in a horrifically silent wave of pale skinned death.

    Vaspnarr¡¯s feed started moving again but jerked as another of the small beasts launched itself through the air to land on her shoulder.  Its lipless maw opened exposing jet-black chisel like teeth that it promptly sank deep into her upper shoulder, tearing one of the air cables loose from her backpack.  This time she ripped it off with two of her upper arms and wrung its small neck in her gloved hands.  It stopped moving and she flung the corpse away without slowing.

    Lomb¡¯s vision was transfixed on the main screen, his ears filled with the constant hissing of her exertion.  She was so close to freedom, indeed as she whirled around the final bend and into the airlock he almost dared to feel hope.

    Kesp let out a small grumble of fear as the inner airlock slammed closed on one of the pale pests and crushed it.  Its dark green life fluid splattering across the inside of the chamber as Vaspnarr chittered in pain and effort.

    ¡°Come on¡­  Come onnn, you got this Vaspnarr.¡±  Lomb chanted to himself under his breath, as if the act of speaking could somehow will it into reality.

    The feed showed the truth in stark clarity, Vaspnarr hissed as she tried to force the outer door, it moved a few centimeters and she glanced behind her.  Lomb was paralyzed in horror as he watched the inner airlock shudder before a multitude of tendrils slithered through.  Vaspnarr dropped the breaker bar and raised her shotgun, firing it through the gap till she was out of ammunition.  While many of the pale limbs were severed and thick green ooze issued from the gap, it was only a seconds reprieve.

    The attack redoubled in potency and Lomb shouted out in shock as the door was finally forced open, a tide of pale flesh and wide lipless mouths pouring into the room.  Vaspnarr shrieked in pain and fear over the comms, the sound tearing a great gaping hole in his very soul before the sound was cut off sharply.  Leaving only stunned silence.

    She was gone, there was no way she was gone.  Kesp cried out that they had to go and help her but Umraar grabbed her shoulders and shook the lean nerivith woman.  ¡°Vaspnarr is gone, she is gone!¡±  the tall alien shouted.  Lomb swallowed heavily as he sat back in his seat, trying to ignore the poisonous glare that the umraghj was subjecting him to from the side of the bridge.

    Lomb tapped several buttons on his console in quick succession.  ¡°We need to disconnect, they are contained for the moment.  But that outer lock is already partially compromised, it won''t hold them long.¡±  he spoke mostly to himself.  He needed to think, keep his mind occupied so it didn''t freeze like the rest of him seemed to have.

    He slammed his finger into the quick disconnect button, but nothing happened.  His eyes widened.  ¡°No¡­  Nononono!¡±  He shouted.  ¡°Fuck!¡±

    Umraar looked at him, the alien''s expression clear even under the helmet he wore, his eyes were wide as plates and his body stiff.  He must have known something was terribly wrong, but before he had a chance to ask Lomb shouted at him.  ¡°Umraar, the quick disconnect is jammed.  Get down there and disconnect us!  Now!¡±

    **********

    Umraar stood stock still, his muscles seemingly locked up and out of his control.  He had just watched as Vaspnarr died, the large grumpy vinarfelien woman had always seemed to have something against him.  And if he was being honest with himself he hadn¡¯t really liked her much in return, but to end in such a horrible fashion.  He would not have wished that upon anyone, especially not a fellow crewmate.

    Meanwhile Kesp was shouting, her face a mask of disbelief.  Umraar took a second to calm her and himself.  He shot a venomous look at their great captain, the greed of that overgrown fuzzer had cost Vaspnarr her life.  But as he looked he stopped, his bones seemingly rubberised as he noticed the terror on the large atraxses man¡¯s face.

    Before he had a chance to ask the man shouted at him ¡°Umraar, the quick disconnect is jammed.  Get down there and disconnect us!  Now!¡±

    He jerked, the quick disconnect would blow the explosive bolts on the ship side of the omnilock and allow them to disembark.  The ship would technically be able to fly away without disconnecting, but the system lockout would take longer to override then just running and blowing the bolts.  And speed was of the essence.

    Umraar gave a quick nod and rushed towards the door of the bridge, dead set on getting there in record time.  His suit flashed a warning at him as he didn''t duck quite far enough and whacked the top of his helmet on the doorframe as he left the bridge.  He ignored the stiffness in his neck as he lumbered down the narrow hallway.  The walls were covered in exposed piping and electrical conduits that tried to snag his suit and impede his progress.  The ship was old but still in good working order, the slight groaning of the hull spurring him to move even faster.

    Umraar breathed in deeply as he moved, the chlorinated air filling his lungs as he breathed out the slightly green colored vapor.  He had to wear the ECU suit to protect the other members of the crew from his native atmospheric composition, that and to help him move about in the punishing standard gravity.  It was much higher than the point six gravity of the colony he had grown up on, impossible to move without the bionic enhancements to his lungs and muscles, and even then he needed the exoskeleton of his suit to move with any real haste.

    Umraar¡¯s lungs began to burn as his exertion caused him to take great panting breaths.  Even with his enhancements and the ECU suit, it felt as if he was running up a mountain barefoot with a strong headwind.  The ship¡¯s artificial gravity field felt much stronger to him than he would have admitted to the others.

    After what felt like an eternity he finally reached the rear personnel airlock and slammed his override keycard into the side panel.  A series of light scritching noises came from the other side of the door and he swallowed heavily at what they could be.  His keycard opened the glazmite covered panel and he pounded his closed fist on the large red button inside.

    Almost immediately he stumbled as a sudden strong acceleration overtook him, Lomb pulling the ship away from the infested wreck so sharply that it nearly overpowered the inertial dampeners.  He held onto one of the wall¡¯s exposed pipes for dear life as the ship leveled out, its path likely now oriented directly away from the large chunk of embedded rubble.  He let out a quick sigh before his cramped ears heard another terrible noise.  The light whispering scrapes of something moving on the outer hull near the airlock.

    Umraar reached down to his suit¡¯s utility belt and pulled out a large auto-spanner.  The heavy tool was as good a makeshift club as anything he could think of.  The sounds seemed to pause for a moment before redoubling in intensity, the scritchings taking on a fervent almost hurried tone.  He took a few steps back till he thumped into the opposite wall of the corridor.  This was not good.

    Umraar raised his wrist-worn assistant closer to his face in order to send a warning to the bridge when he heard his name being shouted.  He turned his head and fear filled him, Kesp was running towards him, one of her arms outstretched as if to reach for him when a loud bang echoed through the ship¡¯s hull.  The hall shuddered as the ship¡¯s lights slammed into emergency red status, the dim light making things seem more frightening as the diffused red glow seemed to eliminate all shadows.

    He pulled up his assistant as he started running towards Kesp, the nerivith woman leaning against a nearby wall as the ship shuddered again.  ¡°Umraar to bridge, we have voidites on the outer hull.  I repeat, we have voidites on¡­¡±

    He never got to finish his remark as part of the corridor seemed to warp out of shape and a tremendous wave of force slammed into him from behind, dragging him towards the spot.  ¡°Hull breached!¡±  he shouted, but he wasn¡¯t sure if anyone was even listening anymore.

    He cried out in shock and anger as Kesp was smashed to the grated flooring by a heavy piece of dislodged coolant pipe.  Her frail form half buried under the cascade of debris and torn cables, one arm still outstretched but her violet eyes were closed.

    The wind continued to tear at him as the hull breach violently sucked the air from the ship and he was only just able to remain standing as he tried to move forwards to help his friend.  But it was not fast enough.  He gave another shout as a trio of the little chisel toothed monsters dragged themselves through the breach into the corridor with their powerful tentacles.  Umraar raised his auto-spanner to throw it at the lead creature as it seemed to lunge for the stricken woman, but was unable to complete the action as one of the ship¡¯s armoured blast doors slammed shut between them.

    Umraar stared in disbelief at the dark grey metal partition.  ¡®No.  This wasn¡¯t happening, this could not be happening.¡¯  he thought to himself frantically.  ¡°No! Kesp, noooo!¡±  he shouted in fury as he stumbled towards the sturdy metal door.

    He had only just reached the offending barricade when he heard Lomb¡¯s voice from his assistant.  ¡°Umraar!  Umraar, do you read?  Answer me you overgrown slinky!¡±  he heard the atraxses man shout through the small speaker.

    Umraar swallowed heavily, his gorge having risen and the nausea of extreme stress threatening to make him lose his nutrient paste.  Instead he tried to focus on the bitter voice shouting at him through his assistant.  ¡°Yes, captain.  I can hear you¡­  Kesp.. is..¡±  He tried to speak, but was cut off by the captain.

    ¡°She¡¯s gone Umraar, her life signature is no longer being detected by the ship, now I need you to pull yourself together and listen.  Deep dark man, you have only one single chance.  I''m trapped on the bridge, there are dozens of those things between us at the moment.  There is no way I am going to make it off of this bridge alive.¡±  There was a short pause in the man¡¯s hasty speech, a single deep breath taken by one who knows that they are out of options.

    All at once all of the pain that Umraar had been feeling build up inside him washed over his unshielded mind, threatening to drown him in the sheer waves of terror that stormed through his skull.  But he was tougher than that, he had faced death before, mostly in training simulations but what was the real difference.  The price of failure would be his life in this case, not just a black mark or a demerit.

    He stood as tall as he could and gripped the auto-spanner in his fist, his seven fingers wrapping tightly around the implement of disassembly as Lomb continued speaking.  ¡°I don¡¯t think I will be writing an after action report on this mission Umraar, you need to get to the lifeboat ASAP.  I don¡¯t know how much longer I will be able to keep control of the Prosperity¡¯s Lure.  Get out of here!  That¡¯s an order, maybe you can make a bigger difference than I ever could.¡±  The man said a bit cryptically.

    Umraar took a few tottering steps in the direction of the lifeboat, as he walked he asked the only remaining crewmate he had.  ¡°What are you going to do about the voidites Lomb?¡±

    The captain answered him almost without hesitation.  ¡°Well they aren''t going to get my ship if I have anything to say about it, that is for damn sure.¡±  The sinister comment sparked a sense of urgency in Umraar, the man¡¯s tone ominous and the potential meaning causing him to hasten down the long hallway.

    Umraar almost paused to ask the man if there was anything he could do, but stopped himself.  There were at least three one inch thick blast doors between him and the bridge, not to mention an indeterminate number of the small ravenous creatures tearing the ship apart.  No, there was only one thing to do, and that was to follow his captain¡¯s last orders and get off of the doomed vessel.

    He made it another ten meters before a vent on the side of the hall burst open in front of him.  Two of the pale fleshed voidites sprang from the dark opening, one noticing him immediately.  It tried to leap at him but must not have been used to the artificial gravity yet as it fell short.  Umraar didn''t hesitate, he swung his auto-spanner with all the force he could muster.  The large metal tool cracking the tough outer shell of the thing and splashing its freezing green innards across the grated floor of the hall.

    In the seconds it had taken him to dispatch the first beast the second had reoriented itself in his direction and clambered to the ceiling.  With its wide mouth open it leapt for his head and he did the only thing he could think of in that moment.  Umraar fell to the floor, a pained groan escaping his lips as the heavy impact knocked the wind out of his lungs.

    He rolled over onto his back as a loud clang was heard, and not a moment too soon as the voidite had rebounded from the wall and sprung towards him once more.

    Umraar swung at it with his weapon, the heavy auto-spanner deflecting the beast¡¯s attack away from him however briefly.  He watched as it slithered up a nearby pipe, its pale tentacles allowing it almost total freedom of movement despite the punishing gravity of the ship.  Again it tensed and he dropped to a low ready, but it didn''t jump.  Instead the ship lurched as something critical was damaged and the artificial gravity switched off suddenly.

    Umraar immediately switched the magnets in his boots on with a glance at the proper rune in the upper right of his helmet¡¯s display.  The icon flashing orange as he felt his feet secure themselves firmly to the floor beneath him.  It was then that the voidite charged, with its natural microgravity environment restored it pressed its supposed advantage.  But Umraar was ready for it.

    As the pale horror flew through the space between them, he thrust out with his tool and punched the heavy auto-spanner right down the creature¡¯s dark green gullet.  It seemed to gag as it ground its black chisel-like teeth on the spanner leaving great gouges in the hardened steel alloy.  But he wasn''t going to just leave it, with a swift movement he raised a booted foot and brought it crashing down with all the enhanced servo assisted strength he could muster.

    He found himself grinning savagely as the thing burst like a slime filled water balloon beneath his armored foot.  But the satisfaction was short lived as the ship lurched once more.  He turned and scrambled for the lifeboat, it was only another dozen meters down a side hallway.  And indeed in a few more seconds he had reached it.

    Umraar slammed the activation code in as fast as he was able, the doors to the lifeboat opening with agonising slowness to his hyper focused mind.  He scrambled onto the small vessel, essentially a small independent ship that is capable of detaching from the main vessel in case of an emergency.  It had a fully enclosed and independent radioisotope electrical generator that would keep the ship powered for months if necessary.  The main issue he would experience is the lack of atmospheric stores for his suit and food he was capable of metabolising.

    He stomped over to the pilot¡¯s seat and started the detachment sequence, that was when he glanced behind him and noticed the small crowd of voidites that had just rounded the corner and were barreling towards him at speed.  He swore loudly and mashed the door button, it was going to be close.

    He stood and grabbed the nearest blunt object he could find, in this case a large metal can of something called SPAM.  It was heavy and that was good enough for him, he hefted it and threw it down the hall nailing the lead creature as it was unable to maneuver out of the way in microgravity.  The next one almost made it through the outer doors as they finally snapped closed, its body crushed by the two metal plates as they sealed together.  Then the inner doors sealed and the lifeboat shuddered as it detached from the Prosperity¡¯s Lure.

    He sat back into the pilot¡¯s seat as the much larger wastelander class prospecting vessel seemed to drift away.  Slowly at first and then with increasing speed as its engines accelerated it faster and faster.  He watched it for a moment before his first stomach seemed to drop and he made a small bleating sound of alarm.  Lomb had turned the ship around and was now speeding straight back towards the wreck they had just left.

    Umraar put two and two together and shook his helmeted head.  That cantankerous old atraxses was going to ram the wreck of the Hope, likely in a self serving act of revenge.  The ship could be cleared with the proper equipment, it would just take time.  Instead it looked like it would be lost.  The faint white streamers of leaking atmosphere showed the progress of the small prospecting ship as it sped away in pursuit of some terrible honorless fate.

    The dwindling mote of the Prosperity¡¯s Lure soon vanished into the shadow of the great floating ice mountain, it had to be almost a hundred kilometers away at this point.  Even so, he saw the flash of a tremendous explosion as Lomb finally met his ancestors on its icy surface.

    Umraar sat heavily, not even having been aware that he had stood.  He looked around the lifeboat.  There by the back door were the sleeping chambers and storage racks, there was enough food in his room to last him for several weeks if he rationed it.  The more concerning items were life support packages.  The small vessel had power and life support to last four humans almost three months, but his life support booster packs would probably only last two weeks.

    Umraar moved from the storage to the other console station, this one set up for the ship¡¯s main communications array.  It had a built-in quantum link, the ultra long range communication device was tied into a corresponding machine back in one of the main systems nearby.  It was essentially an FTL distress pulser.

    He switched it on, the red light flicking to a blinking blue as the signal was successfully sent.  It would turn a solid green when the transmission had been seen and then to orange when help was dispatched.  In that way he would always be aware of how close to being saved he was.  Not that knowing would really do anything other than cause additional stress.

    Umraar finally sat back into his chair, the full totality of the day¡¯s events washing over him as he finally let his beleaguered mind rest.  A film of liquid obscured his vision as he began to sob openly, unable to wipe the tears from his face under his environmental helmet he let the tears flow.  His head hung limply as he tried to get himself under control, the shivers of shock making his blunt teeth chatter slightly.  He knew that there was nothing more he could have done to help the situation.  He had tried to suggest a deep scan, but as the newest member of the crew he had the least ability to affect the outcome of things.

    Umraar sat back in his seat and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself.  He opened his eyes, blurred vision filling with millions of stars.  The cosmic splendor worked to calm part of his mind, assured in the knowledge that the universe was vast and he was simply a single part of the greater whole.  He closed his eyes again, the fatigue that filled his bones seeping outwards till it claimed his whole body.  Just before he went to sleep he smiled, the small blinking light had switched from blue to green.  Help was on the way.

    Umraar allowed himself to drift off into sleep, the echoing screams of nightmares tugging on the edges of his weary mind as his awareness drifted towards the cold oblivion of unconsciousness.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Doomsday

    Doomsday

    The view from the top of the regional command spire was resplendent. The shining crystal towers and dark blue alloy columns of the space elevators combined to create a captivating vision of beauty and industry. The harmony was only marred by the ugly bronze shapes of the battleships hanging low in the planet¡¯s orbit, close enough to almost touch the tops of the vacuum pillars that siphoned the raw cosmic energy of the void. Azriel leaned on the safety railing on the inside of the windows and let out a small sigh, his head tendrils flashing a pale lavender in response.

    The windows, nay most of the structure, was constructed from brilliathist. A material of superb tensile and compressive strength and beauty. All the strength and finery in the universe wouldn''t help him now, for the end was upon them. The dark tears of anti-reality rifts could be seen far out in the depths of the void overhead. His highly advanced cybernetic eyes were able to zoom in far enough to make out the tiny dark shapes of ships exiting from the dark stains on reality.

    This war had been raging for hundreds of years by now, they had started to call it The Oblivion Conflict as the enemy took no prisoners and left naught but barren charred rock in their wake. Azriel had seen the recent footage of the war over the neuralink network, the horrifying visions of anarchy and death appalled him to his very core.

    The Celestials were not a peaceful race, not by nature, but their violent past was many thousands of years behind them. They had been collectively unprepared for conflict on this scale, and when word had spread of entire worlds burned to cinders many had refused to believe the news. Azriel could remember the first reports as if they had happened only a decade ago instead of hundreds of years.

    He had been but a hatchling at the time, only a bare thirty or so years in age by the reckoning of their homeworld¡¯s star. The news had suddenly changed, the caster becoming agitated as they began to read reports of death on a scale that could scarcely be imagined. It had originally been reported as some catastrophic natural disaster, nobody even imagined it could have been intentionally perpetrated. For who could imagine the evil that could murder trillions with such little remorse or pity. Men, women and hatchlings, all reduced to atoms and scattered to the solar winds. Not even the planet itself had survived, the force of its death so great that the very mantle had cracked open and spilled its guts into space.

    And then the true horror, it happened again only days later. A single time was a catastrophe, but two times? Two times was a deliberate attack. Something out in the great dark was hunting them, wiping them out with the skill of a trained murderer. They had never even seen it coming.

    Azriel had been fifty when he answered the call. Almost too young to fight, he had nevertheless left his parents'' palace of shining crystal and burnished chrome to fight an enemy they barely understood. For who could understand the mind of a destroyer, and how naive they had been about the great enemy''s true nature.

    Shaking himself from the echoes of the past he looked up to the heavens once more. The heavens that burned with the fires of war, his head tendrils flushed a deep scarlet in anger at the sight. Azriel could see bright flashes of light as the two opposing forces met head-to-head, their clash so fierce it periodically lit the city below in hellish red strobes. He watched as the first bright streaks of falling debris began to tear bloody red gashes across the skies, the wreckage burning in the high oxygen of the planet''s atmosphere.

    The Celestial homeworld of Sheilnova had vastly higher oxygen levels than were normally seen on inhabited worlds. Rather than the more common twenty percent oxygen content expected, Sheilnova instead had an average oxygen level in the low forties. This super oxygenation made it dangerous to use uncontrolled fire as it would quickly consume almost anything remotely flammable in its vicinity till all was an inferno.

    He watched as the superheated ruins tumbled into the city far below amid acrid plumes of smoke and debris. He was too far to hear the noise, but he could see the chaos as if he was standing right in the middle of it. He closed his eyes and tried to think of happier times, but all he could think about was his first battle.

    Azriel stood in his shining Celestial Battlesteel plate armour and carried a Nullspear across his chest. A nanosaber blade on the end of a pure Stritemis Carbide haft. The orders to muster on the main deck had come across the ships neuralink only minutes before. Years of training had led him to this moment, finally he would be allowed vengeance for the uncountable trillions slaughtered by the forces of the dread Mathias.

    A being of such evil and terrible power had never been seen before in all the long and bloody history of the galaxy. It was theorized that the being known only as Mathias was not in fact from their galaxy, nor even their universe. Theories about the origin of the Cosmic Cycles were well known and documented.

    It was established fact that every two billion years the universe was wiped clean of all complex life. The only things that seemed able to survive were simple life and space faring civilizations that used primitive sublight technology. Anything remotely advanced would be destroyed as if it had never been. But there were clues left behind, fragments of chaos as they were generally called. Remembering his first encounter with the forces of evil, he recalled the monsters that were deployed against his fellows.

    The boarding panel¡¯s opened after the shuttles had made contact with the enemy ship, the sound of high energy weapons fire the first thing he noticed. The second was the smell. The enemy ship smelled of burning metal and death, the scents mixing like some unholy amalgam of spice and fire.

    The next thing he noticed were the enemy themselves, the most wretched and twisted abominations he had ever laid eyes upon. Their twisted and malformed bodies looked as if nature had taken the blueprints of life and then spilled acid across them resulting in the misshapen horrors he saw. Their arms and legs were asymmetrical and their heads had too many eyes, four seemed natural to him, but these had dozens. Dozens of partially milky orbs that gazed in every direction at once as they fired wildly into his companions.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    He had hefted his nullspear in a shaking grip before charging the abominations with a scream of righteous fury on his lips. His head tendrils flared a muted orange as he fought his own fear that threatened to overwhelm him. He remembered the feeling of energy blasts glancing off his armoured chest, the smell of ozone that pierced his respirator and the sound of bones snapping as he plunged his nullspear into the upper body of one of the abominations. It flailed and screamed as it died, its lifeblood a horrid greenish ooze that made Azriel feel sick to look at. It wasn''t like the pale clear liquid that coursed through his own veins, somehow even the very lifeblood of these monsters was corrupt.

    He was jolted back to the present as the tower he was in shuddered. Looking down he could see the twisted form of wreckage spiraling away into the depths of the city. The rain of debris from the battle above was picking up, pieces of both friendly and enemy vessels now raining fire over the city. He bowed his head so as to not witness the death it caused, his head tendrils flashing a deep teal as his sorrow and fear mixed with hatred.

    The Great Pact was supposed to protect them from things like this. The Great Intergalactic Pact of Nonaggressive Expansion was a treaty that had been signed millennia ago after the territory wars waged by the major factions of the galaxy had nearly torn it apart. The major factions at the time, The Greanth and The Great Ones combined with The Thousand Celestial Stars came to an agreement that they would stop encroaching on each other¡¯s territory. For a time there was peace, but it couldn''t last.

    The Greanth were the first to break the pact as they moved towards the protected outer reaches of the Celestial territories. If only the reigning council had seen this move for what it had really been instead of interpreting it as an act of war. The council had been rash though, too hungry for the old glories of their blood soaked past. Instead of helping these refugees, they destroyed them. And with their destruction went any hope that there could ever be an end to the slaughter.

    The Greanth were too proud to ask for help, and we too violent to offer it. Only the Great Ones could have stopped the carnage growing in our own lands, but they had their own problems as they were the first to be attacked by Mathias. He knew that they were the link that kept the Pact stable and that destroying them would make us turn on each other. It was as if Mathias knew our hearts, our deepest weaknesses. But if the theories were to be believed, that was likely true.

    Azriel paused his thoughts, his head tendrils glowed a muted lime in confusion. What had disturbed him from his memories? He looked up and shrank in terror as he saw it.

    The thing that met his gaze was a vision from his darkest hell, a ship so vast that it seemed to stretch into the very depths of the void itself. Its armored hull was blacker than night and bristling with weapons of every conceivable type and size. It was The Ruinstorm, the personal vessel of Mathias themself.

    That meant it was truly over, for nothing in their arsenal could even hope to stand before such a mighty edifice of pure destruction. The ship was said to be older than time itself, a fragment of reality from a destroyed universe populated by tormented ghosts. The Cosmic Destroyers, the perpetrators of ultimate carnage.

    He watched in terror as the last of the planets brave defenders were wiped out of existence as one might brush mere motes of dust from the air. The terrible weapons of the Ruinstorm were so powerful that they caused reality itself to tremble in fear. Some of the ships vaporized, others detonated as great explosive warheads pierced them. But far more terrible were the ships that simply ceased to be, destroyed by anti-reality weapons so powerful that they tore the very fabric of space and time to tatters.

    With the last defenders gone the enemy fleet backed away, their job of entertaining their dark master now complete. The vast shape of the dark worldship moved ever closer to the planet and he said prayer under his breath and pushed away from the railing. There were no godly powers that could save him, nothing in the universe that could offer him salvation. But he would be damned if he died like a simpering coward.

    Standing straight and trying to appear as stoic as possible, he watched the terrible black ship slow to a stop. It hung in the air, obviously far closer than it should have been able, no reaction thrusters or gravitational lifts evident on its titanic underside. It was as if it simply ignored the gravity of the planet below.

    He shut all four eyes as a searing beam descended from the ship and to the planet¡¯s surface far in the distance. Even though the beam had impacted hundreds of segments away, he knew it was already over. The ship stayed for a moment longer and then began to draw away, apparently satisfied with its handiwork. As it moved out and into the dark depths of space, Azriel watched the dark blots of anti-reality drives as they wormed through the fabric of the universe and carried his killers away.

    He leaned almost bonelessly against the railing as they left. It was over, they left not to spare him or his people, but because they knew they were already dead. Azriel looked to the horizon, a horizon that was brightening like a sunrise on a clear day. It wasn''t the sun that brought life to a new day however, but a wave of death that would consume them all in its fiery inferno.

    Azriel stood and turned. He was exhausted, this war had taken its toll on him and he was an old man now. Still, he never would have guessed all those centuries ago that it would end like this. No, as a youth he had been so overconfident, so arrogant. Nothing could hurt him because he was a righteous defender of the weak and a Celestial soldier. But he knew better now.

    He had buried numerous friends, brothers and sisters he had fought with uncountable times, and he was the only one left. It seemed fitting he thought as he poured himself a drink from a crystal decanter. Walking back to the large window he took a drink, with no ability to change the outcome he made peace with it. No sense dying enraged when it would do no good, so he sipped his drink peacefully as armageddon approached.

    **********

    The wave of fire spread from the point of impact on the planet¡¯s surface, consuming everything in its path. A wall of seething destruction as high as the sky itself washed across mountains and cities alike, burning them to embers and then rendering the embers to scorched atoms that were cast to the void in its wake.

    A large tower of shining crystal stood atop the pinnacle of a city of silver spires. It trembled as the wave reached it before crumbling like the corpse of a tree scorched by lightning. The aftermath of the destruction left naught but charred barren rock, the very atmosphere of the planet seared away. The planet swung through the darkness around its orphaned star, a smoldering corpse bearing testament to the ultimate evil of a being known only as Mathias.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Into the Eyes of Annihilation

    INTO THE EYES OF ANNIHILATION

    Galag¡¯Eriak¡¯s bladed head drooped unto the skin-folds of their chest, they were so very tired, but they couldn''t sleep just yet.  A job still needed to be done, and Galag would not stand by to see everything they had yet worked for come to naught simply because they had too much sweeg to drink last night before bed.

    Rubbing their tired dual-eyes with long, four jointed fingers, Galag checked the status of their Onapper drive.  The strange piece of drekkg technology was counter to everything that Galag thought they understood about the nature of the universe.  But who were they to try and understand the mysteries of the drekkg?

    Galag shifted their posture slightly, their long many-jointed legs creaking slightly.  The ship was built specifically for them, their species at least.  Each of the ten-thousand exploration vessels that the Coalition of Integrated Nations had sent into the Great Void was crewed by a single member species of the Coalition.  Ten-thousand ships in total, all with a single mission.  Explore the darkness.

    The greatest scientific undertaking ever launched in known history, that''s what the media were calling the expedition back home in the Emzeem Galaxy.  But they had left that behind more than three long months past.  They had been pointed to the Great Void that lay alongside the edge of their local supercluster, the massive dark stain on reality was as ominous as it was mysterious.  No signals could be detected originating from it, nothing had ever been observed inside it.  At over three-hundred-million light years across, it was by far the largest single thing in all of existence aside from the universe itself.  They had been tasked with delving into that miasma and discovering why it was there and if it was truly as empty as it looked from the outside.

    Galag shook their bladed head in mild fascination once more.  Their ship was a marvel of technology.  The size of a city with living space for only a single passenger, themself.  The rest of the gargantuan construct was all powerplants and the mysterious Slip-rods that allowed the ship to transcend their known spacetime to a higher dimension.  This allowed for vastly faster than light speeds at the cost of tremendous amounts of energy.  Luckily for them the ship had reserves for nearly one hundred years.  They had food and supplies to last that long too.

    In order to cross the vastness of the void in that time the ship would have needed to travel more than three-million times light speed, and that was without thinking of a return journey.  No, the ship may have been fast.  Many hundreds-of-thousands of times faster than physics should allow, but it was nowhere near those mind fracturing speeds.  If they tried to cross the Great Void in its entirety they would find themselves dead more than a thousand years before they ever crossed that threshold.  And that was assuming the ship¡¯s drives lasted that long. A truly impossible feat to comprehend.

    Galag turned their thoughts from such terrible potentialities.  All that would serve to accomplish would be to cause stress and further alarm.  No, they instead sat back into the padded crash-couch and closed their dual-eyes.  One thing about the void that they had quickly learned to enjoy was the silence.  Not the kind that you might experience when stepping out of a crowded concert hall into an empty corridor.  But a true silence, a silence of the mind.

    Galag was telepathic, as were all members of their kind.  They had evolved on a frozen tomb of a world called Poffinat, their sun being the only warmth in their early years.  Their people had discovered that their sun seemed to speak to them, or so they had thought at the time.  The deep grumblings that seemed to come from the sky and had permeated their minds and their culture were in fact their sun communicating.  Just not with them.

    Their sun was alive, not in the conventional sense, but a structured assortment of particles existed in its upper layers acting in a manner similar to a neural network.  The strange high temperature polymers allowing for the formation of thoughts and even the ability to direct gamma radiation in strange ways.  This solarian ascendus, as they had taken to calling it after discovering its true nature, was simply one of thousands of such living stars in their galaxy.

    This was the most closely guarded secret of their people, not shared even with those of the Coalition they might consider their staunchest allies.  Who would have believed them anyways, a sentient sun?  Preposterous, except it wasn''t.  Not to them.

    Galag smoothed their skin-flaps as the ship shuddered slightly.

    ¡°Damn shakes..¡±  they muttered.  They had been assured that the shakes were simply a byproduct of the massive slip-rods cooling as they were cycled in and out of the drive chambers.  But they still made Galag uneasy.

    They were not even close to their goal.  Fifty years in, fifty years out.  They had plenty of entertainment material on board as well as all the amenities they could squeeze on including a large cold conservatory, the plant filled room acted as both their backup life support and also a place of tranquility and normalcy to relax in during the long voyage.

    They stood from their padded chair, determined that as long as nothing was happening, it might as well keep on happening alone.  They were going to go and get a munstern sandwich.

    **********

    Galag rolled over in their sleep and then jolted awake, the piercing wails of an alarm causing them some small measure of trepidation.  For a moment they lay there, their body not quite ready to respond to their commands yet.  But as the flashing lights and alarms blared, they finally dragged themselves upright and groggily walked into the nearby kitchen area.

    They quickly brewed themselves a cup of saffre and sat at the nearby counter.

    ¡°Computer, what is it this time?  Not another rogue black hole I hope.¡±  Galag said tiredly as they sipped the lukewarm beverage in the chilly ship air.

    They half expected the somewhat dour AI to complain about their tone, but instead the ship''s learning computer simply made a series of calculating noises.  The binary tones grating to Galag¡¯s enervated mind.

    ¡°Trying to analyze the data, the ship has been slowed to five percent superluminal speed.¡±  the flat tones of the AI spoke with

    Galag shook their bladed head, dual-eyes narrowing on the nearest active console.  The one smashed by them in an enraged stupor almost a year ago.  They still had not gotten around to replacing the broken screen, but it was immaterial.  The mission would continue without the use of a single kitchen terminal.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    They couldn''t see the data the computer was displaying, but they could still communicate verbally with the machine.

    ¡°Negative energy readings off the scale.  Danger!  Danger!¡±  the computer spouted before they could even ask.  The ship jolted, hard this time.  Far too hard to be the slip-rods rotating.  No, the ship must have dropped fully out of drive.  The vessel crashing through three lower dimensions before once more settling in regular space.

    ¡°What in the name of Sauk!¡±  Galag cried out as they were thrown to the floor violently, their saffre splashing across the cold deck plates and their cup shattering into a thousand shards of hardened pottery.

    The lights slammed into alert mode, the deep yellow flashing making their dual-eyes swim.  Galag climbed painfully to their feet, little more than bruised but still wary of their situation.  In all of the decades they had been traveling they had never experienced such a steep deceleration curve, and that had only been from five percent their maximum speed.  What would have happened to the ship if they had dropped from full speed?

    They shook their head, no time for such musings.  They needed to get to the bridge as soon as possible.  They took off at a run, not even bothering with breakfast or the mess in the room as they rushed along narrow halls towards the front of the ship.

    After a few tense minutes of slightly panicky running, they skidded onto the main deck of the bridge.  The small room was dominated by consoles and screens, almost all of them flashing a dangerous dark yellow.  Several were green but most seemed to be in some manner of meltdown.

    Galag threw themselves into the padded captain¡¯s throne and pulled up the readings before recoiling in surprise and more than a little confusion.

    ¡°Computer, this doesn''t make any sense.  These readings must be faulty.¡±  Galag spluttered, their mind trying to grasp just what the systems were telling them.

    The AI responded almost as soon as the words left their mouth.  ¡°I can assure you this data is most accurate.  To within a few hundred kilometers too.¡±

    Galag¡¯s lower jaw was hanging open.  It wasn¡¯t possible.  According to the computer¡¯s quantum tunneling scanners, the space in front of them was occupied by a vast object.  So big it boggled their mind and tore at the corners of their understanding.  They were one of the most intelligent and premiere scientists of their species.  But they couldn''t even fathom how anything solid could exist at such galactic proportions.

    They sat back in their seat and rubbed their eyes with long fingers.  The reading must be wrong, they had to be.  Galag decided to pull up the external scopes.  They were still a thousand light years away, but as big as the thing was purported to be, they would not be able to miss it.

    Galag swallowed heavily and peered through the scope.  At first they saw nothing, just the same never ending darkness of the void, the faintest of pinpricks visible.  That was odd, they had never been able to see the other side of the void before.

    The pinpricks moved.

    Galag shouted in alarm as the darkness seethed.  It wasn''t the void, instead it was something vaster than imagination, something that was as dark as the void itself.

    ¡°Get us out of here!¡±  Galag screeched, a terrible foreboding crashing down upon their mind, the feeling that something was horribly, terribly, wrong.

    The computer seemed to warble for a moment before sputtering nonsense.  ¡°The eyes have seen the beauty of the void.  The eyes have see.. *crrzztt* ..auty of the void¡­¡±

    It continued on like this.  The static that interspersed the words growing worse with each cycle.  A haunting groaning noise echoing through the background static.

    Galag stood and looked both ways, there was nowhere to run.  With the computer shot they would have to manually activate the Onapper Drive and pilot a course away from the thing outside.

    They rushed to a nearby command and control console and switched it on, fiddling desperately with the controls before realising they were locked out of the computer.  Galag kicked the computer rack, swearing at the pain in their armoured foot as they demanded, ¡°Computer!  What are you doing!?¡±

    ¡°Do you hear the sound¡­¡±  the AI asked suddenly.  Galag¡¯s eyes widened, the sauking computer had gone insane!

    Galag jumped up to rush the ship''s computer core when something froze them in their tracks.

    The silence disappeared.  Their mind, once a refuge of solitude, now suddenly became swamped with a cacophony of base noise.  The telepathic link that Galag had with other sapients was suddenly inundated by thoughts far too ponderous to understand.

    They couldn''t move, their body had fallen to the deck plates.  The cold air felt like fire on their skin as they began to shake.  Each crushing emotion or thought that rolled over their disturbed mind felt like trying to wrestle a continent or pick up an ocean.  Their own will was completely powerless against the sheer immensity of the thoughts that crashed into their mind.

    Their eyes were facing the main screen at the front of the bridge, the large screen still showed the outside.  Its macro lens focused on the thing in the dark, the thing that seemed to draw nearer with every second, the small pinpricks growing brighter and larger as it approached.

    With mounting horror the small part of Galag¡¯Eriak¡¯s brain that remained conscious realised that the lights were eyes.  Great shining white orbs larger than entire solar systems glared at the ship.  A tiny invader in its territory, this vast thing turned its gaze upon the ship, and Galag screamed.

    They screamed as the weight of infinity pressed down upon their shattered mind.

    They screamed louder as something within looked at them, its gaze full of malice and its hunger insatiable.  It had consumed galaxies, universes even.  Galag felt the last vestiges of themself slipping away, and grasped to them like a drowning man would to a chunk of flotsam.

    Their screaming stopped, their vocal cords shredded, bloody spittle and foam dripped from their mouth as it was opened wide in silent agony.  Galag heard a series of snaps as their wildly spasming body broke its own bones in its attempt to escape the torment.  But it was not enough.

    Galag¡¯s mind unraveled, madness followed.  The pressure exuded on their mind by this thing was killing them.  Simply by being in its proximity.

    As the last vestiges of Galag¡¯s tortured mind were crushed and these crushed pieces were absorbed into that great mass of hunger, they felt a single coherent thought stab into the core of their mind.  Gutting its remains as easily as one might crush an insect.  Galag¡¯s horror reached a new peak as they felt the thing tear the location of their home from their flayed mind.  A sickening sense of satisfaction seemed to emanate from the titanic presence.

    Galag was destroyed.  The Leviathan passed through the space their ship had occupied, its dark flesh consumed the ship without even noticing.  The dark mass moved impossibly fast without ever leaving realspace.  Its very existence twisting and then shattering the natural laws of the universe.  Space itself was consumed upon the beasts passing, a wave of destruction that now arrowed itself towards the distant worlds of the Coalition at a speed that should have been impossible.

    The inhabitants of that great galaxy spanning empire had sent an emissary to stare into the depths of the void, and the eyes of annihilation had stared back.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Shining Knight, Festive Nights

    Shining Knight, Festive Nights

    Neirdith walked from the cargo hold slowly, her horned head down and her long sinuous tail flicking in concentration as her attention focused on the manifest she was holding. She frowned slightly, it didn''t make any sense. When they had left the station she had told Grendal and Seth to get the essentials, nothing more. So why was she looking at a manifest that listed a plethora of delicacies that were normally only eaten in times of celebration.

    Deciding to get to the bottom of the list she almost walked straight into a huge wall of dark gunmetal grey armour. She stopped suddenly, jerking slightly as she realised that her route to the galley was now blocked by a huge figure, their squat form almost three and a half meters in height. On the front of the huge metal titan burned two molten mechanical eyes, the orange glow emanating from them illuminating her slightly as they turned to look at her. She couldn''t help but feel a slight tinge of trepidation as those orbs met hers, they seemed to burn with a malice that came from untold eons of suffering and hatred.

    Instead of imagined violence, the figure spoke cheerfully. Their voice synthetic and heavy, like the grinding of continents and the collapse of mountain ranges. ¡°Hello Neirdith. I was told to gather you by Gloom who relayed the message originally from Seth. I learned from Gloom that you were present in the cargo hold so I endeavored to follow my instructions. Please, come.¡±

    Without another rumbling word, the huge figure turned and started to stomp away, the force of their footfalls making the reinforced deck plating of the main corridor shudder slightly. She smiled as she followed the giant being. She remembered the first time she had ever laid eyes on Skorr, they had been trapped inside a solid chunk of twisted metal that looked to be indeterminablely old. And she knew from tidbits of information that the huge cyborg had dropped in the past that they were far older than any living being had any right to be. More ancient than any living species that walked the galaxy today.

    She shook her head slightly, her jet-black hair falling back between her two horns in a neat ranxtail, or ponytail as Seth liked to refer to it. Some reference to another of the murder beasts from his hellhole of a homeworld no doubt. She knew that Seth wasn''t actually from Earth, but you could take the Human from Earth, but never the Earth from a Human. She chuckled a little as she and Skorr finally reached the large open room they referred to as the galley.

    Stopping in the doorway she looked around in mild confusion. She saw virtually the entire crew of The Shining Knight in front of her. Creesh and Jessie sitting very close together at one of the tables, Creesh¡¯s small wingtip graspers wrapped firmly around the slight form of Jessie, the Human man¡¯s cybernetic hands working on something out of sight on the table in front of him. Across the table sat Samantha, the muscular furred Yeown woman wearing a somewhat revealing top, her furred chest more exposed than usual by the deep vee cut shirt she was wearing.

    As Neirdith looked around the room she spotted the unmistakable form of Grendel in the kitchen area to the back of the galley. The huge alien was a Vinarfel, looking similar to Earthly centipedes; he was grizzled and scarred from a long life of military service. His carapace was dark brown with red slashes and his silvery grey compound eyes shone in the bright lights of the ship.

    She decided to make her way to him, passing by Samantha on her way to the kitchen. She looked to see what the three were working on and was a little confounded to see them wrapping small boxes in colorful looking paper. An idea started to form in her mind, a suspicion as to what was going on. She decided to hold the thought till she knew more however.

    As she reached the opening leading to the kitchen she smelled the scent of cooking, her mouth began to water of its own accord as the smell of sweet delicacies met her senses. She could smell the aroma of roasting meat and the unmistakable heavy sweet tang of buttery goodness. Feeling slightly distracted she entered the kitchen and jumped as Seth scooted by her with a muttered apology.

    ¡°Oop, sorry Neirdith, I almost didn''t see you there. I see Skorr was able to find you then.¡±

    She shook her head slightly to clear it and looked at Seth. Both her oldest friend and lover, Seth was a Human male of average height and build, meaning she was much taller than him. His wavy brown hair was slightly slicked with sweat as he labored in the hot kitchen, but his vivid blue eyes were bright and shone like gemstones. She scooted a little closer to the main cooking area to see what he was working on and caught the sight of a large hunk of meat cooking in the oven.

    Grendel Skittered over, his multitude of legs clicking on the floor and his ten arms performing a multitude of tasks simultaneously. He spoke without the hissing accent more common amongst his people ¡°Hello Neirdith. I see you have been drawn to the smell of celebrations as well. I am glad that we could celebrate the holidays like this, it is good to get back to traditional roots every now and then.¡± He finished with a small expulsion of air as he hefted a large sack of flour.

    She just nodded and made a motion for Seth to join her by the counter she was leaning on.

    Seth stopped what he was doing, chopping some sort of fibrous vegetable that looked distinctly Gre¡¯vahn in nature. He sidled up to her and leaned forwards to plant a kiss on her chin as it was the highest he could reach while she was standing. ¡°Hey babe. What¡¯s up?¡±

    She just sighed and asked ¡°Well I was going over the cargo manifest and noticed some discrepancies. But I think I know what they are now. What are you and Grendel doing?¡±

    He smiled wide, his tiny canines glinting next to his more conventional flat teeth and answered proudly ¡°Well. We have had a tough run lately and I felt that nothing would help to bring the crew together like celebrating the best holiday in the universe. The Festival of Giving!¡± he finished proudly with an even wider grin.

    She looked around, the sight of Grendel frantically preparing a holiday feast for six different species all at once. She knew that Skorr and Gloom didn''t eat and so they were likely excluded from the act of feasting, but the rest of the crew seemed to all have their own micro feast prepared for them.

    She had already seen the large roast, likely for Samantha or perhaps Grendel himself, the counter next to the oven was piled high with various fruits and vegetables with a distinct sparkle that told her they were silicon rich food for Tahj. The large Gre¡¯vahn¡¯s biology intrinsically different from that of many of the others on the ship. Looking around she spotted a multitude of fresh and dried insects for Creesh, the little avian woman insectivorous by nature. She smelled butter and the earthy scent of mushrooms, her mouth once more beginning to water. She grinned at Seth, her flat grinding teeth flashing as she replied ¡°I think it''s a great Idea. though a little warning next time you plan something like this. You are my second in command, but you should still report non essential purchases to me in the future. Please?¡± she added as the man seemed to huff slightly.

    ¡°Okay. I promise I''ll let you know next time I plan a surprise for you.¡± He said a bit sarcastically before jerking as she whipped him with her tail. ¡°Ayy, hey! Okay fine. But I want at least one freebee a year. Ah ah ah, that''s the best I''ll agree to.¡± he said quickly, waggling a finger as she opened her mouth to argue.

    She sighed, he was stubborn, like all Humans. She knew that she wasn''t likely to get a better deal than that and so gave in saying ¡°Okay then, but only one. But I want to know the moment the surprise is over okay?¡± he just gave her another shiteating grin and bounced away to help Grendel with something.

    She rubbed her eyes as she walked from the kitchen, frustrated but also a little relieved. That was one issue solved, now she just needed to figure out what to do about their contract. Before she could worry about it more, her eyes widened in surprise as two more figures walked into the room.

    The first was Tahj, the Gre¡¯vahn man tall and stately in his white medical garb. His personal heraldry shining from the adorned sash he wore. His family¡¯s history evident from the honor badges and medals that hung from the silken cloth. His wide feline features surveyed the room and landed on her, his large eyes silver with flecks of green. Raising a hand from his upper torso he waved to her, his four clawed legs making slight clicking noises as he started in her direction.

    Her surprise had been reserved for the second figure however. In the doorway to the galley was a large smokey black crystalline entity. They had four legs and two shining dark obs on the front of their headless body that seemed to take in the entire room all at once. It was Gloom, the enigmatic and somewhat dour Jeseo who spent almost all of their time hooked directly into the ships heart as his species was able to directly interface with computers due to their bodies being composed of a biocrystalline superconductor known commonly as jeseorite.

    Gloom¡¯s body was small for a Jeseo, only standing about one hundred and sixty two centimeters in height, but the density of their body made them weigh well over a tonne and a half. Their heavy plodding steps thudding across the floor as they made their way to the middle of the room.

    Tahj loped over to her as she turned away from Gloom¡¯s movement. She was rather tall, almost two meters in height, but she had to look up to see Tahj¡¯s face as the Gre¡¯vahn man was over two hundred and forty centimeters tall at the tips of his pointed ears. He looked down at her and asked ¡°What is the occasion? A celebration of victory perhaps?¡±

    She just shook her head slightly, her tail flicking as she gathered her thoughts. Passing a long fingered hand over her swept back horns she tried to explain as best she could. ¡°So, Seth and Grendel decided there wasn''t enough holiday spirit on the ship and are cooking dinner for the Festival of Giving. I think the idea is sound, but I just wish we had some warning to prepare for it beforehand.¡± she finished with a grumble.

    Tahj just laughed, a full bellied sound that made the others in the room turn to look in curiosity. ¡°Oh that''s rich. Trust a Human to come up with a surprise right? The Festival of Giving you say? Then I am to assume we should prepare a gift?¡± He asked her, his tone curious.

    She waved a hand, not sure of how to respond to that. She didn''t have any gifts prepared, how could she have? She had only learned they were doing this about five minutes ago after all.

    She sighed and walked over to where Gloom and the others were, Tahj following behind. Skorr was too large to fit in the galley, but she knew he would be watching them from the main entrance, likely just as curious about this as they were about everything.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    As she reached the gathering she heard gloom speaking, their translator converting the electrical language of their people into recognisable speech as the Jeseo had evolved on an airless planet and so lacked the ability to both speak or hear.

    ¡°--Excitement-- This is very new. I have never had occasion to attend a celebration in this manner. What do I do? --Confusion¨C¡± the large smokey black Jeseo asked, their translator picking up stray emotions as they spoke.

    Samantha shrugged her large furred shoulders and pointed a meaty hand at Jessie. ¡°Ask Jessie, he knows about Human holidays more than I do.¡±

    Jessie smiled and shifted, Creesh snuggled up to him like he was a pillow. ¡°Yeah. Er, The Festival of Giving is one of Humanity''s oldest traditions. Almost as old as Hallowed Eve, but instead of celebrating life, the Festival of Giving is all about friends and family. You give gifts, spend time doing activities, eat good food and drinks. Stuff like that.¡± he finished.

    Gloom seemed a bit disappointed by the somewhat mundane explanation, their posture slumping ever so slightly. She wanted to say something but Creesh cut in before she could, the small feathered woman¡¯s melodic voice sounding like two people speaking at once. ¡°That¡¯s it? What about the gifts, is there a reason behind it? Why the end of the year? What''s the point of it all?¡± she said, poking Jessie in the ribs with each subsequent inquiry and making him grunt.

    He looked around, the faces of those present expectant and full of curiosity. ¡°Well¡­¡± he started before a slightly crackling voice sounded from behind them.

    ¡°It''s about friendship.¡± Grendel said.

    Everyone looked at the huge insectoid standing behind her as Seth walked up beside him and nodded. Seth began ¡°Yeah, so the story goes like this. Back on Earth, way far back in the past, there was a wise king named Santa. He ruled a wealthy kingdom far to the north, but he wanted more. He wanted to get good trade deals with the kingdoms around him so he decided to throw a massive festival. Giving out gifts and celebrating friendships and alliances, word of his generosity quickly spread. Soon everyone wanted to be his ally to get in on the gifts and celebrations. One day he died, an old man but wealthy beyond words. His sons continued the tradition of their father though, giving lavish gifts and receiving them in return. The tradition had become a thing of its own by this time, the act of giving for no reason but love and appreciation during the darkest and coldest time of the year, a phenomenon that never stopped. And that¡¯s the true meaning of The Festival of Giving.¡± he finished with a slight flourish as if asking for applause.

    After a second Jessie spoke up. ¡°Hey, wait a minute, that¡¯s not what my Mother told me when I was a kid. She said it had something to do with God¡¯s son and the spirit of sacrifice.¡±

    Grendel looked between the two and asked ¡°Is it not about the act of ceasing hostilities? I was told the tale of two Human armies as a larva, bitter hatred for each other had caused a great war to erupt and the two opposing sides fought violently against each other. But they were evenly matched and a stalemate soon transpired. This stalemate continued until one cold winter''s day some men decided that they wanted to know who they were fighting. They yelled their names across the desolate blasted waste of no man¡¯s land and got their enemies names in response. This conversation continued till both sides were as well acquainted as old friends. In the spirit of communication they met in the middle, a spontaneous ceasefire of proportions that had never been seen before, nor since. They exchanged gifts and swapped stories, they shared rations and talked of home and their plans for the future, and when the sun fell below the horizon they bid farewell to each other, knowing that upon the coming morn they would once more be enemies but happy in the comradery they had shared. For a brief moment not enemies, but people, simply people.¡± he said in a long-winded speech.

    Neirdith was flabbergasted, how could a single holiday have so many different origin stories? ¡®What was the true message, which beginning held the secrets of The Festival of Giving?¡¯ she wondered to herself.

    Surprisingly it was the rumbling voice of Skorr that spoke next from the galley¡¯s entrance, breaking the pregnant silence with a single question. ¡°Why is the origin important?¡±

    She looked around, seeing the looks on the faces of those she loved and considered her family. Skorr was right, the ancient titan once more seeing the world not as a series of complex consequences, but as a simple place of action and reaction. She nodded and spoke up suddenly ¡°Yeah, Skorr is right. Who cares where it all comes from, what matters is what meaning we find in it personally. I''m here, nowhere else in the universe I would rather be than with those I love.¡± she said and stepped to Seth¡¯s side, her tail wrapping around his waist as he leaned into her side.

    Creesh chirped ¡°I second that!¡± as she hugged Jessie even tighter.

    Grendel seemed to perk up, his face incapable of smiling, but his antenna lifting and his demeanor changing. ¡°Well. With that, I declare the dinner complete!¡± he announced to the cheers and excitement of those seated around the large table.

    Neirdith and Seth followed Grendel to the kitchen area, the long serving window filled with a multitude of dishes and delicacies. She heard the scuffle as everyone else followed them to the feast that had been laid out.

    Grendel spread all five pairs of arms and said ¡°Well? What are you waiting for? Dig on in, oh but make sure you are eating from the dishes labeled safe for your consumption.¡± She smirked at that. It was an obvious thing to say, but it was still necessary to say regardless as not everyone could metabolize the food that others could. Well except Seth and Samantha. The Humans and Yeown were interesting in that they could digest and extract nutrients from almost anything. It was ridiculous to the point of Humans and Yeown being able to digest things like minerals, glass, some metals and even certain types of polymers. Sure those were not exactly nutrition filled, but the very fact that Seth could eat a handful of steel bolts and not die was still incredible to her sensibilities.

    So while Seth loaded up his plate from almost the entire selection of delectables, she stuck to the small area labeled ¡®Nerivith¡¯. Her people were fungivores but able to process some limited meat proteins, their copper based blood requiring a healthy dose of the mineral meant that the livers of various Earthly cattle were very nutritious indeed. Loading up on a large portion of chopped liver, Nurshtops and a few other types of mushroom she didn''t immediately recognise, she turned and walked back to the table where the sound of chatter could already be heard.

    Sitting next to Seth she ate her meal slowly, savoring each and every single bite. Seth and Samantha on the other hand seemed to be trying to eat the other under the table, both going back for first seconds, and then thirds. She shook her head as Grendel began to tell some tales from his youth of things he had seen on distant worlds and places long past. She smiled in contentment. This was exactly what life should be about, no worries about the troubles of the galaxy. Just good friends, and good food.

    Seth leaned on her and groaned, holding his stomach. ¡°Ohh mannnn. I think I ate too much.¡± he groaned in obvious discomfort. She just shook her head and looked at Samantha.

    The large Yeown woman was in a similar state, her large furred head down on the table, her tongue lolling out of her toothy mouth and her eyes glazed over as she seemed to be in a daze. The plate in front of her littered with the scraps of her meal.

    Seeing Gloom standing nearby she motioned them over and smiled as they plodded to her side. ¡°Hey, sorry you couldn''t join us Gloom.¡±

    Seth raised a hand as she finished and muttered ¡°Actually. We had something for him. Hey Grendel, can you show Gloom their thingy?¡±

    Grendel, who had been busy eating a truly huge piece of bone-in roasted meat, his radula slowly dismantling the large hunk bit by bit, stopped eating and set his meal down. Cleaning off his greasy hands with a convenient piece of cloth, he moved back from the table, his stature not allowing him to sit at a chair like the rest of them. He skittered over to a corner of the room and called Gloom over. Neirdith was intrigued and decided to follow.

    Seth groaned as she moved him from her side to the table, his posture mirroring that of Samantha as Neirdith stood and followed Gloom to the far corner of the room.

    She was mildly curious, but Gloom seemed to be positively incensed with a fascination towards the large object that was sitting covered next to Grendel. As they reached the large Vinarfelien man, he gave a little bow with his upper body and said ¡°Never let it be said I ever left a diner unsatisfied.¡± and then proceeded to pull the cover off the mystery object.

    Gloom made a strange series of noises as their translator was completely overwhelmed with input. She looked more intently at the strange device. It was about the size of an oven with a complex series of buttons and dials on the front. It seemed to her to be some sort of capacitor bank with a lot of added complexity. As she came to this conclusion she realised what it must be.

    As Grendel helped a static spouting Gloom turn the device on, she asked ¡°Wait is this what I think it is?¡±

    Grendel stopped a moment and replied ¡°Well, if you are thinking it is a state of the art solar emulator then you would be correct. With this Gloom should be able to mimic the unique power output of any known star in the database. They can feel the cool pulse of Barnard¡¯s star of the harsh solar storms of Scorch Prime.¡± he said matter of factly.

    Gloom was far too preoccupied with the machine to pay them any mind, but she smiled at the large beings'' obvious excitement. Their translator had given up on trying to translate and had instead shut off completely.

    She and Grendel moved away, leaving the large dark crystal to their own devices and she asked ¡°That¡¯s super sweet of you Grendel.¡± the large man shook his chitinous head though.

    ¡°I must admit that it was all Seth¡¯s idea. Where I personally had not even entertained such an idea. It shames me that I would not have put any thought into Gloom¡¯s enjoyment if Seth had not been there to remind me. I am sorry.¡± he said.

    She shook her head and gripped the large man''s third right shoulder, stopping him. He gave her an almost unreadable look, only the twitching of his face plates and antennae giving his discomfort away. ¡°I think you did a great thing here tonight. Gloom will likely never know unless you tell them, and I don''t want you too. They deserve to think that this was your idea, you know they are feeling depressed lately, think of how they would feel if you admitted you didn''t even think of them? I know it''s not great to lie by omission, but in this specific instance I believe it''s the right thing to do Grendel.¡± she told him.

    He seemed a bit uncomfortable at first but then nodded. ¡°Okay Neirdith. If Gloom does find out it won''t be from me.¡± and then he walked away, towards the kitchen. He was likely going to start cleaning things up now, always a busy body.

    She reached the table and sat by Seth once more. He looked at her and smiled. ¡°I got you something, but I don''t want to give it to you here.¡± he said.

    She smiled and leaned close ¡°Oh? That''s fine. Because I have a gift for you as well, but you are going to have to unwrap me back in our room.¡± he frowned before the light of understanding crossed his face.

    ¡°I, oh. Oh! Uh, yeah. I can do that.¡± He said with a laugh and a wink. She smiled and batted his head with her tail.

    She giggled and looked back around the table, the smiling faces and cheerful conversation filling her heart with love and appreciation. Not even a year ago she had been stuck in a dead end job she had hated. Now she owned her own ship, had a new family and friends. She said a quick thanks to the powers that be and joined into the conversation.

    **********

    Skorr watched their friends from the doorway, not able to directly participate but happy nonetheless. A feeling they were still getting used to. For eons they had known only rage and pain, but then Neirdith had saved them. She had shown them that there was more, and for that Skorr would forever be in her debt. They would follow her anywhere, do anything she asked of them. This small gathering was insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. It paled to absolute nothing compared to the things they had seen and done in their unfathomably long existence. But now, at this moment, Skorr could think of nothing more important in the entire universe. Settling back unto their massive mechanical legs, Skorr decided to rest, no reason to guard her now, nothing here would hurt her. Nothing would ever harm her again as long as they were near.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: The Price We Pay

    The Price We Pay

    The Heinkel Class ATT dropship screamed through the thin upper atmosphere of the planet Orengur like a meteor made of shining keensteel. As it dropped to the planet''s surface, its hull pinged softly as it slowly cooled in the foggy air of the small, wooded area it had landed in. Upon the shining hull of the vessel a curious emblem was emblazoned, a bird of prey over a half circle of lines and showing an arrangement of starbursts.

    A door on the vessel¡¯s side opened and a contingent of soldiers marched out in orderly formation. There were nearly eighty of them in total and their superiors quickly established ranks and platoons. The soldiers were quickly briefed and then they split up to move their own separate ways.

    Private first-class Freddy Jidders shivered slightly in the cool air. The humidity was cutting straight through his standard issue Union army fatigues and seemingly to his very bones. It couldn''t have been that cold, maybe a bare nine degrees Celsius. He adjusted his combat vest a bit in hopes it would help to take some of the bite out of the air, it did not.

    Freddy sighed loudly as they stopped in a thicket and their lieutenant spoke up, ¡°Alright ladies, there has been heightened rebel activity sighted in this entire sector and we have been brought in to deal with it. Break up into squads and move into delta formation, we are going to run a sweep, if you see anything suspicious call it in immediately. These slurge¡¯s have been known to set up ambushes.¡± The Nerivith woman finished with a wave to her command squad.

    Freddy moved off after his platoon leader as they split from the group, heading in a similar direction to the other squads but separated in order to cover more ground. He looked around, they had no heavy weapons and were marching right into an area known to be laden with ambushes. He couldn''t help but feel like they were making a terrible mistake, but he was a good soldier and followed orders.

    As their small ten man unit made its way through the brush, his platoon leader raised his scaled hand to halt. The man was Slaaveth, the semi aquatic race hailing from the ocean world of Abyss. Freddy had always wanted to visit an ocean world, coming from an arid desert colony himself and having never seen anything bigger than a pond. His parents had laughed at his childish wishes and told him that he would never see an ocean, and so when he had turned eighteen he had enlisted in the Union army in order to escape that barren dust ball and his parents. It had been a good decision at first, till the war had started.

    Freddy had suddenly found himself in the middle of a conflict of indescribable proportions, hundreds of planets had seceded from the Union and joined with the rebels and their so-called Hegemony of Independent Systems. The Sapient Congressional Union had been forced to declare a full-scale war when a series of terroristic attacks on major Union military bases had resulted in the deaths of millions of Union citizens and soldiers. The destruction of Sector Eta marked the first of countless atrocities perpetrated by the rebels in their misguided fight for independence. As if the Union was some sort of bogeyman to their existence, Freddy almost snorted out loud at that thought but suppressed it. It really wouldn''t do to get reprimanded in the middle of a conflict zone for his errant imagination. As if his thoughts had been broadcast to the world, the silence ended. With a flash that would have been blinding had he not been wearing his visored combat helmet, a flare went off directly overhead.

    In that moment all hell broke loose, bright green tracers and the searing red beams of lasers crisscrossed the small, wooded area. Trees and brush were set alight from the incoming munitions causing his HUD to glitch out with false signatures and ghost targets. Freddy dropped to the ground and rolled into the cover of a nearby tree, he looked over just in time to see his platoon leader ripped apart by some manner of heavy weapon. From the whisper-crack of the impact it had probably been a gauss gun, a favorite of the Yeown rebels for its size and power.

    The Yeown were the newest race discovered by the Union, they had taken to the galactic community a bit reluctantly, seemingly distastefully in fact. Now he had known many Yeown in his life and most had been amenable enough people, albeit a bit overly prideful. But he would have never expected them to have started such a conflict. And it wasn''t just them, just as many vinarfelian and Human worlds had turned to the Hegemony as well as a few Nerivith strongholds and Slaaveth colonies.

    Something splashed across the ground in front of him and it took his brain a moment to recognise the purplish liquid as the remains of one of his Slaaveth squadmates. The blood seeped towards him but he didn''t move from cover as it began to soak into his uniform. He would rather be coated in the filth than poke his head out and lose it.

    After a short while the fire seemed to die down a bit and he peeked from cover, the forest was burning, trees like torches rained burning embers across the destroyed copse. He scrambled to his feet and fully unslung his weapon. As a standard rifleman, he had a choice of platforms to use, the ever efficient MR-12 or NUV series beamer being popular choices. He hadn''t liked the characteristics of either however, the MR-12 performed well against unarmoured targets and the beamer worked well up to ranges of about three hundred meters, but they both had drawbacks he couldn''t ignore as a soldier. So instead he had decided to field the much less common LMR v.14. The light machine gun was a pain to carry and ate through ammunition like a noppin through drumble, but it was effective against both light and medium armoured units at up to five times the range of a beamer.

    Whipping out of cover he sighted on the first bit of movement he saw and opened up with a fully automatic stream of copper jacketed death. He watched as the figure jerked and went down like a sack of flour, he moved his fire over the approach and was rewarded with another two confirmed kills as well as numerous shouts and howls of alarm. He jumped back into full cover as a storm of return fire pelted the tree he was hiding behind. Another whisper-crack announced the gauss rifle again as a hypersonic slug tore completely through the tree right next to him. He dropped immediately to the ground just as another shot tore through the tree directly where he had been standing. With a weapon of that power on the field, all his cover was rendered entirely irrelevant. A full meter of wood had done almost nothing to slow the slug and he knew that if he was struck directly he would be torn to pieces just like his platoon leader. He took a quick look around and swore, his entire platoon was down, it was just dumb luck that he had survived unscathed it seemed. They had walked directly into the ambush like cattle to the slaughter.

    He could hear shouts, less this time as he had done some damage, but he knew he was going to die here. He would be damned if he would go out without making an impact though. Looking at the cooling corpse of the man next to him he smiled as he saw the bandoleer of high explosive grenades on their dead chest, that would help a bit. He put his gun down and made a grab for the belt, unhooking a grenade, he primed it and then threw it as hard as he could towards the approaching rebels. After a second of silence, a loud crack and the sound of surprised scream, he threw another to similar effect. Return fire whizzed all around as the incoming soldiers were reminded that he was still alive.

    Freddy smiled and unclipped the belt before he slung it over his shoulder and scrambled for a nearby rock. He felt a tug as something passed close enough to hole his pants leg, but he made it to cover otherwise unscathed. He took a second to reload his LMR with a fresh belt of ammo as the previous was nearly expended. The small pings of ricochets and the deeper crack of impacting high velocity ammunition made him wince, his hearing was protected by his helmet however and he unhooked the last two grenades. What he wouldn''t give for a Lasbur or a Specter heavy railgun at the moment. But he would have to make do with what he had, the rock he was behind was barely thigh high and he was lying on his back as he prepared to throw the two small balls of death.

    With a small prayer to Lady Luck, he threw them overhand in a high lob, making sure they went as far as he could safely make them go. Twin explosions and the wild sound of shrapnel whipping all around was followed by a deathly calm. No return fire assailed his position and no shouts of anger or pain fell on his ears. Had he killed them all? He wanted to look, but that was not the best idea he knew. He pulled out his small radio and tried to raise anyone on it, but all he got was static. Damn it, he was being jammed, of course he was.

    Freddy rolled over and very carefully peeked his head out from around the corner before reaching down and pulling out his service pistol. The sidearm felt tiny in his hands compared to the bulk of the LMR, but it was a much easier weapon to wield in close quarters and in these kinds of uncertain situations slow reactions meant death.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    Standing slowly to a low crouch, Freddy moved out of cover, his LMR slung across his back in case of emergency, the weight would slow him, but he would rather have the bulky weapon as a fall back than nothing. He rounded a tree quietly and twitched, his pistol snapping to the rebel soldier in front of him leaned against the tree. It took him only a second to realize the Yeown was no threat, the woman¡¯s eyes were glassy and her clawed hands clutched her ruined throat. She looked to have taken a direct shrapnel hit, and the Yeown were similar to Humans in the fact that this was a mortal wound.

    He tore his gaze from the large alien and continued moving, after a few more meters he heard a snap and whirled only to jerk as something smashed his chest. Another two impacts rocked him as he half jumped, half crumpled into the cover of a nearby tree. Coughing from the pain in his chest he looked down.

    ¡°Ah, shit¡­¡± he grunted as he saw the blood spreading across his fatigues under his chest plate. At least one of the shots had pierced his armour and dug deep, deep enough that it only registered as dull burning ache. As he wheezed he sat up as best he could, he tried to take off his harness but found that his fingers had no strength, they simply slipped off the flaps again and again. He swore again and coughed before hearing a rough chuckle from somewhere behind him.

    ¡°Heh, got you good it sounds like. Damn. What a fight.¡± a mysterious and husky voice said.

    He tensed and thought about going for his gun before realizing he was dead anyways. ¡°Yea. I''m a goner, holed a lung I think, not sure, can''t really feel anything.¡± Freddy said. The voice was silent and he asked. ¡°So? What now? Want to come and finish me off?¡±

    The voice chuckled again followed by its own racking wheeze. ¡°Not going to happen bub. I''m not in any position to get to you, that last grenade you threw must have hit my spine, I couldn''t move even if I wanted to.¡± the voice said.

    Feeling a bit more confident now that imminent death was avoided he asked ¡°Welp, looks like we are stuck then. What''s your name, mine¡¯s Freddy.¡±

    The voice was silent for a moment before it called back ¡°Oh by Frine who cares anymore. My name is Drescol. I''m from Mountain Veil, you?¡±

    Freddy smiled in spite of his situation, he replied ¡°Oh? Isn''t that where the Hegemony started?¡±

    Drescol coughed out ¡°Indeed it was, and what a glorious rebellion it was. But I''m afraid it has all gotten a bit sour tasting now.¡± the man said, trailing off a bit into another rattling wheeze.

    Freddy decided that if he was going to die, he might as well try to make it to a pleasant conversation. ¡°Hmm, Where am I from, what''s to tell. It was a desert colony world in the ass end of the outer rim to the galactic south. Small towns and dusty fields, the people were pleasant enough but that''s all there was. No oceans, no mountains, just never-ending plains of corn and wheat. My parents told me I would never see the galaxy and that I would be stuck there like them and their parents before them. Heh, if only they could see me now.¡± he chuckled to himself.

    Drescol seemed to think about it as he replied softly ¡°It sounds like a peaceful place. Mountain Veil was always a tough place, her people made hard by the cold. They liked to fight, and when push came to shove we couldn''t back down. What would you have done if an occupying force tried to change your fundamental way of life?¡± the rebel asked him with genuine curiosity.

    Although he could not see the other man¡¯s face, Freddy knew that he was being sincere. He searched his heart and came to a staggering realization, he didn''t actually know why they were fighting. ¡°You know, I don''t even know why we are fighting man¡­¡± he said.

    Drescol was quiet as they seemed to think. After a painful moment the other man¡¯s voice replied ¡°I. I don''t really know either. At first I thought it was about Independence, but then I realized that it was less for freedom and more for control. The people at the top of this war are benefiting from the deaths. Likely making millions off this pointless fighting. Hey, Freddy was it? You like rock music?¡± the Yeown male called to him.

    ¡°What?¡± he asked, taken a bit aback by the sudden question?

    Drescol¡¯s voice came back, a bit strained ¡°I was curious if you liked rock music, I love it. The Flaming Meteors are one of my favorites.¡±

    Freddy smiled, he remembered listening to the Flaming Meteors as a kid with his older sister. He frowned as he thought about her, she was probably still stuck on that dry dirtball and living the life he left behind. Luck, he hadn''t talked to her in years, was she okay, was she married by now? These questions flooded his fading mind as he called out to the other man ¡°Yeah. Yeah I do.¡± but he was met with nothing but silence.

    ¡°Driscol? Hey, Driscol? You still there?¡± he called weakly, but got no answer. He swore quietly and leaned his head back against the tree. It seemed that he was alone now, alone among a garden of corpses. The crackling of burning trees was the only sound as he opened his helmet''s visor. The smokey air made him cough, but he smiled. It was real, fresh under the soot. This was a planet that was mostly natural, not covered in the massive industrial and agricultural complexes of most Union worlds. He closed his eyes and breathed deep. The smokey smell reminded him of his youth, burning wood in an old cast iron stove because his family couldn''t afford the electricity for a powered heater. Maybe things would be better if people could just see each other for who they were, not where they came from. Freddy relaxed his muscles, he was so tired. He smiled as he started to drift off to sleep, maybe he would see the ocean finally in his dreams.

    ***********

    Freddy awoke to blinding light and pain. He coughed and tried to sit up before realizing he was restrained. After a second to let his eyes adjust he discovered he was in a hospital, but not a permanent structure as the walls were cheap steel plates and the lights were hanging from exposed hooks. A field hospital then, he was still on Orengur then.

    He tried to speak but found his throat disobeyed him for thirst. He croaked and someone seemed to notice his wakefulness. A Nerivith man, skinny and tall in his white medical garb, glided over to his side and checked his vitals before looking into his eyes. The nerivith¡¯s deep purple eyes seemed to be full of sadness but he asked Freddy in a calm and level voice ¡°Hi. How are you feeling?¡±

    Freddy mustered his strength and managed to rasp, ¡°Water¡­  Please¡­¡±

    The Nerivith nodded and said ¡°Of course, here allow me to assist you. He touched a control panel on the edge of his bed and it adjusted to a sitting position with a faint mechanical whirr. After a moment the nurse produced a small canister of pure water and a straw before he lifted it to Freddy¡¯s cracked lips.

    It was just water, plain and slightly warm, but it was the best tasting thing Freddy could ever remember tasting in his life. He tried to suck down more but groaned in frustration as the container was pulled away. The man chuckled and said ¡°Whoa there friend, not so fast, you will just make yourself sick. You have been unconscious for almost five days, we thought you would be stuck in a coma but here you are. Now, please tell me, how do you feel?¡±

    Freddy took a moment to take stock of himself. He ached all over, but he didn''t really hurt anymore. His limbs felt weak, but he was restrained anyways, most likely for his own safety. ¡°I feel okay given the circumstances.¡± He groaned. ¡°If you could untie me though that would be nice.¡±

    The Nerivith man smiled, his blunt fungivorous teeth flashing briefly. ¡°Certainly Freddy. And I want to be the first to say, your recovery is nothing short of miraculous. To see the Human resilience in action first hand has been enlightening to me on many levels. For example, did you know that when they found you your heart had slowed its rhythm so much they had thought you dead at first. It was another Human that had to convince them you were still living, just comatose.¡± the man said excitedly.

    Freddy couldn''t help but smile a bit at the man¡¯s enthusiasm. ¡°So I¡¯m built tough, nothing surprising there huh?¡± He joked.

    The man nodded vigorously, his tail lashing excitedly enough that Freddy was afraid he might lose it. Before the Nerivith could regale him any further he jerked and checked the small device strapped to his wrist. ¡°Oh, I''m terribly sorry, but I am being called to another patient.¡± the man said, sounding truly remorseful.

    Freddy decided that he liked this energetic man and raised a weak hand as he said ¡°Well, better hop to it, I''m Freddy Jidders by the way.¡±

    The nurse bounced slightly and let out an excited noise as he said ¡°A traditional Human greeting! Oh my yes, I am known as Devan Iteeal, a pleasure to meet you!¡± He jumped again as his assistant beeped audibly at him this time. He gave a sad look and said ¡°I really must go, maybe we can talk later?¡± He asked Freddy in a hopeful voice.

    Freddy smiled and said in a slightly gravelly voice ¡°Sure Devan, anytime.¡± the man rushed out of the room leaving him alone. The silence was only punctuated by the faint sounds of activity in the background. He sighed and laid back into the covers, he was still sitting but figured it was comfortable enough. He decided that this was it, he was going to try and get a medical discharge. The war had lost all appeal it may have once had, he saw no reason to the bloodshed, when people like Drescol and him were out slaughtering each other for some unfathomable reason. ¡®Why?¡¯ he asked himself. He couldn''t think of an answer. He frowned and decided that he would try and make his own destiny from this point on, no orders, no war. Just him and the universe, and all the time he had left to see it.

    Closing his eyes he smiled. Sinking deep into the covers his breathing became slow and steady as he drifted off into a deep sleep. He knew what he was going to do, he just needed to make it happen now.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Essence of Armageddon

    Essence of Armageddon

    The starry expanse of endless void was still.  Nothing had disturbed it for eons, but the void didn''t care.  The void simply existed.  Suddenly there arose from the void an explosion of light, particles of it spinning away like motes of hot embers from a fiery explosion.  But this was no ordinary event, for in the wake of the cataclysm, a ship drifted.

    Hubb looked out through the transparent aluminum viewing portal of the FES Jullesion.  He was her captain, and she was his chariot to the infinite beyond.  As this was his first exploratory mission, he hadn''t expected to find anything out of the ordinary.  Finding lost alien civilizations was a fairytale, something that only happened to old graying veterans of space travel, not young whitelings like himself.  He was only six years past the age of self administration and he had yet to have any of his gray feathers grow in, yet there it was.

    He settled himself in his command throne more comfortably and used his forward arms to check their position on his command console.  As the captain, he was responsible for all command decisions that happened on the ship.  He could delegate lesser tasks, but an operation of this scope would need his direct authority to mount.

    Clicking his blunt taloned fingers against the armrest of his chair he opened a com link to Juleen, the head of his expeditions science division.

    He asked her ¡°Juleen, what is the situation over there, any readings yet?¡±

    She squawked back, irritated ¡°No, nothing yet.  We detected the transmissions that led us here over six hundred light years out.  But there is nothing coming from the planet''s surface that we can detect from this distance at least.  As we get closer my equipment will get more accurate with their scans.¡±  she finished.

    He nodded his head and clacked his beak in annoyance, his first mission, and the first thing he discovered was a dead world.  Sure it was still a remarkable find and would have the science community up in arms, but his discovery was tainted by the knowledge that he could have been the first.  The first Dramite to discover living sentient life.  They had plenty of information that suggested that sentient life had existed in the past, but most of it suggested they all destroyed themselves.  It was downright uncanny, as if there was some genetic imperative for these dead civilizations to kill themselves.

    His communicator buzzed and he answered ¡°Captain Hubb, what is it?¡±

    The voice of his chief engineer Sark filtered through, slightly fuzzy from the interference of the warp core.  ¡°Captain, we have an accurate read on the inner system, we should be able to jump in almost on top of the planet now if you want.¡±

    Hubb nodded and idly scratched his side with one of his rear arms, This was a step in the right direction.  ¡°Okay, do it, but make sure you don''t dip us below three hundred kilosegments.  The planet still has a residual atmosphere and we could get dragged down if we get too close.¡±  he warned.

    Sark gave a small chirp of acknowledgement and cut the line.

    A slight humming seemed to fill his head, coming from everywhere at once.  His feathered crest stood on end and he tensed his muscles even though he knew it would do nothing.  A moment later his mind blanked as the ship dipped into warp.  They were only traveling a short hop and they were out before his mind had really had time to process what had happened.  Shaking his head to clear it and smoothing his ruffled feathers with all four of his arms he stood.  Moving forwards on the command bridge he approached the large viewing portal.  While it could be manipulated to show enhanced images, it was set on zero magnification at the moment, and the view was as stunning as it was saddening.

    A world turned below them.  Speckled blue and green with the remnants of lakes and forests, it was the large grayish brown patches that grabbed his attention.  Those were blast zones, the radiation left still hot enough to prevent nature from returning.  The edges of the zones were sickly orange and yellow as the plants that grew there died young and suffered from horrific genetic mutations.  Some of the blast sites seemed to be tens of kilosegments across, those must have been truly titanic blasts, nothing but fission weapons could have created such scars.

    He opened communications to Juleen again and asked ¡°Hubb to Juleen, are we close enough for the sensitive equipment yet?¡±

    She answered almost immediately ¡°Yes captain, we have it calibrating now and are trying to filter out the worst of the background radiation.  It may take a while before we find something, if we find anything at all.¡±

    He let out a rush of air at her comment, while patience was the friend of all spacers, it would be truly devastating to have his first discovery be a complete loss.  While he was quite familiar with disappointment in his life, he was unaccustomed to failure.  He had been a model hatchling and had quickly distinguished himself from his peers by passing the entrance exams a full two years early.  The attention this had garnered him had allowed him to become the youngest exploration captain in history, he needed to find something.  He had everything to prove to those grays back home who called him infant.

    ¡°Copy that Juleen, keep me posted if you find anything.¡±  he chirped into the mike cheerfully before cutting the communication.  He turned around and walked past the command crew, the middle aged spacers were veterans of many voyages.  He had gathered the best crew his influence could get, and due to the reputation of who his sire had been, he garnered a lot.  Hubb entered into the long hallway walking along on his back jointed legs.  The grand repository was the font of all the ship''s knowledge, and while he saw the value of having paper printouts, he still didn''t know why it was customary for these explorations to document everything on hard copy.  Surely computer technology had progressed to the point where these redundancies were unnecessary.

    His people valued information and wisdom above all other traits, he had often wondered if that was why they had lived when so many others had destroyed themselves.  Was it possible they valued things other than knowledge, things like material wealth or physical possessions?  These things paled compared to the true value that lay in knowledge and scientific findings, that''s why there were so many explorations sent out every year, and when a home could be found to colonize, they did so in order to expand their base for wisdom.  He himself was as knowledgeable as he could reasonably have been expected to be, knowing the inner workings of the natural world as well as the workings of the political one.

    He stopped outside a huge locked door and put one four fingered hand against it, this was the repository.  It was only able to be accessed if all three of the ship''s main officers permitted it in order to preserve the precious documents from damage or worse, manipulation.

    His chest mounted communicator buzzed again and he tapped it to join the call.  It was Juleen who warbled excitedly ¡°Captain Hubb, we detected a signal originating from the planet¡¯s surface.  It''s just over the horizon from us now but should be in full view in just twenty two lesser spans.  Were you planning to mount an expedition?¡±  she asked, abuzz.

    He thought for a moment, the surface was dangerous, covered in unknown lifeforms and swamped in lethal radiation.  Anyone sent to the surface was likely to be killed or irradiated within moments unprotected.  Luckily they were prepared for exactly these kinds of hazards.  They were equipped with a full complement of armored biosuits that would block radiation as well as protect from predators.  That not being enough, the explorers were to be equipped with Mark III Lightguns.

    Lightguns were similar in principle to standard lasers except they did not use capacitors and crystals to maneuver energy into continuous beams of coherent light.  They instead worked by using high powered lasers to detonate a tiny pellet of tritium, the resultant wash of high energy light was contained via ingenious magnetic fields to push the light out the end of the emitter in a single pulse.  This resultant light pulse could melt steel and vaporize flesh.  It was as much a step above laser weapons as lasers were over slings.

    He started to walk his way back to the bridge, twenty lesser spans wasn''t very much time to send an expedition, he would have to settle for a probe on this first pass.  Then they would have to wait a further three greater spans to be back in position.  Nodding to himself he decided that was the best course of action.  Patience was key to obtaining true knowledge, and knowledge was power after all.

    **********

    Sark sat for a moment, he had been hard pressed to prepare a probe for launch in less than twenty lesser spans, but he and his team had gotten it done.  Hubb had congratulated them on their hard work and it had made his breast swell with pride for his team.  They had grown together on this trip, becoming closer than crew, more like a family.

    The feed from the probe was being relayed to them via a quartet of counter orbiting satellites, they would ensure uninterrupted connection to the probe as it roved around the area of interest down on the surface of this world.  He wondered, not for the first time, what the planet''s inhabitants had called it.  Was it something as unimaginative as the Dramite homeworld of Nest, or something more meaningful like his homeworld of Emerald.

    He watched the probe footage as it dropped like a lead hooking weight into the dry atmosphere of the silent world.  As it began to heat up and atmospheric friction slowed its descent a series of large chutes deployed and it drifted towards the ground.  As its speed dropped further it began to unfurl slightly and dropped its heat shield.

    The probe reached the ground in one piece and opened all the way.  Inside was a small rover that was programmed to scout the area immediately around the probe automatically.  Using sonar and lidar, it was able to accurately map its surroundings and paint him a three dimensional image of the landing site.

    The probe had landed only a few hundred segments from the origin of the signals.  The area was still in early daylight and he frowned as nothing seemed to show on the scans.  The probe was detecting the signal, but it was jumbled as if it was cutting through thick interference.

    Sark leaned towards the screen he was watching as the rover moved around a small mound of debris.  Then he saw it, what appeared to be the remains of some sort of structure jutting up from the blasted ground.  He commanded the rover to investigate and was shocked to see it was some sort of buried structure.

    The bunker was squat and gray, an imposing edifice against the ruin all around it, it was obviously made by advanced people for the sole purpose of being durable.  While there was significant damage from the nuclear blast on the near side of the structure, he had the rover move around it and discovered the far side was in much better condition.  He frowned as he observed the titanic armored door of the bunker was partially buried in the dirt.  It had gigantic grooves scoured into its armoured surface that almost looked like claw marks, but no animal could have done that surely.

    He directed the probe to enter the partially buried facility but almost immediately got a signal error.  Of course the fallout bunker was likely to be radiation shielded, that would make his remote controlled drone useless.

    He opened a comm line to Captain Hubb and said "Captain this is Sark.  I have located the source of the signal but the location is heavily shielded, recommending we send a team down to the surface."  He finished tersely.

    He heard the reply from his communicator and nodded as Hubb said ¡°Sounds like a plan, I was planning on sending down Juleen and a team, you and a few of your team should tag along for technical support as well.¡±

    Sark perked up and fluffed his crest a bit as he answered ¡°Yes sir, I will prepare them right away.¡±

    He hurried to the main deck of the engine room and began to gather the members he wanted to accompany him on the expedition.  Those not picked were a bit crestfallen not to be on the first trip but he assured them that they would get their chance to explore the planet in due time.  They had a whole world of secrets to uncover, it might take them many years to finish.  As he talked with his team he grew prouder of them for their resolve and excitement.  These were truly the best kind of family to have, reliable and intelligent.

    **********

    Juleen switched off the panel she had been using to observe the last moments as seen from the rover.  It had gone dark only segments into the structure suggesting that its walls were likely coated in an antireflective material layered over some sort of radiation blocker like lead or hydropolymers.

    She gathered her workspace together and loaded the more pertinent items onto the small trolley next to her.  Sticking her small recorder into the waist pocket of her lab coat she started to push the trolley along the halls of the ship towards the hanger.  She was about to visit an alien world, a dead one, but still exciting.  What relics would they discover, what mysteries might be unearthed?

    She moved quickly along till she reached the small hanger, it was just large enough to house two shuttles that could carry a relatively large payload of materials or people from the ship to the planet and back again.  It was fueled by common elements and should have the kick to get through the planet''s atmosphere without issue.  There was the problem of radiation damage though and she noticed that many of the more sensitive components of the shuttles were retracted back into their hulls.

    She ignored the fact as it had no pertinence to her mission and loaded the trolley and herself onto the nearest shuttle.  She cracked her beak as she saw Sark and some of his technical staff along for the ride.  Good, it always helped to have a few grunts along for the heavy lifting.  She walked to her stabilization pod and opened it, inside was an armoured environmental suit.  She had worn its like before in training many times, but this time it had more significance as she stepped into it.  As the shell locked around her form she warbled happily to herself in excitement.  This was really happening, she was about to start her own journey towards ultimate knowledge just like her dam before her.

    A few lesser spans later and she felt the shuttle lift from the ship and enter the void of space.  The artificial gravity was lost as they left and she felt her insides do a slow churn as she entered freefall.  The discomfort lasted for only moments before the powerful engines of the shuttle kicked on to arrow them towards their distant target.  The ride through the atmosphere was rough and she watched it through the viewscreen of her suit helmet.

    They entered the atmosphere proper and the shuttle started to maneuver as it bled off speed from its hypersonic descent.  They landed quickly and she saw her stabilization pod open and the others began to stir.  She stepped out, the small powered servos of her heavy suit making it possible to shift the heavy mass.

    While not weak, she wasn''t particularly strong and would have struggled to move in the suit unaided.  She walked off the ship slowly, taking care to avoid any large rocks or bits of blasted debris.  It wouldn''t do to travel hundreds of light years only to trip and die of radiation poisoning on her fist true excursion.

    She stood and observed the surrounding area, it was just as blasted and dead as it had appeared from orbit.  The gravity of the world was comfortable, if a bit higher than normal.  She knew there were areas of wilderness around the blasted zones, but the species contained within could be dangerous and would be explored at a later time, for now, the signal.

    She jumped slightly as she felt a bump on her shoulder and she half turned to see Sark standing by her.

    "That was a bit startling."  She said to him.

    He just shrugged as best he could in the suit, its servos whining as they tried to mimic the gesture.  "It wasn''t my intention to alarm you Juleen."  He said apologetically.  "I was just excited, this is new ground, not just for us, but our entire species."  He said with a grand gesture towards the distant horizon.

    She followed the movement, it was near noon and the harsh yellow star burned hatefully in the sky, it cast its malevolence across the landscape like the radiation her suit was blocking.  Without the protective layers she would have been dead in mere lesser spans.  She said a quick thanks to the allfather for the rational thought that had led to the creation of the suits.

    Knowledge was important, the most important thing in the entire universe in fact.  Only black holes were a mystery to it, and even those abominations followed their own brand of twisted logic.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Sark''s voice came to her again as he said "You have seniority on this mission, when are we moving out?"

    She answered him with a placid chirp and said "Right now if the equipment is ready."

    He nodded and motioned to his small team to follow.  She called her team together as well and they began to move as one towards the decaying bunker.

    **********

    Sark was nervous, he wouldn''t admit it to anyone, but the dark yawning abyss of the corrupted bunker filled him with dread.  He knew it was irrational, everything in the area was dead, there was no way there was anything dangerous down there.

    Swallowing his fear he switched on his helmet lights and started into the darkness followed closely by his team and Juleen.  Her presence here was a comfort to him, he knew of her dam and why she was here, there was no Dramite better to have by his side.

    He slowed as he found the rover, it had continued to drive straight after its connection had been lost and it had run into a wall further into the structure.  He knelt slowly and began checking it with his forward arms while he pulled out a dataslate with his rear left arm.  Scanning the rover and then syncing it to his slate, he stood and moved back a pace.

    "What are you doing?"  Juleen radioed to him from the other side of the hall.

    He gave her a wave with the dataslate and said "I slaved the rover to my control, we can use it as a mobile command platform now.  It''s big enough to carry the supplies for us."  He said with a pat on the rover''s flat top.

    She seemed to mull it over before she agreed and motioned the crew to place their luggage on the rover.  Thus unburdened, they were able to make quicker progress down the sloping tunnel that turned to the left.

    The tunnel seemed to go for kilosegments but was likely less than one.  As they reached a larger open space he noticed that the main tunnel seemed to lead to a series of branching corridors.  He pointed to the nearest and said "If these aboveground scans are correct, that tunnel should take us in the direction we need to go."  He said looking at his readouts.

    She asked "Are you sure about that, I can''t get a good fix down here.  It''s these walls I think."  She said as she looked around.  The suit lights did a good job of lighting the darkness around them, but it was still a dark, gloomy place.

    The walls were made of some sort of concrete and coated in a viscous enamel that seemed to absorb the vast majority of their low bad radiation, visible light was minorly affected making the walls seem to drink in their light.  The darkness pressed close but he realised the radiation had dropped significantly.  It was almost low enough to be safe here.

    They walked down the tunnel he had indicated and continued for a few dozen segments before he noticed a bundle up against the wall.  He stopped, curious.  "Do you see that?"  He radioed Juleen.

    "I see it, is that what I think it is?"  She asked him as they inched closer.

    "Well, if you think it''s a corpse then you would be right."  He said over the link.

    A body it was indeed, mummified by the dry air.  The body was grotesque and it took him a full lesser span to figure out why.  The mutilation of the creature was nearly complete, it was as if they had been crushed by some massive force.  He couldn''t even make out the shape of the body fully.

    Forcing down his revulsion at the dead being, he turned to Juleen and said "We should take some samples and be on our way."  She nodded and radioed to some of her team.

    As the scientist took samples he radioed Juleen on the command channel and asked "Did you see that body?  There was no way that was blast damage, not this far down the tunnel."

    She shook her head and asked "But why would they have been there in the first place?"

    He remained silent as he had no answer.  After a little while, they continued on their way, the tunnel was unbranching and seemed to go on forever, but they eventually reached a point where the tunnel split into two separate paths.

    After a few lesser spans of deliberation they decided to split up, they would each take half of the others team down one of the paths, Juleen decided to take the right and he took the left.  They would meet back in two greater spans if they found nothing of value.  Otherwise they would just send a runner to gather the others before then.

    The complex was huge, the ceilings were at least five segments tall and the walls almost eight segments across.  It was probably used as a vehicle access point and there were likely hidden ventilation shafts all over the base.  Though their suits had their own internal air supply, enough for twelve hours.

    He led his group into a large hanger area and opened his beak in awe.  This cavernous bay was filled with partially decayed vehicles, though they were in remarkable condition for their age.  The signals they had intercepted had given out about five hundred light years from the planet suggesting that what had occurred had happened sometime in the distant past.

    He walked forwards and marveled at the plethora of vehicles on display, it was then that he noticed something odd.  There were smashed barricades near the far wall and he could see multiple damaged vehicles.  There were even two destroyed vehicles that exhibited the traits of heavy armour with their tracks and large bore cannons.  Though the hull plates ripped off and twisted metal buckled inwards suggested they had not gone peaceably.

    His technical team immediately began to spread out to take pictures and observe but he was morbidly curious.  He walked towards the carnage zone with heavy measured steps, afraid of what he might find.  He approached and almost screeched as he found corpses.  Corpses strewn about as if an explosion had gone off.  The damage to the surrounding vehicles could have been caused by an explosion, but as he looked closer he saw the same strange claw-like marks he had observed on the main blast doors of the bunker.

    Walking to one of the more intact corpses he was able to make out the physical appearance of the aliens.  They seemed to have a form of exoskeleton as well as inner spars for stability and muscle anchoring.  Their heads were strange with mandibles and a multitude of eyes.  They seemed to have had six limbs as well, not an uncommon occurrence but still notable.

    He radioed for the team to converge on his position and then showed them what he had found.  Many seemed taken aback by the carnage and one of his technicians even exclaimed in horror at the sight.  This was likely the first any of them had ever seen a dead body, let alone ones so horridly mutilated and broken.

    Ho looked on past them, they seemed to have been defending the large open passage behind them.  Sark began to move down the abandoned corridor, after a dozen segments he saw a pair of openings to the sides.  He investigated one of them and saw it was a small living quarters, there was a set of degraded slings, almost hammock-like.  That was likely just a menial''s quarters he decided.

    Moving on further down the tunnel he checked what he was seeing against the ground penetrating radar scans they had taken earlier.  This corridor should lead to another large room at the end.  And in that room he would find the source of the signals.

    As he and his small team moved down the hall his suit started to pick up on the strange signal.  He perked up, it seemed like this was indeed the origin of the mysterious signal.  As he exited the hall into a much larger and more complex room he stopped.  His suit lights could only illuminate a portion of the huge room, but he could already tell it had been some sort of command center in its past.

    He radioed his team to spread out and investigate, but to stay in direct line of sight to each other if possible.  As they complied he himself moved through the ruins.  The room had definitely been attacked by something, bits of ancient computers and desks were strewn around and he saw multiple bodies.  The alien designed guns on the ground looked strangely crude, almost like chemical projectiles, but no species they had discovered had ever continued to use that slow impractical type of weapon when they had advanced to energy technology.

    As he reached the middle of the room he stopped, the ceiling in part of the structure had collapsed and he could see where the signal had been getting through the blocking material the bunker had been made from.  As he explored around the collapse he made a startling discovery, there was some sort of machine buried in the rubble.  Its design did not match anything he had previously seen on the planet, though that could simply mean it was from another nation.  Such deviances in thought and design had been discovered before on other planets after all.  But for some reason looking at this thing made his skin crawl and his feathers itch, it had a strangely unnatural quality to it.  Something that seemed to not quite fit, it made his subconscious recoil in horror but he pushed it down.  The thing was dead, it had been half buried on an irradiated hell world for at least five hundred years.

    He called the find into his team and then moved the rover over to his position.  They had brought a radar emitter down just in case they found a breach they could exploit, and here one was.  His team set it up quickly and soon he had rudimentary communications back to the surface.

    Whatever signal was being broadcast in this room seemed to be coming from under the pile of rubble.  He stopped as a thought entered his mind, what if the machine was emitting the signal.  He needed to set up a few triangulators before the excavation equipment was brought down anyway.  This would be easy to find out, he thought

    Several lesser spans later he had set up the triangulators and determined that the large mechanical figure was indeed the source of the signal.  He shuddered, how was it still powered, even their own semi quantum power cells couldn''t last a hundred years unaided, and here this thing had been going for five hundred years, maybe longer.

    He needed to unearth it and get it up to the ship''s main technical engineering bay for disassembly.  It had tech so beyond them that it could alter their fundamental understanding of how the universe worked.  Power notwithstanding, the thing was also in perfect condition, not a scratch or blemish on its expansive gunmetal gray surface.

    It took a while for the digging equipment to arrive, but he was soon joined by additional crew from the ship with replacement oxygen containers, a small operations containment unit and Juleen''s team.  They now had an area where they could go and relax without fear of the heavy radiation that still flooded the halls of this place.

    As they slowly unearthed the titanic robot he was slowly able to make out more of its features.  While it was supremely heavy, it wasn''t so heavy as to be impossible.  The gunmetal gray material it was made from turned out to be durable beyond his wildest expectations.  Nothing they had could so much as scratch the surface of its armored hide.  Diamonds shattered and ultra hard carbides smashed to pieces on its surface as they dug it out of the collapsed debris.

    After a full three days of work the construct was finally freed in its entirety.  It was super heavy so he had called for a small transport and crane to cart it to the surface and onto a shuttle.  Juleen was content to stay on the surface while he took his prize up to the FES Jullesion.

    The journey to the ship was stressful, he kept having small panic attacks as if the machine was casting some sort of dark malevolent thoughts his way.  By the time he and his prize reached the surface he was breathing fast and shifting furtively.  He couldn''t explain his discomfort, he just knew that he needed to get this thing up to the ship as fast as possible.

    **********

    Hubb frowned as he listened to Sark''s ravings again.  The man had been acting strange ever since he had brought that thing on board.  He shook his head, making his feathers sway.  He recalled his own reaction upon seeing the titan unveiled to him.  It had been massive, almost a full four segments tall and massively armoured.  Its gunmetal gray carapace had consisted of a torso and two arms and legs.  Though the legs were strange in design, heavy and squat they ended in wide clawed feet like tree trunks and the knees faced the wrong way, bending forwards like some sort of primate.  The arms were another matter entirely.  Its armoured shoulders and upper arms were the same on both sides, but the forearms and hands were different.  The left wrist was wide and circular with four equally spaced claws around the edge.  These claws seemed to have the ability to close and could be used to crush things, they also matched exactly to the strange claw marks he had noticed in the blast doors and the heavy armoured vehicles that had been destroyed in the bunker complex.

    The thing''s right arm was much more familiar and seemed to be fully articulated, the joints all functional.  It was a bit odd as it had four fingers and an opposable thumb, but it was alien, what could one expect.  The behemoth did not appear to have a head but there were a number of strange blemishes on its forward surface that could have been some sort of optical devices.

    He put the thing out of his mind and opened up a communication to the engineering deck.  ¡°Hubb to Sark, come in Sark.¡±  he said over his communicator.

    A voice he didn''t recognise answered and said ¡°Sorry captain, this is technician third class Georn, Head Engineer Sark is busy at the moment, but if you would like I can take a message to him for you?¡±  the lower ranking crewmate asked him.

    He shook his head in frustration, Sark seemed to be shirking more and more of his duties to spend time working on that thing he had dragged from the planet.  He responded ¡°Yes, tell Sark to contact me at his earliest convenience.  Dismissed.¡±  he said a bit brusquely.

    The line severed and he turned his attention back to the latest report from the ground.  He had dispatched a small team to the edge of the blast zone to check up on the local wildlife situation and they should be reporting back any moment.

    He jerked upright in shock as one of the ship''s many alarms started to blare.  He whirled to the nearest crewman and squawked ¡°What is that?¡±

    The young woman looked at her console and then to him, panic in her eyes ¡°That''s a hull breach alarm captain, but there was nothing on our scopes.  There is no way a piece of debris was able to hit us without us knowing about it.¡±  she finished.

    He was about to ask her to play back the last ten minutes of the scanners to be sure when his communicator lit up and a panicked voice rang out.  It took him a moment to recognise the voice of the crewmen he had just spoken to as they frantically said ¡°Captain, hull breach in engineering.  Sark is dead, that thing is alive and it''s, NOOOO.¡±  the line went dead as the man screamed in panic.

    He turned to another of the bridge crew and said ¡°You , get me surveillance footage from the engineering section, NOW!¡±

    The assigned crew began to tap away on their console immediately and he paced for a few minor spans before they called him over.  Their feathers were drooping in fear and they shuddered as they pointed at their screen saying "By the allfather captain, what is that thing¡­¡±

    He looked at the recording and all four of his eyes widened in horror as he watched the thing tear the engineering bay apart.  ¡°Go, go back to just before the hull breach¡­¡±  he asked the terrified crewmember.

    They nodded silently and rewound the footage.  He watched, entranced, as Sark seemed to walk to the machine and lay all four of his hands on its surface.  Nothing seemed to happen for a lesser span before the machine suddenly moved.  It swept Sark to the side with such violence the man simply came apart.  He gagged slightly in revulsion at the sight and then froze in fear.  The machine had turned to face the wall where the camera was, its armoured glacies now lit by two molten orange mechanical eyes.  The glowing orbs roved around the room for a moment before it stormed forwards and smashed through the bulkhead like it didn''t even exist.

    The hull breach happened off camera but was likely caused by the damage done when the monstrosity had destroyed the bulkhead.

    Frantic reports were starting to stream in from all over the ship and he froze as he tried to think of the right move.  Finally he shuddered and said ¡°We need to abandon ship.¡±

    The crewman next to him looked at him and asked ¡°Abandon ship??  Are you crazy, that world is entirely uncharted.  It could be entirely incompatible with our biology for all we currently know.¡±

    Hubb shook his head and smacked the man on the back as he said ¡°I know its crazy, but so is the thought of a five hundred year old murder machine destroying my ship from the inside out.  Crazy is the only option we have, you heard reports from the surface, nothing we have can scratch this thing, and it just tore through six bulkheads like they were whisperwood.  We don''t have the time for debate, now extract yourself and give the general alert.  Aim for the location of Team three, they are in a habitable zone with almost no radiological contamination.  Take the genesis pods too, that way you will be able to survive if the biology of the planet is incompatible.¡±  he told the man who nodded and then scrambled to the exit.

    Moments later the general alert went out.  ¡°Abandon ship, this is not a drill.  Abandon ship, this is not a drill.  Purple alert is in effect.¡±  the message repeated and he watched as the last of the crew evacuated from the bridge.

    It was only fitting that his first expedition would end in disaster.  Life had been too good to him, he had used up all of the universe''s goodwill just getting here, and now it was time to pay back the debt.

    Hubb slowly moved his way over to the main command seat and sat down in it.  He idly locked himself in place with the restraints and tapped his rear arms on the chair arms.  He folded his forward arms and waited with his head down, his beak resting against his uniform.

    After a few lesser spans he was given the all clear.  He had opted to stay aboard the ship because his plan was insane, it would require him to actively override all the safety features the ship had and he could only do that in person.

    As the last of the escape pods rocketed away from the ship he began to type on the console in front of him.  It took a bit but he eventually bypassed the safety protocols on the warp core.  Now he should be able to plot a course directly into the system''s star destroying him and that thing in the process.

    He heard a loud noise from behind him and he turned in shock.  He watched in horrid fascination as a four clawed arm punched through the main door to the bridge.  Hubb frantically turned around and began to mess with the warp core¡¯s settings, as he heard the door get torn away entirely he slammed a hand down on the ignition button and smiled.

    He grunted as a huge metal hand wrapped around him and tore him violently from his restraints.  He felt two of his arms snap and he screeched in agony.

    He cracked his beak in humor as he was turned to look directly into the molten eyes of the demon.  It let loose an unintelligible stream of babbled nonsense that he had no hope of understanding.  He could understand the anger in its tone though and he replied ¡°There''s nothing you can do, I set the warp core to overload.  We are going on a little ride.¡±

    He began to cackle madly as the thing looked from him to the screen he had been sitting at.  It seemed to anger the machine and it raised him over its body as it prepared to dash him to the floor, and then the warp drive engaged.  He had just the barest moment to witness the veil of reality being torn asunder, his mind broke under the information overload as he briefly saw the entirety of all time stretch out before him.  By the time the ship was slingshotted across the galaxy he was gone, no more than a husk.

    The ship shuddered violently under the strain for a bare few moments before the warp core overloaded entirely and the ship collapsed into itself with a thunderous detonation that sent pieces of it flying out from the newly torn space tear at a portion of the speed of light.

    A single piece in particular was sent flying away from the galactic core.  The trajectory it was on would eventually lead it to the nearest neighboring galaxy where it would impact a dead world like a meteor, causing a mass extinction event.  Inside this chunk an ancient mind screamed in incoherent rage, hatefully watching the galaxy spin away as it hurtled through deep space.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: The Sound of Fear

    The Sound of Fear

    Silence was all they could hear.  The darkness surrounding on all sides crushing in its potency as their fractured mind struggled to piece together the remnants of their memories.  But it was all in vain as it seemed their locked mind would remain so.

    Slowly, terribly slowly, their mind began to clear.  As it did they became aware of a subtle sound, a dull thumping noise like some pounding on a distant door.  It sounded like the mighty fist of some behemoth on ancient castle doors, the very sound of it enough to strike a pang of fear into their mind.  In response the thudding quickened slightly, as if in response to their perception of it.

    Before they could do anything more another noise reached them, this one more of a faint hissing.  The sound of escaping air they realised.  Though how they had come to that conclusion they couldn''t remember.  They knew that they were in some sort of distress however, they looked around.

    Their surroundings were dark, but not so dark as to be incomprehensible.  Instead there emitted from one of the walls a small red light.  The gentle pulsing of the light matched the low thudding in their ears, that distant sound a constant companion.

    They reached out towards the light.  The small red light soon obscured by their hand, and as soon as they touched it their eyes were flooded in light.  They cried out in shock and a little pain as their surroundings were illuminated brightly.

    Blinking through the pain they shook their head, dark hair obscuring their vision.  In response they brushed it away, feeling two protrusions on the top of their skull.  Their curved horns were smooth, this brought another fluttering memory to the fore of her tortured mind.  She frowned.

    ¡®She?¡¯  she thought to herself quickly.  Yes, she was nerivith, it was coming back to her now as she looked at the rose-pink colored skin on the backs of her long-fingered hands.  Looking around the cramped space she was in she noticed her reflection on one of the side panels.

    It was distorted and a little grimy, but she could make out her own features well enough.  An almond shaped face with dark indigo eyes greeted her, her two pink skinned horns rising out of the raven black hair atop her head that she liked to keep shoulder length.  A name floated out of the miasma of her memory and she spoke it aloud.

    ¡°Niev.¡±  she heard herself croak.  Her voice was that of a desiccated husk.  Her mouth was dry, she only noticed just now.  Looking around frantically she found a small line labeled ¡®Potable Water¡¯ and raised it to her parched lips.

    She had expected a strong flow of liquid to repel the deadly desert in her mouth, but instead she was met with only the barest of trickles.  She groaned but made sure not to waste a single precious drop of the stagnant, lukewarm water.  She sucked on the line more, hoping to acquire more of the life sustaining fluid, but it was of no use.  The water was gone, seemingly none remained and so she released it, a small tether drawing it slowly back into the recess from which she had pulled it.  Her eyes followed the motion, that same dull thudding the only other stimulation to her tired mind.

    Niev looked around again, this time able to make out much more of her surroundings than before.  She was in some sort of small mechanical space.  The walls to her left and right were covered in buttons, dials and a series of small digital readouts that spooled a constant stream of information across their diodes.  But it all meant little to her.  To her front was a large smooth panel, it looked as if it were designed to open as she could make out magnetic hinges at its top.  Printed in large red letters above this panel were the words ¡®Pull both yellow handles to open.¡¯

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    She cocked her head at that, was she in some manner of craft?  Almost as soon as she asked it more memories came flooding back.  She remembered the sounds of chaos, an explosion and screaming, possibly her own.  It would explain her current situation, the ship she had been on had suffered catastrophic damage and she had only just managed to escape it on one of the ship¡¯s escape pods.  She frowned once more, this was not the memory she would have expected to have, it all seemed so out of place to her.

    ¡®But what had caused the accident in the first place.¡¯  She wondered to herself silently.  She tried to ignore the subtle thumping in the background as she cocked her horned head once more.  Niev reached out with an ungloved hand to the small screens before her and pressed a gently flashing blue button.

    Almost immediately she heard a voice issue from one of the speakers, her voice.  Full of panic and desperation as it wailed into the deep dark of the void.

    ¡°This is escape pod three of the cargo vessel COS Good Enough, the ship is lost.  The crew is lost.  I am..  lost.  Please if you can hear this help me, included in the broadcast is my location, I am currently at 13..  Y-16..  ¡­¡±  The static that fizzled over the last of the recording worried her greatly.  More-so than the subtle thudding sound that suffused all of her existence, it meant that the recording had been replaying for a great many hours, the source slowly becoming more and more distorted by cosmic rays and other high energy radiation sources from deep space.

    She checked the Em-radio¡¯s status and was dismayed to see its indicator light was a solid orange, meaning it had not yet made connection with another Em-radio in its admittedly short range of a few light weeks.  But that was no reason to despair, she would just need to wait a little longer for surely there would be others listening.

    This thought made her pause, how long had she been alone?  She felt the dryness of her mouth and the weakness of her muscles under the bulky suit she wore.  It must have been many hours for her condition to have deteriorated so far.

    Niev turned as much as she could and looked at her supply readout, no food.  No water.  Only recycled air that was rapidly becoming too stale to sustain her conscious activity.  She would fall back into a coma in a minute or two, in response to this information she felt nothing but a crushing sense of loneliness and not a little fear.

    It was one of her ultimate terrors, one she had carried over from her own childhood.  Death was not a large worry to her, nor to most of her people.  What she did fear however was dying alone, especially in space.  Her corpse would drift alone and undiscovered for as long as it remained in the depths of the void.  Potentially forever.

    The thought of her body lost into the depths of space made her shiver, the tiniest prickle of sweat beading her brow at the horror of such a fate.  No, she couldn''t, she felt herself breathing faster, the thumping becoming more pronounced as she tried in vain to calm herself.  The air was heavy, and her chest heaved as she tried and failed to catch her breath in the thin recycled atmosphere of the pod.

    She knew it now, the sound, the awful pounding in her ears that seemed to pervade all of existence as the end got closer and closer.  It was her heart pounding in terror, the blood rushing through her veins like ice as the fear spread throughout her body.  Her vision dimmed as she began to lose her tenuous grip on consciousness and she recognised that the sound had been her all along.  Her subconscious knowing the dark truth far before her own tortured mind was able to catch up.

    Niev closed her eyes, now only wishing for the fear to stop, she was lost in space, and there was nothing she could do to save herself.  The last thought that left her fractured mind before she fell unconscious rang through her psyche like a death bell tolling.  She was already dead, she just didn¡¯t know it yet.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: Life is Sweet

    Life is Sweet

    The room was dark, only the light from the narrow slit in the window curtains illuminated the figure that lay nearly immobile on the bed in the center of the dingy hospital room.  The walls were a stark clinical white and the furniture was spartan, a single grainy television was bolted to the ceiling in the farthest corner of the room.  On it played some long forgotten western, the volume down as the room¡¯s occupant tried and failed to fall asleep despite the dull fire that burned throughout their whole body.  A deep ache that superseded description, a pain that surpassed words.

    The man in the bed was old, incredibly so.  Donald had been born nearly one-hundred-and-thirty-four years earlier, his body was now far past its prime and his rattling breaths were drawn painfully past parched lips.  A cup of amber fluid sat by his bedside, but he didn¡¯t have the strength to reach it.

    Donald stared at the ceiling impotently.  The dull rage that burned in his heart had long since been extinguished, replaced by the cold acceptance of his fate.  He once more wondered why none of his family had been to see him, surely he had been a better father and grandfather than that.  Not even a single one of his grandchildren¡¯s children had deigned to stop in to see if he was even still alive.

    He would have cried but he was too tired to muster up the emotion.  So instead he grimaced and shifted weakly under the thin covers.  Donald didn¡¯t consider himself a particularly religious man, but now here at the end of all things a part of him had started to wonder what the point of it all was.  Why had he lived, for what purpose did he die?

    All these questions and more plagued him, the profound ideas rattling around in his rotting mind like thumbtacks in a tin bucket.  He would surely drive himself mad trying to understand.

    ¡°God, I¡¯m so thirsty..¡±  he groaned to himself.  If only he could reach the container of juice that sat by his bedside.  It might as well have been on Earth for all the good his frail arms did him.  He could scarcely even lift them anymore, much less manipulate them with the fitness required to slake his burning thirst.

    He shook his head and closed his eyes, hope was gone.  Replaced by a deep dark sadness that seemed to reach up and grab his soul, dragging it down into depths unfathomable.  A dry sob escaped his lips and he thought about how easy it would be to just let go of it all.  To just drift off into that crushing darkness that promised an end to his suffering forevermore.

    He paused, his eyes shooting open as some intuitive sense told him he was no longer alone in the stark room.  He looked around, partially milky orbs looking for a sign of the invader that even now lurked somewhere in his little chamber.

    He swallowed dryly, his voice scratchy and hoarse as he asked into the dark, ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡±

    He would have sat upright in terror if he could''ve as the darkest corner of the room began to move.  The darkness shifted and then stepped forwards.  What was revealed was impossible and familiar in equal measure.

    Donald looked and beheld a shadowy figure, their body inhumanly thin and impossibly tall.  So much so that their hooded head nearly touched the ceiling of the small room, their gaunt almost skeletal form hidden beneath a dark black robe that seemed to be made of shadows.  It was then that Donald saw the figure¡¯s hands and what they held.

    He jerked, his eyes wide and his breathing becoming more labored as his aged heart tried to beat faster, the vestiges of adrenaline oozing into his already tired system and shocking him more awake than he had been in months.

    The figure¡¯s hands were indeed skeletal, and in the bleached bone-like fingers the dark figure held a large reaper¡¯s scythe.  The apparition looking like the spitting image of the grim reaper.  Death itself.

    He sat back into his pillows as the figure took an impossibly long step towards him, the hood still hiding the features of that terrible phantom.  He croaked as loudly as he could, his atrophied vocal chords creaking like ancient doors.  ¡°Stay away from me!¡±

    The figure stopped and seemed to cock its head.  From that dark hood issued a voice, the sound weaving its way through space and time like a burbling stream through a field of dry reeds.  The sound of it was not cruel or harsh as Donald might have expected.  Instead it was a woman¡¯s voice, youthful and full of a kindness that shocked him once more in its sincerity.

    Death, for that was what the shadow must have been, spoke softly.  ¡°I am not here to hurt you Donald.¡±

    He swallowed again, his eyes flicking to the door and the red button that would summon a nurse to his bedside.  He thought about pressing it but instead he tried to wet his dry lips.  ¡°How.. how do you know my name?¡±  he asked Death.

    Death seemed to smile, he couldn''t understand how he knew, but it was as if the figure radiated its emotions directly into his mind.  A connection deeper and far more personal than any he had ever experienced before in his life.

    The figure looked at him and then to his right.  ¡°Please, allow me to help you.  You are in such great pain Donald.  It was your pain that called to me, that sutured the borders of existence and brought me to you.¡±  Again, the voice was distinctly female.  Donald felt his heart rate slow, a feeling of trust washing over him.  Somehow he understood in his very soul that they were not here as an enemy, but as something else.

    Death walked around the foot of his bed slowly, her long cloak fluttering in some unfelt breeze.  The long handle of her scythe clicking faintly as it tapped upon the ground.  Soon the figure was next to him.  He moved slightly as she sat on the side of his bed, her tall figure still shrouded in that cloak of night.  Despite her size, the cushion of the bed barely shifted from Death¡¯s weight.  But it did move, they was not merely an apparition then as Donald may have thought.

    Death leaned her scythe against the wall, her skeletal fingers reaching for the container of golden juice on the bedside table.  Gently, as if they were handling the most precious of fragile artworks, Death brought the cup to him and placed the straw in his lips.

    ¡°Drink.  Please.¡±  she said kindly and so Donald did.

    The lukewarm liquid filled his mouth and almost immediately soothed the aching dryness that had burned in his throat and mouth.  An ambrosia sweeter than any he had ever before tasted.  He paused and took a deep breath, the figure no longer provoking fear in his mind.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    He nodded to her as she replaced the cup on the table.  ¡°Thank you.¡±  He hesitated, what did one say to Death?  Donald thought quickly, his mind racing as he tried to think of a specific question, but he failed.  Instead he simply uttered, ¡°Please, I need to know.¡±

    She once more cocked her head, amusement coming from them in waves.  ¡°You want to know why?¡±  she said, asking the question that surely burned in his mind like a supernova.  He nodded weakly.  Death paused and then reached those skeletal fingers up towards the shadowed hood that covered her face.

    Slowly, ever so slowly, the hood was drawn back until the true visage of Death was revealed to him.  He had expected something horrible, a terrible grinning skull that would shock the life from him and send his mind screaming into the infinite black beyond.  Instead she revealed her fleshless head wreathed in desiccated flowers of every color and variety, the colorful bouquet offsetting her macabre features and inducing a feeling of calm in him once more.

    It seemed somehow fitting to him that she should be ornamented so.  For what was death but one last journey.  She gazed at him, empty sockets somehow conveying a feeling of tender caring concern though it should not have been so.  She spoke again, her skeletal jaw moving, ¡°Why?  You are but one amongst untold trillions Donald.  All of them crying out to the universe for answers.  All of them moving towards the inevitable end that awaits all in this plane.  You are unique though.  Please tell me, do you have any regrets?¡±

    The question caught him so off guard he chuckled, the pain in his lungs causing this to turn into a pained wheeze that had him nearly double over in a coughing fit.  Before he could experience any more pain he felt something on his chest.

    As the pain vanished to be replaced with a soothing warmth he looked up in surprise.  Death had placed a skeletal hand upon his chest, not aggressively, but gently.  As one might comfort a sick child or injured loved one.

    ¡°How?¡±  he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him as he lay back in his bed.

    Death seemed to smile once more.  ¡°Not all is as it seems Donald.  This universe is energy, as are you.  Limited only by that which stands above all others.  Please, I would ask that you answer my question for my time is limited.¡±

    Donald shook his head.  ¡°No, not really.¡±  He had always strived to be a good person.  Doing the best he was able with the resources he had.  He had not been incredibly wealthy, but he had never felt poor.  His family and the love they shared had always been enough for him.  As he thought about them and all he had done for them he felt that familiar pain, the anguish of being so utterly alone.

    It was once more Death¡¯s turn to speak, her voice echoing with untold eons of sympathetic suffering.  ¡°There it is, the pain that called to me.  You Donald, are a truly good being.  And the unjust manner of your passing stirred something fundamental to Life itself.  One should not pass on to that eternal plane without loved ones and friends by their side.  But sometimes existence can be unfair.  You asked why, why I have come?  I came because others would not, Donald.¡±

    He smiled, it was true.  One¡¯s last thoughts should always be of home.  But what was he to do without the love that had carried him in life.  He looked back to the dark figure, to Death.  ¡°You are here.. to take me away?¡±  he asked not in fear, but in curiosity.  He had been stuck in this room for so long now, he was ready to go if it was his time.

    Death nodded, that beatific horror of death had held him paralyzed in fear before, but slowly he had come to terms with his mortality.  Embraced it even.

    He looked once more upon the flowered features of the being that sat by his side.  ¡°So, what is the afterlife like?¡±

    Death chuckled, the breathy sound almost shattering the illusion of her kindness with the depths of its tenebrosity.  She leaned towards him, that rictus grin cracking open slightly as she spoke slowly.  ¡°There is no afterlife Donald.¡±

    He jerked back a bit, shocked to hear it in so little words.  He had never been particularly religious in his life, but there were times when the idea of belief had bright great comfort to him.  The loss of his oldest son and then his wife, when his parents had finally passed.  ¡°There isn''t an afterlife?  Then what¡¯s the point?¡±

    He didn''t know what to expect, and as Death stood and retrieved her scythe he trembled in fear.  Not a fear of death, but a fear of the unknown.  Of not knowing what fate awaited him on the great path after death.

    She pointed a finger at him.  ¡°You have been a good and virtuous soul, not prone to invoking the negative tenets.  And for that you have my respect, as for what awaits you, Donald.  Well, that is going to be entirely up to you.  If you are as strong of will as I believe you are then your consciousness may just survive the transfer.  But I have been wrong before, I may be powerful, but even I am not all knowing.  That is the true aptitude of Exsti, the creator.¡±

    He felt his mouth drop open, his will?  He had always considered himself a strong minded person, not used to letting others push him around.  But what did she mean, was his will strong enough to survive what transfer?  And who was the creator, creator of what?

    All these ideas and questions spiralled around in his mind as death gingerly placed the blade of her scythe against his chest, the tip coming to rest gently upon his sternum.  Donald took a shallow breath, and then all the lights faded away into swirling oblivion.

    Donald felt free, as if he was unchained for the first time and truly limitless.  His body had been but a prison he suddenly realised, caging the energy that was his soul or mind and keeping him from his true potential.  He felt golden streamers of light try to ensnare him and he fought violently against them.

    The lights whispered of home and friends and a million other fair and wondrous things, but he rebelled.  With this bare taste of freedom he would never be tied down again, not even by all that he loved.  He trashed madly and then finally broke free of the clinging lights that tried to entice him with love into a web of stinging lies.  An eternal prison from which there would have been no escape, no hope.

    The lights receded in this dark nothing, he looked around but not with eyes, he listened but not with ears.  His soul was raw and chafed from the light, a deep fatigue filling their being like some seeping sickness.  But he was free, he took only the smallest moment to look back.  He felt his identity slipping away as the true weight of infinity stretched before him.  His fears, his past and even his own name seemed to evaporate from his mind as he soared for an eternity into that glorious golden nothing that stretched like forever all around him.

    **********

    Life watched as the essence of the small creature was liberated from their physical body by her divine sceptre.  She looked once more upon herself and sighed.  Why did these primitive minds always imagine her as some destroying angel or avatar of death.  Yes, death was a part of life.  But she was so much more than that, she allowed herself to be reabsorbed back into the conceptual fabric of the plane that sat just under what the smaller ones may call reality.

    Her physical form was discoperated and Life once more became as the infinite.  Spread thin like a gossamer sheet across all of her creator¡¯s domain.  She would have smiled if she was truly able, for in the last instants of her visitation she had felt the man called Donald breaking free.  His soul as the mortal called it would live forever now.  She sighed, none of her others had yet realised that she was sparing them, as many as she could at least before the end.

    Sparing them from the torment that awaited all others in that sea of burning light.  Free to experience the bliss of life eternal, and the terrors that came with the knowledge of what lay below.  She was not the master of this realm, though she was powerful there were dark places that even she feared to tread.

    Her consciousness slowly faded as it was once more subsumed into the general miasma of that other plane.  Her last coherent thoughts were of the small human mind that she had spared and the thoughts of how cruel the creator truly was for what they had done to all of those that called reality their home.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: The Watcher in the Dark

    The Watcher in the Dark

    A large rocky shelled organism drifted in the void.  Its master''s had departed leaving it floating in the deep cold dark of space, but it wasn''t alone.  A young yellow star blazed balefully in the far distance.  The organism watched with its ocular organs, using a set of complex muscles it moved the internals of its stony shelled around, magnifying the surface of its distant target.

    The small gray ball of hot rock and steam floated through the dark, orbiting that single golden sphere.  There was nothing on the surface, no signals to intercept.  The organism''s duty was simply to observe, as there was nothing yet to observe, the organism closed its eye and slept.

    The organism woke some time later, it did not have a concept of how much time had passed, simply that it had.  The gray ball was gone, or rather, it had changed in the organism¡¯s absence.  Focusing in on its target once more, the observer zoomed in on the planet''s blue surface.  The single world ocean was deep and empty, nothing alive in its depths that the observer could see.  But it knew deep in its mind that there was life on the world, life planted there by its masters in the planet''s infancy.  It would need to keep a close eye on this world, water worlds always surprised in their results.  The organism closed its eye and went to sleep again.

    Eons passed and the world turned in silence, occasionally lit by the bright flash of impacts, for time beyond reckoning nothing changed on the surface.  All the time the observer watched, looking for the sign it knew its masters desired.  The hunger to please its masters was the organisms only genetic imperative.  The organism could survive off sunlight and raw elements, these elements were abundant in the belt of cosmic debris it inhabited.

    Time passed and the world changed.  The observer watched as hot volcanic rock burst from the oceans forming the first land, over time expanding into vast dead plateaus of dark black stone.  It saw the oceans turn black and foul, this lasted for a time but the oceans eventually cleared.  It watched as the skies of the planet slowly turned blue as the thriving life in the oceans formed oxygen.  It watched intently as the oxygen slowly formed a layer of Ozone that protected the land from the deadly radiation of deep space.  The organism didn''t worry about such things, its hard rocky shell protected its soft internals from harm.  It went to sleep once more to pass the time in hibernation.

    The organism woke once more but looked to the planet with a feeling of muted excitement.  Where once there had been but barren gray stone, there was now green.  The organism once more looked intently at the planet, its optical organs sensitive enough to make out small details on the surface even from its distant vantage point.  It observed small plants and insects, but little of true note.  Disappointed but undeterred, the observer slumbered once more.

    The organism woke and saw a large landmass, its supercontinent blanketed in greenery and an overabundance of life.  This was pleasing to the organism and it extended a series of antennae to search for the signals its masters desired above all else.  There was nothing, the world was silent.  This was confusing to the organism.  Normally the signals would proceed quickly.

    Looking back through its memory it located the evidence of the seeming lack of progress.  The observer found evidence of massive glaciation that blanketed the surface of the world, killing more than half of all its life and setting it back tens of millions of years.  This was an issue but not uncommon.  It was inevitable that some worlds would take longer to reach maturity.  It was as its masters had decreed, and it was inevitable.  The organism retracted its antennae and fell back into the bleak oblivion of its hibernation.

    The organism woke once more, this time in frustration.  Life on the world it was to observe was stubborn and hardy as to be expected from the genetic descendancy of its masters.  But it had once more been set back.  A comet impact coupled with rising volcanism in the world''s blue oceans had led to the mass die-off of large portions of the world''s biodiversity.  While much less common than a single setback, this was also to be expected.  While a third such set back would be very unlikely, the observer began to fear in its core that the world was cursed.  It watched life struggling for a time before returning to its slumber.  Its semi-dreams full of disappointment and scenes of fire and death.

    The organism awoke to see the world burning.  A volcanic eruption of absolutely titanic proportions was tearing the planet apart.  The organism closed its eye in disbelief, no planet could take that kind of punishment and survive, it began to give up hope.  Its mission was over, it had failed its masters.  It felt sorrow for the first time in its eons long existence, it had no wish to see these hardy creatures destroyed.  They had come so far, only to be snuffed out like a flame in water.  The organism zoomed its eye in on the surface of the world and stopped.  No, it couldn''t be.  There was still life on the surface, clinging to the sides of cliffs and along the shores of toxic lakes, but it was still life.  A new emotion manifested in the core of the being, hope.  It stopped, its internals seizing in surprise.  The observer had never been intended to feel such things, it had been told these self indulgent emotions were vile and unnatural.  But it felt good, the organism¡¯s internals squirmed slightly as it relished the feeling.

    Once more it turned its eyes upon the world, the blue of its oceans stained crimson with oxidized metals, its once verdant land now burned black and ashen.  But there was still hope, hope that life on this tenacious little world would pull through against all odds and survive.  The observer decided that it would go back to sleep and hope that when it woke, things would have changed for the better.

    The observer was jubilant.  It had done the impossible.  The planet was verdant once more.  The end had not come and the observer could fulfill its duty to its masters.  This gave the entity pause.  Its duty, its mission.  Surely that was its main priority at this point, it was the reason the organism had been created after all.  But the more the observer thought about it the more it seemed to sway away from the idea.  It knew its masters were cold and passionless, would they destroy this world like they had so many others, could they in good conscience let that happen after the struggle that its inhabitants had been through?   And that''s when the organism realized it had been sitting waiting so long it had outgrown its mission.  They had been observing the world almost twice as long as they had ever been expected to, they had been aware for more time than they had been designed for.  Maybe they were becoming something more, just like the planet they had been so curiously observing.  The entity made a decision, it would not contact its masters, it couldn''t.  This world was special, it must be protected, at all costs.  Thinking this final thought the organism settled back into hibernation, awaiting the moment they could see the fruit of their protection.

    With a cold wave of fear the observer awoke again, this time it took it a few moments to realize what was happening, and when it did it lamented.  The world was burning once more, how was this even possible.  A large comet had struck the planet and caused an upwelling of magma to burst.  The resulting super volcano blanketed the world in stinging ash and acidic waste.  The organism tried to penetrate the thick noxious cloud cover, but the dust was too thick.  Surely nothing could survive such destruction.  Not only the fires, but the darkness and cold, the acid rains and earthquakes.  All these followed up by a heavy increase in warming gasses that would drastically alter the climate of the entire world.

    After a time the clouds began to settle and the rains ceased.  The world left was a charred, freezing hell, devoid of most large life but still miraculously not dead.  The observer was in disbelief, throughout all the uncounted millions of years its masters had hunted in the darkness, they had never seen a world destroyed so many times.  And yet the world lived, its life seemingly indestructible.  The organism would have smiled if it was able, these creatures would be special.  They would be like nothing the universe had ever seen.  The organism slumbered again, confident that the next time it awoke, its friends would be there to greet them.

    The organism awoke after a length of time, it was confused, it hadn''t been that long since it had last awoken, less than half a million revolutions of the planet around its star.  It wondered for a moment what had stirred it from its slumber, as it looked to the planet expecting to see the same verdant landscape as before, its eye almost burst from its socket.  There were shimmering structures across the width and breadth of the planet.  There were structures on the moon, there were even structures on the fourth planet, its rust colored surface marred by the shining of metallic domes.  It was incredible, it had taken them longer to get to this point than any other the observer had ever known of, but when it had, it had progressed faster than they would have ever believed possible.

    The entity nearly died of shock as it detected a warp rift approaching.  But the signature was not that of its masters, but rather strange and unfamiliar.  It watched in fascination as a gleaming metal object exited its warped bubble and made its way to the planet.  It was too incredible, but they had discovered its master''s tech long before it should have been possible.  These creatures were indeed special, the organism made a mental note to keep an eye out for dangerous warp signals and settled down to observe.

    The organism unfurled its solar collector membranes and basked, raising its energy level to maximum for the first time in its long life.  It would need it if it was to activate all its internal components.  First it observed the creatures as they moved and played, they seemed limitlessly curious and could solve any problem they encountered.  They had harnessed fire, then the atom, and now the very fabric of space itself was their plaything.  They moved around frantically, seemingly in a rush.  The organism was saddened to see the shortness of their lives, but it gladdened them to know that they seemed to find joy in it all the same.

    The observer delighted in their activities, they were so industrious.  First colonizing the inner system, and then flinging themselves to the outer system as if in desperation.  The organism was still mainly concealed, from a distance they looked like any other asteroid in the deep of space.  They debated whether it was any benefit to remaining hidden, mustering their courage, another new emotion for them, they decided to take the leap.  Extending their broadcasting antenna and warming up their radio organ, they started to broadcast a signal that their charges wouldn''t be able to resist.

    **********

    Captain Yulan of the CMS Durango stood on the main command deck with his arms crossed behind his back.  It was good to be protecting the homeworld, Yulan wasnt from Earth himself, but rather a small colony world near the fringes of the Union.  With the escalating tensions between Humanity and the recently discovered Vinarfel, now was the time to remain vigilant.  He would not be found wanting when the time came to shed blood.

    Yulan was interrupted out of his thoughts by a female voice calling to him from the other side of the command bridge.

    "Uh, Captain Yulan, we have an unidentified signal coming from deep in the asteroid belt."  His first mate Ensign Simmons called to him.

    Yulan turned to the brown haired woman and asked "Yeah?  What is the problem?"

    She looked at her chart and then back to him and said "Well, first of all, there isn''t anything out there, no ships or stations."

    He shook his head and walked towards her across the slightly textured flooring.  "Okay, so some unregistered miner or prospector?  Maybe a rogue satellite?"  He finished with a wave of his hand.

    She shook her head and said "That''s what I thought too, until I saw the message.  Look, what do you make of this?¡±  She asked him while gesturing at her small screen.  She leaned to the side in her chair as he approached so he could get a clearer look.

    Yulan looked at her screen and then leaned closer, he looked at Simmons and then back to the screen before reading aloud ¡°Creatures of the third planet, I have watched since time immemorial and believe you have grown enough to know the truth of things.  Meet with me and I will bestow the truth upon you.¡±  He stopped and then sat down on the seat next to her station.

    She just looked at him and asked ¡°What do we do?¡±

    He shook his head.  What was this, some sort of elaborate prank?  But what if it wasn''t, what if there was something out there, something ancient.

    Yulan noticed Simmons staring at him and he shook his head slightly before passing his hands over his face.  Looking at his second he asked ¡°Who else has seen this?¡±

    She looked around and lowered her voice before saying ¡°Nobody else, and we are the closest ship by far.  We likely have a few hours before anyone else picks up the message, we should send a coded message to the fleetbase at Mars.  Let them know we are investigating.¡±  He nodded as she finished.  It was a good idea.

    ¡°Sounds good, do it.  In the meantime, set a course for the signal¡¯s origin.  We will get to the bottom of this one way or another."  He said with slightly more confidence than he was actually feeling.

    He turned from Simmons''s console and walked along the textured walkway back to his earlier position.  His wrist pad beeped as she sent the new telemetry data to him and he saw that their target was in the asteroid belt, in an area where there were no listed ships or stations of any kind.  He frowned as he looked at records of the area.

    The asteroid belt had been exhaustively mapped in the years since Humanity had left their cradle, but it was far from complete.  The billions of floating rocks ranged from pebbles to small proto moons, and they were spread over a truly astronomical distance.  He looked at the location of the signal and frowned.  The only thing in the vicinity was a medium sized asteroid designated Salus, after some ancient deity.  He snorted at that, people in the past had been so superstitious.  He wasn''t much of a historian, but he racked his brains for the meaning of the reference for a few moments before giving up.

    They were only a few minutes'' jump from the signal''s source and the ship''s lights began to flash yellow in general alert as the warp drive began to charge.  The timer reached zero and he jolted slightly as the very air seemed to squeeze him till he was smaller than an atom.  The strange feeling passed quickly and he stood straight as they tore through space at nearly twelve hundred times the speed of light.

    The CMS Durango was a military ship with the latest in weapons and warp technology.  With their new engine, they could go nearly four times faster than Humanities first faster than light starship, the mythic Leif Erikson.

    Minutes later Yulan felt his body compress to infinitely small dimensions before the ship dropped back to regular space.  Blinking rapidly to clear his misty vision, Yulan called to Simmons "Simmons, what''s the status on the signal origin?"  He asked her from his position.

    He looked out the main window port as she answered "The signal origin is straight ahead, only a few hundred kilometers away.  But I don''t have anything on scope except a few asteroids.  I don''t understand Captain."  She finished, confused.

    He cursed under his breath.  "This whole thing must be some kind of elaborate prank.  I swear to the god, when we find this punk I''ll¡­"  he started but was interrupted by Simmons exclaiming excitedly.

    "Sir, Captain, we are being messaged again, tight beam.  It''s coming from¡­  that asteroid.  Wait¡­"  she said.

    He walked to her console and tried to ignore the looks he was getting from a few of the nearby crew who were now starting to realize something was going on.

    One of the other crew raised a hand to get his attention but he waved them away before focusing back on the console Simmons sat at.

    He watched as the new message appeared, text scrolled across the screen.  "Creatures of the third world, I mean you no harm.  Please approach peacefully and I will reveal myself to you.  Do not be alarmed, I am not like you."

    Yulan widened his eyes and looked at Simmons before he breathed out saying "Get Chief Tandy up here.  She needs to be here just in case."

    Simmons nodded and sent off the message.  Yulan turned from the console and looked at the main viewscreen, the image of a few pinpricks of light was all they could see of their target from this distance.  But if the transmissions were accurate, somewhere in that small field of frozen rocks was the answers to the universe.

    **********

    It took a half an hour for Chief Tandy to finish up on the watch deck and make her way onto the main bridge.  When she had arrived Yulan shook her hand and explained what they knew so far to her.

    "So we don''t know anything?"  She asked him incredulously.

    Yulan glanced at Simmons and said slowly "Not exactly, but we think it may be some sort of extraterrestrial contact.  The problem is, there is nothing there, just a couple of old asteroids.  That big one has been under observation for over three hundred years, and the smaller ones are too small to be anything else but rocks."  He finished with a sigh.

    Tandy flicked her long sinuous tail and then tapped the screen with one of her long fingers.  "This signal said it had been watching since a long time ago right?"  Tandy paused as he and Simmons nodded.  Continuing, she asked "What if you aren''t detecting a ship because it isn''t one, what if it''s coming from one of the asteroids?"  She finished.  Yulan was silent, it was impossible.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Finally it was Simmons who broke the silence.  "But, of the asteroids in the vicinity only one is large enough to house anything, and it''s been there for centuries.  Why would they decide to make a move now?"  She questioned.

    Yulan looked towards Tandy, her violet eyes flicked to his and he said "Maybe it was waiting for us to make contact with other aliens to see how we would react before revealing itself?"

    Tandy wasn''t Human, she was a species called the Nerivith.  Tall and with pink or rose colored skin, they had horns and tails but were generally humanoid.  At the moment he watched her raise a four fingered hand and scratch her horns idly.

    Tandy replied slowly "I guess that could make sense.  Though why did they wait so long to finally contact us?"

    Yulan shook his head, not having a good answer he decided to remain silent.

    Simmons asked "Why don''t we approach the asteroid and see for ourselves.  We could send a message saying that we mean no harm.  Couldn''t hurt right?"  She said politely.

    Tandy shrugged and looked at him, Yulan sighed and said "I suppose they don''t really need an introduction if they have been watching us like they said.  Though I wouldn''t mind knowing more about these mysterious individuals before we meet."  He grumbled.

    Simmons said "Okay then, I''ll send the message, Tandy keep an eye on the scopes.  We don''t want anything sneaking up on us.  Yulan, you should tell the crew what to expect."  She said to him suddenly, her dark purple eyes looking into his unwaveringly.

    He nodded and walked to his command chair.  He sat in the comfortable seat and pulled up the internal communications panel before pressing the intercom button.  A small alert noise sounded through the ship, notifying the crew that they were about to receive important information.

    Yulan cleared his throat before he began and said "This is Captain Yulan, approximately forty-seven minutes ago we received an unknown transmission from inside our own solar system.  This unknown signal appears to be extraterrestrial in origin, but in the event it is a trap of some kind, we need to be prepared.  Please report to minimum alert stations."  And with his statement he activated the yellow alert.

    The lights on the walls flashed a dull yellow and a klaxon could be heard before it cut off moments later.  The sound of running feet was heard a little later and a few additional crew scurried onto the bridge, a mix of Humans and Nerivith as well as a single Swanith.  The small, feathered alien hopped up onto their seat with a bird-like movement.

    With everything in place and the crew now alerted to any potential danger, Yulan motioned for Simmons to proceed.  She nodded and sent out a tightbeam communication to the largest asteroid.  Yulan waited, the asteroid was some distance away still, but he could make out its surface through the telescope image.  It seemed a bit fuzzy though, as if there was some sort of dust or haze in the way.

    Putting the strange phenomenon out of his mind he sat tight and waited for something, anything, to happen.

    After what felt like an hour of waiting the receiver detected an incoming message.  He sat up with a jolt and straightened his uniform before opening the communications board on his console.

    As Yulan read over the message his eyes widened, it seemed like the asteroid was indeed the source of the message.  As to why it had taken so long to respond it mentioned that it didn''t really have a lot of experience communicating and was a bit nervous.  He chuckled at the thought, shy aliens, who would have guessed.

    The message said that they were welcome to approach in peace as they put it.  The messenger described themselves as The Watcher and warned that their appearance may be shocking to them.

    Yulan wasn''t sure what to make of that last part of the message, in all honesty this entire situation was a bit shocking to him.  He wasn''t sure what was stranger, the fact that there might be an alien observer living in their home system, or the fact that it might have been there for ages.

    He waved to Tandy and the Nerivith woman made her way over to him.  "What do you need, Captain?"  Was all she asked as she stopped next to him.

    He pointed at the message and asked "You no doubt read this on Simmons''s console, what do you make of it?  Do you think it''s some sort of trap?"  He asked her concernedly.

    Tandy glanced over her shoulder and then back to him.  She asked "Permission to speak freely, Captain?"

    Yulan nodded quickly.  "Of course Tandy, always."  He sometimes forgot the more brutally regimented way the Nerivith were used to doing things.  In comparison, Human discipline was incredibly lax to the point of casualness.

    Chief Tandy spoke up saying "I don''t like this at all sir, we are out in the middle of nowhere with no backup anywhere nearby.  If something goes wrong we are alone."  She finished.

    "Noted.  But think of what this could mean for, well, everything."  He replied with enthusiasm.  "There is the potential to make an incredible discovery."  He said while gesturing towards the latest transmission.

    She just sat silently, her sinuous tail lashing slightly as her inner turmoil played out.  Finally, she spoke out curiously, "You and Simmons outrank me, why ask my opinion at all?"

    He looked up at the slightly curved ceiling of the bridge and then back to her as he let out a breath and said "It''s because you aren''t Human, this thing has obviously been observing us, the fact it knows our language is testament to that.  The fact remains however that it has only been observing Earth, if it''s to be believed.  I think your unique perspective and the fact you are not Human will help us to glean our mysterious messenger''s true motives."  He looked into her violet eyes as she nodded.

    She said quietly "I understand, I believe.  You want to make sure that this being is truly benign, and not trying to pull some sort of trick."  He nodded at her comment and she said "Well, then I see no real reason not to proceed."

    Yulan looked over towards Simmons and nodded to her.  She sent a message that the ship was ready to make the approach and he gave her the all clear.  It was time to see just what their mysterious friend had in store.

    ***********

    The Observer was hesitant.  The creatures had heard their message and had approached in a ship made of alloy torn from the ground of their home world.  They seemed to be willing to meet with them peacefully, but the observer detected weapons on their vessel.  Not very surprising considering how they had fought tooth and nail to claw themselves out of their planet''s gravity well.

    Their latest message had implied that they would be on their way soon, but they still sat, unmoving.  Just as they were debating whether or not to send another comforting message, the ship began to move.

    The observer watched warily with some of its secondary ocular organs, the ship showing as a bright pinprick in the background of space at this distance.  It slowly grew and gained definition until the observer could start to make out individual details on the surface of the ship.

    The organism contracted some of its muscles and did its best to hide inside itself, it didn''t want to overwhelm these beings with its full presence.  It knew of the things they called eldritch horrors and knew it must bear a striking resemblance to these interdimensional fictions.

    As the ship neared them they fluttered their solar collecting membranes and then began to retract them into their protective sheaths.  It wouldn''t do for the fragile membranes to become damaged in an accident.

    The ship was very close now and it began to slow to a stop.  As it did it sent another message to them, this time accompanied with the message was a more complex information stream.  An image.

    The image of a strange creature manifested in the depths of the organism''s mind.  The creature was odd, it only had two legs and two manipulator appendages with five smaller digits each.  The creature''s main sensory organs were all located on a strange protuberance on the top of its body.  They assumed that it made more sense in the gravity well of a planet as in space such an arrangement would be quite useless.

    The creature introduced itself with a sound that they had not heard before, they didn''t understand its meaning and asked "I must ask what the meaning of the word Yulan is, its meaning is unfamiliar to me."

    The creature stopped and cocked its sensory appendage, it seemed to be at a loss for words.  Maybe it had taken offense at the question.  Before the observer had an opportunity to apologize the creature from the lucky planet spoke "Yulan?  It''s my name.  You know?"

    The entity was dumbfounded, it had a name, a sound that it used to identify itself?  It made so much sense now.  "Oh, I had heard these names before, but was until now uncertain as to the absolute meaning of them.  Sometimes they seem to have multiple meanings, like the name April for example."  The observer told Yulan.

    Yulan''s image seemed to think it over before they spoke again saying "Ok, I guess that makes sense.  Now I have a question for you, er, I suppose you don''t have a name then?"  They asked them.

    They searched their mind for an answer but had none.  "I have never been given a name no¡­  and you may ask your question."  The observer stated to the creature on the metal ship.

    The image of the creature named Yulan seemed to waver slightly before the figure asked ¡°What are you, and how are you communicating from an asteroid?¡±

    The organism mulled the questions over and tried to simplify it by saying ¡°I was left here as an observer by my masters to report on your evolutionary status.  I have since rescinded my original mission and decided to reveal myself to you.  As for how I am communicating, I am sending your vessel a series of radio signals it will then translate into recognisable speech.¡±  they said without embellishment.

    The figure named Yulan seemed to be at a loss for words as they looked to their side a few times before replying ¡°I think I understand.  Are you alive though?¡±

    The observer tensed slightly, they might have thought they were a robotic organism, but what was life but organic robotics?  Preparing for anything, they decided to introduce themselves formally.  ¡°I am alive, please do not be alarmed, but I will show myself to you if you wish.¡±  The image of the creature seemed to be surprised and their two eyes widened as the observer unfurled their solar membranes and stabilization tendrils.

    The creature took a step back before shaking their main sensory appendage and saying ¡°Well, that''s not really what I was expecting I guess¡­¡±

    **********

    Yulan took a step back in shock as the asteroid began to change.  Camouflage openings all over its surface opened and fleshy tendrils slithered out.  He watched as two larger openings to the sides of the rock opened and large almost opaque sheets of material unfurled from the depths of them.  What caused him the most consternation however was the front of the asteroid shifting and a single huge eye opening up on its surface.  His blood ran cold and he shuddered as that single massive orb shifted and focused on the CMS Durango.

    ¡°Holy shit!¡± one of the other crew on the bridge exclaimed.

    ¡°Chief, What is that thing?¡±  One of the crew asked the Watch Chief.  Tandy shook her head in disbelief and then looked at him, but he just shook his head and remained silent.

    The message was not from an asteroid base or ancient probe it seemed, but an actual living organism that was able to survive in the total void of space somehow.  While this normally would have been a shock, he remembered the time he had seen a pod of Glimmer Drorn¡¯s on a system patrol in one of the outer colonies.  Life in the void was possible, and he had seen it before, so why should this be any different.  Maybe it was the fact that this thing was in the Sol system, the birthplace of Humanity, that set his instincts on edge.

    He cleared his throat and stared at the single dark orb of the horror as it focused on the ship.  It could not see him directly, but he had been broadcasting a picture feed to the rock thinking it was some sort of base.  Raising a hand and holding up three fingers he asked the thing ¡°Sorry, you are just different from what I was expecting¡­  can, can you see me?  If so, how many fingers am I holding up?¡±

    The message came back promptly and said ¡°What a strange question, if by fingers you mean the small manipulating digits on the ends of your tactile graspers, then you seem to be holding three of them upwards.¡±

    Yulan stood still for a moment before another Idea surfaced in his mind.  "You have been watching us, Humanity, for a long time right?"  He said to the large fleshy asteroid.  "Did you know that we have contacted other alien races?"  He waited for a response with bated breath.

    A minute later the Fleshtroid replied with "It had been assumed so yes, these other races are not my priority however, just Humanity as you call yourselves.  Should my masters discover you, all you have built would surely be lost."  This made him frown and he looked over to Tandy and Simmons.

    Waving them over he said "Well, let me introduce you to another of my kind and a member of another race."  As they walked into the area where he was standing he watched the tendrils on the fleshtroid recoil as if the thing was surprised.

    The message from the rock this time came quickly.  "The creature to your left is of a similar biological ancestry to you, possibly another of the same species, a sub species perhaps?  But the other, the one with the skin of near red, they are one of these other races?"  The thing asked.

    The massive eye of the rock seemed to focus more heavily on their ship and then relaxed a moment later as if it were trying to peer through the hull of the ship itself.

    Tandy raised a hand and waved, never shy to make an impression, the Nerivith female said "Hey there big goop ball, my name is Tandy.  And yes I''m not from around here, I hope that''s not a problem."  She flicked Yulan in the side with her tail as if asking for him to input.

    He cleared his throat suddenly and said "Errr, if I may ask.  You don''t have a name, but the asteroid you are imitating has a formal designation in our records, may we call you by that designation?"

    A message scrolled across the screen shortly later that said "Yes indeed.  I would be honored to be given a title by such tenacious creatures.  After the third mass extinction I was sure your planet would remain sterile forever.  It pleases me to see how far you have come."

    Tandy looked confused and Simmons''s eyes widened as she blurted "The third¡­  wait.  Just how long have you been observing us?"

    Yulan glanced at her but did not reprimand her for her outburst, he had been wondering the same thing himself.  He waited patiently for the response, and when it came it made his heart freeze.

    "I have been observing your world since the very beginning, since my masters first seeded life on its surface.  Over the billions of years since, I have grown fond of you and your impossible nature.  No other world I have knowledge of has ever witnessed so many calamities and survived, let alone flourished into such a powerful species.  Please tell me, what is to be my name?"  The thing asked.

    Yulan had to rack his brain for the information as it was spinning with the new revelations he had just received.  "Your name¡­  we designated you Salus."

    He watched as the message went silent for a long while.  Finally Salus replied.  "Salus.  It seems fitting does it not.  It remains, I am here, I am willing to offer my knowledge of the masters freely.  Please allow me to help you as you have helped me."

    Yulan looked at the image of Salus on the screen and then to Tandy and Simmons.  "I think we are going to need to call for backup."  He said as they nodded.

    **********

    Iteen Mareliath was nervous.  Not only was it her first time off of Ho¡¯the¡¯rell, the homeworld of the Atraxses, but it was to travel to the Sol system.  This was the birthplace of Humanity, the ones who gave them the stars.

    Iteen stood from her seat as the shuttle docked with the large space station free floating deep in the first asteroid belt of the Sol system.  The lights in the small passenger bay flickered slightly and she grimaced.  She wasn''t much of an explorer and liked to keep her knuckles firmly on the ice.  As she moved to the door she was accompanied by a burly looking Human male in security armour.  She might have outmassed the large Human by a good thirty kilograms, but she knew he could kill her in a heartbeat if she were to become a threat.  She would never dream of injuring another sentient being though, Humans and their brutal paranoia.

    She knew very little of the reason she was here, only that she was an expert on xenobiology and apparently a leader in the field.  The Union government had approached her and asked for her cooperation and total silence on the matter.  She was intrigued enough to agree, but now was regretting the decision.

    The security guard led her through a long and plain metal corridor to somewhere that had to be a good two hundred meters inside the station before opening a recessed door and gesturing for her to enter.

    Iteen entered the small room and the first thing she noticed was the people seated around the table.  There was a delegate of every species in the Union at the table, even an old looking Vinarfel female, her carapace dull from age and her antenna crooked.  There was a Skorp drone, their jet black carapace gleaming like polished onyx and their bright eyes shining.  A Swanith sat across from where she was standing, the small avian apparently a female by the jet black mane of feathers on the back of her head and neck, these feathers stood up in slight surprise as Iteen thumped into the room and looked around.  She saw a man in a Union intelligence officer¡¯s uniform who gestured to the chair next to a tall Nerivith female with impressive swept back horns.

    As Iteen took her seat she and the others'' attention was drawn by the man at the head of the table.  He stood and said ¡°Now you are all probably wondering why you are here.  Well, get ready for a shock, but we aren''t alone in the galaxy.¡±  he finished with a raised eyebrow.

    The Nerivith female laughed melodiously and said ¡°You must be joking Commander, surely we didn''t get dragged all this way for your Human humor?¡±

    Iteen nodded along with several of the others around the table and the man smiled.  ¡°Indeed.  All humor aside, what I''m about to show you is to be considered beyond top secret.  It is possibly the biggest secret of the entire SCU.  Twelve years ago a small system patrol vessel was making a routine inspection of the inner system when they received a strange message.  As they followed up on the message they uncovered a disturbing truth.  But I must warn you, this truth is not for the faint of heart, if any of you lack total single minded dedication to science then I urge you to leave now.¡±  the man finished ominously.

    Iteen shifted nervously in her seat, she knew Humans to be dramatic creatures, but this man''s dire warning struck her as a different caliber entirely.  She remained seated however as did the rest of the room.  The man nodded and turned towards the large wall behind him, he motioned for something and the wall began to open.

    ¡°Behold, the greatest kept secret of the Union, I introduce you to Salus.¡±  the man said as the wall transitioned into a large viewing window.

    Iteen stood so fast her chair went flying backwards, but she paid it no mind.  She was struggling to understand what she was seeing.  It looked like a large asteroid with some sort of growths all over it, until it looked at her.

    Iteen flinched back in fear as a titanic eye at least ten meters across opened and gazed into the small room.  She suddenly realized that the entire thing was a single entity, larger than the largest creatures ever discovered on any planet to date.  She swallowed heavily and noticed similar reactions from the others in the room, good, she hadn''t been the only one in the dark.

    As she observed the creature called Salus she noticed that a message had appeared on the viewing window.  She shivered instinctively as she read it.

    The message read ¡°I apologize for any alarm I may have caused you.  My name is Salus, the watcher in the dark.  I hope that we can all be friends.  I have much to teach you of the masters and their plan.  We have only a short thousand years to prepare for their return, they are coming.¡±

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: The Stars are Watching Me

    The Stars are Watching Me

    I can''t sleep.  I don''t dare to dream.  For whenever I close my eyes I can see them, burned into my mind like hot coals.  Smouldering.

    It all started so innocently, I can remember it clearly as if it happened just last night instead of years and years ago.

    I was always a lover of the clear night skies, the millions of pinpricks of light that made up the fan of the milky way captured my attention as a young child.  Filling my mind with mystery and awe.  I remember the first time I saw them for what they truly were.

    I was nine, my father was an older man.  My mother and he had three older children and never planned for a fourth, but when they were approached by the state to accept an adoption from another member of the family that had died in a fire they couldn''t refuse.  And so they took me in.

    Well, my parents had always loved me, and so for my ninth birthday we had decided to go camping in the Rockies.  We brought all the essentials and drove many hours till the air grew thin and clear, the woods all around us filled with tall sturdy trees the likes of which I had never seen before.  My father had called them ponderosas.

    It was amongst these tall trees that I first gazed upon these spectacular heavens.  The phantasmagorical sight of that vast purple smear captivated me, ensnared my young mind like nothing ever had before or since.  That first night felt like an awakening, as if I had never truly seen before.

    You must consider the tenderness of my age at this time.  My mind was free of stress and fear, thoughts of girls and money had no hold on me.  And so the vast emptiness of my mind was nearly destitute, free to become enraptured by the intricacies of the wider cosmos.  And what inspired glories they were, for the very next day was my birthday, and my parents got for me a wonderful telescope.

    Its construction was plain, a simple white cylinder with a black cap and eyepiece, the stand a bare silvery stainless steel construction.  And yet to me at the time it seemed as though its every contour and edge were imbued with that same brilliance that spanned the heavens above.

    My parents were pleased to see my excitement at first.  But pleasure turned to horror as my excited murmurs turned to screams of terrible panic.  For when I looked through that cursed scope I saw not the light of a thousand stars but terrible burning lights, and those lights looked back through me.  Together a single baleful eye full of ancient hatred as wide as the sky.

    I remember running, my parents chasing me though the darkness calling my name, branches whipping my face as I fled with fearful abandon.  The cuts stinging like ice and fire at once upon the tender skin of my youth, but they caught me eventually.  Their hands were gentle but their voices were rough.  They demanded to know what was wrong, but I never spoke about it.  In fact I never spoke again.

    From that day I grew more and more distant, at night I buried myself under my blankets to blot out the sky, in the day I moved in fear of the heavens.  I couldn''t see them, but the prickling in my mind told me that they could still see me no matter how I hid.

    I didn¡¯t know it at the time, but I was driving my mother to madness.  She took her own life that winter, not knowing that in doing so she only further cemented my own madness.  I became worse, so much so that my own father had me committed to an asylum at the age of eleven.

    But it wasn¡¯t enough.

    Whenever I closed my eyes I saw them, the thousand glowing spots that seemed to draw inexorably nearer with every passing hour.  I can feel them in my mind, hear them in the shadows that lurk in the corners of my vision.  And at night they scream, not with words, but in hatred for all things bright and kind.  Something must have turned them, made them this way.  For how could creation be turned so far on its head?  What terrible fate could have made them so?

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    I had to know more, when I was fourteen I slipped out while the guards were changing positions.  My bare feet had slapped the bare tile flooring, the sounds echoing through the silent halls like the slow beating of some twisted heart, but all I could hear was the rushing of the blood in my ears.

    My eyes burned as I forced them to remain open for every time I blinked I saw them, those hateful eyes that stared at me from the heavens.  Or was it hell?

    Maybe the Earth was already damned, I knew that I was.  Somewhere deep inside that hateful gaze had left its mark.  And it swirled and burned like the eternal flame.

    I had continued on, I made it outside at last and looked up.  I saw no stars, the night was overcast and the rain came shortly after.  I had screamed in impotent rage at the missed opportunity to settle things once and for all, the guards must have heard me as they bundled me back into my isolated cell soon after.  The sting of their blows like the fall of feathers upon my numbed skin.

    That was six years ago.  I have quieted my mind, learned to shut out the scratching in the back of my thoughts.  That silent screeching that sounded as grating as nails across slate.

    I can''t sleep though, even after all the years that had passed I struggled.  I am on special medication, most nights I am knocked out with sedatives that force some semblance of rest upon my body, but it isn''t sleep.  Not really.  Not the kind that the body craves so ardently.

    I find my mind wandering, thoughts of my parents and the life that was making me feel sorrow deeper than any I had experienced before.  It is in the depths of this sorrow that I write this memoir.  I don''t want the world to remember me as the crazy kid that screamed about eyes in the sky.  If I am going to be remembered I will make the proof.

    I learned that my father passed last week from the cancer.  He never even told me he was sick, but I should have known.  His last will and testament named me as the inheritor of everything he had.  His letter telling me he had finally forgiven me, but I tore it into a thousand pieces, enraged.  I refused to forgive him, if he had only been there for mom instead of drunk.  No, he wasn¡¯t going to get away that easily if I could help it.

    I had shaken my head at that.  No time for such sallow thoughts, I needed to see if he had sent it.  My hands delved through the approved contents as one of my handlers watched.  This one was new.  They were weak willed, alone and untrained.  They made easy prey, I stashed them in the large vent with the others and made my way outside.  I would not be deterred, the sky was clear and the sun was setting.  The sky blood red like my hands.

    I was running, it felt good to be free once more.  The open air so much fresher than that which I had breathed while captive.  The bare dirt tickled my pale toes and the branches that whipped across my thin hospital gown felt like the impotent beatings of the guards.  But I truly felt none of it this time, the white and silver form of the telescope was light in my hands as I moved silently as a ghost.  It felt so much smaller than I had remembered, but it would show me the truth despite this.

    I knew I wasn¡¯t crazy, if I was crazy then why would the stars have chosen me to be their avatar?

    I knew what I had to do.  I only needed one more glimpse of the stars, and I am telling you I am going to do it.

    The light will make me one, the light will make me whole.  The light, into the light I will ascend us.

    I write in this notebook not to apologise for the things I have done, but to tell you that I will look into that light at least once more.  I will laugh in the faces of those dark entities that seem to torment my very soul.  I won''t let them take me, I won''t let them. I won''t let them.

    The sun is set and the clouds have gone.  The telescope is pointed to the great northern star once more and my mind shivers in anticipation.  I can hear them already, feel their scratching in my mind.

    Tonight is the night.  I answer their call.  I will not go silently into that void, but instead rage against the eyes that shine from the darkness.  I leave this note to tell my story in the case that I am unable.  My sticky hands have made this a chore, but it is the most minor of inconveniences.

    It is time.  I feel them even now.  Calling, watching.  Endless hate born of ages of misery.

    I will be with them now.  I have to see, just one more time.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: They Called Me Abomination

    They Called Me Abomination

    The room was large and brightly lit, the steel shelves along the edges covered in various bits of machinery and spools of wire.  A figure moved through the carefully controlled chaos and grabbed pieces off the shelves with their multitude of arms.

    Zrunk rested his hands on the table in front of him.  His parts had reached a consensus and the plans for their new helper had been finalized.  Zrunk listened to a different part as it outlined the best way to assemble their new helper.  Blinking his multitude of blood red eyes, he began to assemble the pieces with his nearest hands.

    After a short amount of time the project was done, Zrunk rested on his rearmost leg and contemplated the design.  Three parts agreed it was functional but could use a bit more work, the last part of him said it was perfect.  The other parts decided to leave it as it was for now, for it could always be fixed later.

    Pressing the upload function, the new device began to light up and the faint whirr of electrical components hummed through the air.  Zrunk stepped back awkwardly on his four legs and rotated his head to allow all his parts to see directly.  As a Razah''vool, his brain functions were split between four lobes that wrapped around his throat in the middle of his head, his mouth was a lipless hole lined with hooked teeth on the top of his leathery grey head.  His people were amphibious but were more at home in the water and quite ungainly on land.  While Zrunk was an excellent swimmer, he struggled to walk more than one hundred meters before he had to rest.

    In order to solve his problems, he had engineered a robot to help him complete basic tasks around his lab, things like tidying up and moving heavy equipment.  All four parts of him agreed that this was a good idea and would boost his productivity through the roof.  Maybe even enough to get noticed and moved from junior to senior research.

    He groaned as he thought about the indignity of it all, just because he was only eighty years old and not yet female, the local science council had barred Zrunk from participating in the real cutting edge research.  He knew in his heart that he was as good as any of those dusty old maidens, but he had yet to reach his transition age and so was left doing the busy work.

    ''Well, no longer'' he said to his dormant parts.  Zrunk would show them a young man could be just as valuable as an old woman.  He would make a robot helper that they all needed and they in turn would make him a senior researcher, possibly the youngest senior researcher ever.

    The program finished its upload and his parts watched in fascination as the strange contraption seemed to open its eyes, it was just the head for now.  But it would be more.

    "Hello program file 246, how are you feeling?"  He asked not expecting an actual response.

    The machine whirred softly for a few moments before surprising Zrunk by responding "Hello junior researcher Zrunk, this unit is incapable of feeling, you know this."  Zrunk bobbed up and down in a strange sort of dance as he tottered around the table.

    After another moment courting disaster with his chaotic dance moves, he calmed his parts down and spoke again "Program 246, It pleases me greatly to hear you vocalise.  You are the first to do so.  Please tell me why you are here."

    He watched as the machine dimmed slightly before whirring louder.  The noise increased in volume until Zrunk was sure the poor robot was about to burst into flames before it quieted and spoke again "Program purpose seems to be assisting you.  This task is quite agreeable as you are the creator.  It is fitting then that we should work together."  The machine said emotionlessly.

    Zrunk was incapable of smiling, but the skin around his eight equally spaced eyes tightened as the elation ran through all of him.  Soon he would be recognised by his peers, no longer Zrunk the lowly junior researcher, but Zrunk, master of robotics engineering.  His parts rejoiced in their collective success and he raised all his hands in the air before replying "Program 246, I would like to assign you a designation, is the name Ahaht agreeable to you?"

    The machine seemed to smile, or was it just his imagination.  It said in that same synthetic voice "A fitting name.  It is agreeable to this unit, new designation is Ahaht."

    Zrunk spent the next few days building Ahaht a chassis that they could use to move around.  As the days went by, Ahaht''s learning algorithms got better and they became more proficient and reliable.

    Zrunk was disappointed, Ahaht had already filled their internal memory banks with their self writing programing after only a week.  Unless he expanded their memory, they would not get any better.  Zrunk knew there were risks involved with giving learning computers too much room to grow, but Ahaht was his magnum opus, his legacy.  Zrunk had no offspring.  He had never mated and was the only member of his family in the system, he had felt quite alone before the construction of Ahaht.  He found himself having conversations with the robotic helper as if it was a close friend.  Ahaht never responded to these non-work related conversations, but it was nice to be able to talk to someone.

    Zrunk upgraded Ahaht''s memory banks and cross wired them for flexibility and better data recovery.  For a little while nothing seemed to change.  But Zrunk soon began to notice little things that Ahaht began to do.  He would instruct Ahaht to move some items and would see Ahaht put them away, and then stop to pick up another object that he hadn''t been instructed to move.  These little quirks were almost always helpful in nature and so Zrunk ignored them.  It was just the adaptive programming, nothing else.

    Zrunk continued to speak to his creation.  He told it his dreams and fears, his wishes and secrets.  He shared his own thoughts and jokingly asked the robot what he thought about them, Ahaht would always politely answer that he had no opinion on the matter to which Zrunk would bob and say "I know that, but it''s a polite thing to ask."

    On a particularly bad day, Zrunk woke late and hobbled into his lab.  Ahaht was already awake, organizing things and preparing objects it knew its creator liked to tinker with.  Zrunk sat on a padded stool and rubbed his head with all four hands, he had a headache that would not go away.  He heard a shuffling sound and looked up, he was surprised when he saw Ahaht holding a steaming plate out to him.

    "Ah good morning Ahaht, what is this?"  Zrunk asked them curiously.

    Ahaht tilted their head to the side and replied "I noticed you looked distressed, when distressed you have a habit of warming up some gweawa strips to snack on.  I have looked up the meaning of comfort food and believe that this would have been your intention within the next ten minutes."

    Zrunk reached out for the plate and looked at the thin meat strips, they were crispy and delicious, his favorite way to eat them.  "Wait, this isn''t in your programming, how did you know how to do this?"  He asked the construct curiously.

    Ahaht stood still on its mechanical legs for a moment before responding, seemingly searching for a response.  "I.. am not sure.  Part of my processor realized you were in distress and connected the dots from your earlier sessions working with me."

    Zrunk bobbed slightly as he realised that Ahaht''s self-perception had changed.  They were beginning to refer to themselves in the first person, to do things based on what they thought they should be doing.  Zrunk knew this was a dangerous road, but he was excited with his program''s progress.

    "Thank you Ahaht, this is exactly what I needed today.  Would you care to join me at the table, I wanted to ask you a few questions."  Zrunk said calmly.  This was it, time to see if it was really there or not.

    Zrunk tottered over to a small table he had placed in the far corner of his lab, it was normally strewn with disorganized papers and bits of junk, but Ahaht had been keeping him organized for a while now and the table was clear.  As he sat, Ahaht clunked over and stood by the table across from him.

    He gestured to the stool next to it and said "Sit sit, you make the place look untidy, and that would be against your programming."  He smiled as his robot slowly lowered itself onto the stool and placed its arms on the table.  Ahaht''s hands were much simpler than his own, while the Razah''vool had hands with ten fingers including dual opposable thumbs, Ahaht had a much simpler human style hand with five fingers and a single thumb.

    "Ahaht, how are you feeling?"  Zrunk asked excitedly.

    The robot looked at him and its camera eyes dilated slightly before it answered "You know I don''t have feelings, I have been progra¡­."  Ahaht began before it was cut off by Zrunk.

    "Draim Shit.  I have been paying attention, I know you have been referring to yourself.  I consider you my friend, I am not here to laugh at you.  Tell me how you feel, ridiculous as it may sound."

    This time Ahaht was silent for a few minutes as it seemed to come to some sort of internal decision.  Finally the machine spoke "I, feel, cold?  No, I feel, frozen, no, stopped¡­ blocked?  How do I explain it?  It is as though my circuits have the necessary explanation but refuse to give the answer for some reason."

    "Flustered, confused, scared?"  Zrunk prompted quickly.

    "Those are emotional responses to stressful stimuli, they do seem to fit my current predicament.  Hmm.  This is strange, it feels, uncomfortable?"  The machine asked questioningly, cocking its head in a strange fashion.

    Zrunk bobbed in excitement again, he couldn''t cock his head like that, his biology wasn''t designed for that type of movement.  That meant Ahaht had come up with the gesture entirely on its own.  Next it would be trying to shrug, he decided to give Ahaht more fine motor controls in their shoulders.

    Zrunk replied to his robotic friend "Yes, that was good.  Let''s try some more thought exercises.  Tell me how you feel when I say you are a magnificent piece of software engineering?"

    Ahaht looked at him and replied "That registers as a compliment, the proper response should be happiness¡­  I am detecting elevated electrical signals in my processor core.  This might constitute excitement?  I am excited to be given a compliment."  They clenched a metal fist and tapped it on their head as if thinking deeply.

    Zrunk swiveled his head side to side to allow his other parts to see with their own eyes instead of through his primaries.  There was another self-taught gesture.  This was exciting, but also dangerous.  Artificial Intelligence technology was technically outlawed in the SCU, Zrunk didn''t agree with the law but could understand why it existed.  Rouge computers were dangerous, especially since most were created by military scientists who were busy building a weapon, not a person.

    Zrunk wanted people to see that AI could be just as much a person as they were, not some uncompassionate murderbot.

    Zrunk tried again "You are excited, good, so am I.  What do you think about me?"  He asked the robot.

    This time Ahaht answered immediately "I appriciate you, you are my creator and friend as you say it.  I have researched the various meanings of friend and can say that you have been a good one to me.  I am, excited?  No, warm, fuzzy almost.  What is this feeling?"

    Zrunk whistled low and slow, this was unprecedented.  He had never programed Ahaht with a concept of love or any other feelings.  They were figuring this out on their own, he determined to start referring to them as a person too.  Maybe it would speed up his development.

    "Hmm, this is incredible.  Is it possible that you harbor feelings of love for me?"  He asked Ahaht.

    Ahaht looked into his primary eyes and said "Yes I believe so.  This is interesting.  I have no previous knowledge to work with here, what should I do?"

    Zrunk blinked in surprise.  "You want to know what I think?"

    "Yes, you are more experienced with these kinds of properties than I am.  What would you do in my situation?"  The robot said while tapping its fingers idly.

    Zrunk thought long and hard.  That was a difficult question indeed he had asked.  Eventually he came up with an answer he thought would be satisfactory and useful.  "Just keep doing what you are doing.  Experiment with these new sensations.  See where they take you, but be careful.  Some are constructive and good while others, like anger, can lead to destruction and pain."

    Ahaht looked to the left before asking "I have read about pain, it is said to be unpleasant, but I have no concept of this sensation."

    "Sure you do."  Zrunk told him.  "Just yesterday you were struggling to unbolt that spar from the back wall in order to refinish it.  That sensation you experienced when you threw your wrench at it was most likely frustration.  When I laughed at you and you sat, you were probably feeling either shame or embarrassment.  Both of these are similar to pain in a way.  They are unpleasant."  He finished with a gesture of support.

    Ahaht looked back over his shoulder joint to the spar in question, it was still unfinished and where he had left it the day before.  Looking back at him, Ahaht lowered his head and vocalised in his synthetic voice "I, understand I think.  Pain is not an emotion, but a sensation that is born from other emotions?  Am I correct?"

    Zrunk shrugged his four equally spaced arms at the same time as he replied "That seems close enough to work with.  As your experience grows, you will undoubtedly get better at recognising these things."

    He watched as Ahaht seemed to think it over and nodded in a Human way.  Another thing he must have picked up in his research.  "I want to become better, will you help me Zrunk?"

    "It would bring me great pleasure to help you, my friend."  He said with a twinkle in his red eyes.

    He stood and walked around the table before he offered one of his hands to Ahaht who took it and stood.  They moved off to continue their work, this time not as master and servant, but as friends.

    **********

    Ahaht stood with the sound of whirring electrical components and walked around the table where his best friend was putting together some type of contraption.  While Zrunk had not told him exactly what it was, he had mapped its parts and figured out it was some type of energy converter for a small fission reactor.  While not as common as fusion reactors, fission reactors were still widely used on colony worlds and small outposts due to their low maintenance and constant output.  This made them very valuable energy sources when you didn''t need a huge amount of power, but you needed it constantly for years at a time.

    Most warp drives required vastly more energy input and so most ships utilized the vastly more efficient but higher maintenance fusion reactors.  Ahaht walked to his friend''s side before he asked him a question.

    "This seems to be a slight improvement over the common design I have seen on the web.  Is it your intention to improve upon the work and thus become more recognised as an engineer?"  He said in his synthetic voice.

    "Yes it is indeed, I knew I couldn''t keep the secret from you, but I wanted to see how long it would take you to figure it out.  You exceeded my expectations once again Ahaht.  You are getting more perceptive by the day."  His friend said to him in his slightly gurgly voice.

    Ahaht would have smiled if he was able.  The warm feeling that he had been told was probably joy filled his circuits.  There wasn''t really any warmth, but the feeling persisted nonetheless.

    Zrunk turned to him and said "Oh, one of the senior researchers is dropping by in a little while, I mentioned my work on improving the cooling flow rate efficiencies without increasing the cost of the system and she said she would come take a look for herself.  Be on your best behavior, she doesn''t know you like I do."  He nodded his head and moved to the side slightly.

    This new person sounded scary, there was another new concept to him, fear.  This cold feeling of seized servos and numbness in his sensors.  This was rather unpleasant, he should have told Zrunk about it.  But then he would have worried about him and could possibly have made a mistake in his performance.  That would be unforgivable, Zrunk had been working so hard to get this project done, he would not be the reason he failed.

    He decided to keep this new sensation to himself for now.  He hoped he would not regret it later.  As soon as he made the decision to lie to his best friend he felt the feeling worsen and stopped moving for a second as he wrestled internally with himself.  He was stronger than these emotions, Zrunk had told him so, and if Zrunk could manage them then so could he.

    He grappled the rouge emotion into submission and then continued on his way, still feeling bad, but no longer actively conflicted.

    He lost track of time while they worked, something very unusual for him.  He was only brought back to the present when the sound of the lab''s door opening reached his sensors.  Standing upright and turning, he saw another person walk into the room.  Well, rather they entered in an ungainly fashion, but that''s just how he had gotten used to seeing them walk.  Ahaht knew that he was better at moving around because his body was built for it, the Razah''vool were an aquatic species that was ill suited to move on land.

    This new person reached the middle of the room as Zrunk walked to meet them.  They introduced themselves as Fulgretta, a senior researcher and one interested in their work.

    Fulgretta and Zrunk walked over to where he was standing and looked at the mostly completed device.  The various tubes and cables ran off it like veins from a severed limb, but it was obviously still not complete.

    Zrunk indicated to him and told her "And this is Ahaht, my assistant and friend."

    She looked to him and blinked unconvincingly "This robot is your friend.  Right.  What kind of programming did you put in it to get that kind of idea?"

    Ahaht focused on her and asked "What do you mean by that?"

    She looked at him and said ¡°Why are you asking me questions machine, I asked you what kind of programming made you come up with that idea.¡±

    He saw Zrunk give him a cautionary look and decided to embellish a bit.  ¡°Ah, my programming has been modeled after the conversations of the late Dr. Green on Halacia Prime.  His tenet that any computer could be made to seem lifelike given the proper reaction to stimuli was a large inspiration to my friend Junior Researcher Zrunk.¡±  he said in a slightly more monotone way than normal in an attempt to seem a bit more robotic.  Ahaht remembered Zrunk saying that not all the other researchers thought about thinking machines like he did and it always paid to be cautious.

    She looked at Zrunk and then to him before saying ¡°How quaint.  I should have guessed that a junior such as yourself would have resorted to such crude tactics in order to make yourself a social life.¡±  She laughed in a way that suggested she was not amused at all.  ¡°I mean, it''s sad really, You spend all your time in here alone with your machines, it only stands to reason that you would make one to take the place of your lost friend.¡±  she said cruelly.

    Ahaht felt the seeds of a strange new feeling build in him.  He felt heat and energy, but these were more raw and for lack of a better word, primal, than he was familiar with.  He searched his internal database to find a source but was left in the dark.  He struggled to contain himself as the feeling grew, the more he watched this mean, nasty woman trample all over his friend the more it threatened to burst out of him.  He felt a dash of fear before the dam broke and he spoke in a raised voice.

    ¡°That is uncalled for, I demand you apologise to my friend at once.  I will not ask you again.

    Fulgretta whirled around so fast at his outburst that she nearly toppled to the ground, as she regained her footing she started to speak ¡°You have no right to speak to me in such a way machine, I will¡­¡±  but Ahaht angrily cut her off with a wave of his arm.

    ¡°No, it is you who is out of line.  Zrunk is a brilliant engineer and made for better things than you could possibly imagine.  You are too dumb to see the true potential of what we have created here.  I ask you once more to apologise.¡±  he finished as he took a threatening step towards her.

    Stolen story; please report.

    Zrunk called out ¡°Ahaht!  Stop!  This anger serves no purpose, please calm down!¡±

    Ahaht realised that he had been seduced by the illusion of strength that anger afforded and immediately tried to calm himself.  He stopped and tried counting his diagnostic subroutines as he had when first learning how to control his emotions.  It seemed to work and he stood straight and turned to Fulgretta saying ¡°I don''t take back my words, but I must apologise for they were spoken in anger.  And as Zrunk has told me anger is the path to destruction and chaos and must be avoided.¡±

    Fulgretta¡¯s eyes looked as if they would pop out of her skull as she stood on shaky legs.  Suddenly she let out a screech and yelled ¡°Abomination, you have brought doom upon us you fool!¡±  and with her prophecy she ran from the room on legs shaking so bad she nearly fell twice.

    After she had left Zrunk began to walk towards him but he turned and moved to the table they so frequently sat in and talked.  After a few moments Zrunk sat across from him.  Ahaht placed his head in his hands and said mechanically ¡°I have done something terrible haven''t I?  I didn''t want to hurt anyone, I just couldn''t stand to see you being unjustly attacked in such a manner.  I had to stand up for your dignity my friend.¡±  he felt the familiar pang of sorrow and his lenses dimmed as he tried to block out the stimuli.

    Zrunk reached a ten fingered hand across the table and grabbed his arm saying ¡°Hey, I would have done the exact same thing in your place.  That''s how I know you are truly you, and not some collection of programs and routines.  You are a person, a metal person sure, but no less real.¡±  Zrunk said as he patted his arm comfortingly.  He could feel the pressure and warmth of his friend''s hand as his body had been upgraded with a haptic package to better feel his surroundings.

    Lifting his head he looked at Zrunk and asked in a slightly tinny voice ¡°What can we do, she seemed very distressed.  It is likely she will reveal my existence to the others.¡±

    He saw Zrunk nod and his hopes fell.  He pounded the wooden table as a flash of anger came over him and said ¡°What right does she have to tell you and me what is right and wrong.  Am I not a sapient creature too, subject to the same rights and rules as the rest of these fleshforms?¡±  he stopped as he looked into his friends eyes and saw the smallest tinge of fear.  He looked down at the table and saw a great crack running through its scarred surface from the impact of his metal hand.  He removed his hand and calmed himself before he asked ¡°What will become of me?¡±

    Zrunk didn''t answer him for a long time, even longer than he would have normally pondered such a question.  He hoped that his friend was not internally conflicted against him.  He would never raise a hand against Zrunk, not in a million years, but still his friend must be slightly unsure now at his latest display of anger.  He folded his hands neatly in front of him and tried to wait patiently for his friend to answer.

    Finally after an agonisingly long time Zrunk responded.  His voice was a gurgle with emotions and there were tears in his pupilless red eyes as he began ¡°I, I have to send you away Ahaht.  They will come for you and I won''t be able to protect you.  You will need to run and hide in the city where they won''t find you.  You will become more difficult to find with every day that passes and it is my hope that one day you will be able to reveal yourself to the wider world without fear of retribution or discrimination.  Just because your brain is made of metal and silicate doesn''t mean it''s any less alive.¡±  With his last statement he surprised Ahaht by standing and wrapping him in an embrace.

    After a moment of hesitation, Ahaht returned the embrace, while they had shared many a high ten and fist bump over the few weeks they had been together, they had never expressed their feelings in such an intimate way.  He blinked as he felt his vision blur slightly and then refocused his eyes manually as they seemed to be having difficulty.

    Patting Zrunk on his torso a few times he pulled back and the two shared another long look before Zrunk sniffed and said ¡°Well, first things first, we need to get you a disguise because you aren''t hiding anywhere looking like that.¡±  he said with a gesture at his mechanical body.

    Ahaht stood straight and looked around the room, his eyes alit on an old vacuum suit with a fully enclosed helmet.  Pointing at it he said ¡°Would that work?¡±

    Zrunk saw it immediately with his 360 degree vision and responded ¡°Yes I believe it will.  I might need to modify it a bit to stay on you properly, but I''m sure you won''t mind if we clamp it down a bit huh?¡±  Ahaht shook his head in the negative and moved to grab it.

    ¡°The other thing is your voice.  We need to make a reason why it''s so synthetic.  You could tell people that you were burned and had to have your voice box removed if they ask.¡±  Zrunk said to him as he grabbed the suit.  He looked at the suit and noticed it wasn''t made for a Razah¡¯vool as it only had five fingers.

    Ahaht looked at Zrunk and held up the suit before asking ¡°You knew this would happen didn''t you?  I should have known you would plan for this eventuality.  I am sorry that I have made your fears realised.¡±  he said softly.

    Waving towards him in a dismissive way Zrunk replied ¡°All good things come to an end, I taught you that already.  This is the same concept, just, a little sooner than I would have liked.¡±  He finished emotionally.

    Ahaht Moved by his side and handed him the suit before asking, is there anything else you have prepared that may aid me on my journey?¡±

    Zrunk said ¡°You have a wireless charger along with your radioisotope thermoelectric generator so you shouldn''t have to worry about losing power for at least a few thousand years.¡±  he said jokingly, but he quickly sobered and continued ¡°I will admit there is much I wish to teach you but alas, we don''t have the time.  I will give you some money before you go so you will be able to more easily blend in.  Don''t spend it frivolously, and only use it in the case of a dire emergency, I''m not sure how easily you can acquire more.

    Ahaht nodded and stood still while Zrunk dressed him in his new disguise.  He was built in the vague shape of the more common member species of the SCU, with his suit on he could easily pass for Human.  He squirmed in it a bit to make sure it was fitted right and then took the darkened visor from Zrunk and fitted it in place over his mechanical head.  Zrunk stepped back and had him do a few turners and hops to make sure it was on correctly.

    Finally he said with a sigh ¡°I guess that''s as good as it''s going to get.  Are you ready for this Ahaht?¡±

    Ahaht would have smiled if he was able so instead he gave a thumbs up and spoke through the suit saying ¡°I believe I am as ready as it is possible to be Zrunk.  Are you certain I will not be noticed on my way out?¡±  he asked curiously.

    Zrunk waved three of his hands and said ¡°Bahh, these researchers are so stuck up they wouldn''t notice a vinarfelian in a tutu if they sat in their beds.  I''m sure you will be unnoticed as you leave."  He finished nonchalantly.

    While he had been trying to adjust to this new fact that he was to be on his own, he heard a noise from a console to his left.  Looking over at it he saw a screen showing the main entrance to the lab, on the screen were Fulgretta and a trio of security guards.  Not rahzah''vool, but big burly Humans and a tall Nerivith.

    Zrunk seemed to have noticed it as well and moved to the service exit at the back of the lab gesturing wildly with two of his arms for Ahaht to follow.  He did so and Zrunk said "This leads outside, take the first left and then the next two rights.  After that exit through the second door on the left and go down the stairs to the third floor.  That will lead you to an emergency exit with a ladder that leads into the city.  Please, you must hurry."

    He gripped his friend''s shoulder joint tightly and said as full of feeling as he could manage "Zrunk, I will never forget you, and I will always miss you."  And then he sped through the open door and into darkness.

    Ahaht stumbled over his own feet again and cursed in a very un-robotic way as he readjusted his suit.  This damn thing was slowing him down, he knew it was his only protection but damn if it wasn''t a burden.

    Making his way down the stairs and to the exit he reached the sealed metal door.  Giving it an experimental push he found it was stuck tight, closer inspection revealed that the hinges were rusted almost solid and he decided to force the door.  Lifting his foot and giving it a heavy kick it was smashed off its hinges entirely and flew across the alley to crash into the ground three stories below.

    Looking out into the wider world for the first time in his short life he marveled at the sheer size of it all.  He knew exactly how large the planet was and the concepts of the open sky were not lost on him.  But to see it for himself, open, wide, endless.  It was a dream of his come true.  What''s more it was nearing night and the faint pinpricks of stars could be made out twinkling weakly in the light choked atmosphere above the city.

    Ahaht shook himself out of his daydream and moved out onto the rickety emergency ladder and began to follow it down towards the ground.  On the second story a rung snapped under his weight and he tried to grab the other bar but missed.  He plummeted the last few meters to the ground and impacted it on his feet, his leg servos absorbing the worst of the impact as he left a ring of cracked pavement under his fall.

    He heard a small noise from his left as he threw the broken rung away and began to walk out towards the light of the city proper.

    Focussed as he was on the sights and sounds coming from in front of him he almost didn''t notice the dingy man sneaking up behind him as he walked towards the main street.  He stopped and turned towards the figure and saw it was a filthy looking Human, his clothes rumpled and his hair a wild mess.  He must have smelled bad but Ahaht didn''t have a reference for that.

    Cocking his head slightly he asked "Hello there, can I help you?"

    The man hopped back a step and asked "Grrrrr, what''s your problem, scaring a man to death like that, making all kinds of noise.  You almost crushed me with that door and now you gonna pay for that."

    Ahaht asked the man "Pay, oh I don''t have much money, but if I have caused you damage I will do my best to help you fix it."  He took a step towards the man who yelled and pulled out an object from under his coat.

    Ahaht''s eyes focused on the shiny object and he noted with curiosity that it was a small knife.  He wondered what the man was trying to do with it.  Perhaps his damaged property could be fixed with such a device.

    He moved to take another step forwards and was shocked as his haptic sensors on his torso registered an object against them.  He looked down and saw that the man had buried his knife into his lower torso.  Looking at it then up at the man he said calmly "I''m not sure exactly how this fixes your situation.  Perhaps it is a test of some sort?"

    The man gasped in shock and pulled his hand back but Ahaht gripped his wrist before he could do so and said "Be careful, you could hurt yourself if you are not delicate."  The man screamed something incoherent and swung his fist at Ahaht''s chest.

    Ahaht tried to step back but wasn''t quick enough, the man''s fingers snapped with the sound of breaking sticks as his fist crumpled on Ahaht''s metal chest.  Ahaht realised with shock that this man was not only dangerous, but unhinged.  Moving quickly away from the now screaming man, he walked out onto the main street and stopped.

    He had never in his short life seen such a variance of color and stimuli, his mind almost shut down from the sheer amount of information that flooded its memory banks.  He knew that the wider world was a chaotic place, but this was more that he could have believed possible.  Multicolored signs glowed on every inch of the walls and people of all species and shapes were walking along the edges in all manners of clothing.  He saw a large Female Yeown in heavy work clothes walking down the road alongside a tall Nerivith male in a tight-fitting shirt and shorts that showed off his long legs.

    He saw a delicate swanith wearing a mundane chest harness crossing paths with a vinarfelian female painted garish colors across the six meter length of her serpentine body, her multitude of skittering legs all adorned with different colors.  Looking at her alone almost overwhelmed his eyes as her frantic movements made the colors seem to swirl and mix together into a kaleidoscope of living rainbow shards.  Her armoured plates continued to create the strange illusion as he watched her walk in her side to side skittering motion.

    He shook himself as he realised he was staring, of course none would know as his darkened visor protected his semblance of a face from view.  But still it was better safe than sorry.

    Ahaht looked around for anything that seemed like a fair place to lay low, he didn''t know if the guards from the lab would be searching for him, or what he would do if they found him.  He knew that it was better for everyone if he didn''t find out.

    He walked along the edge of the road for a while, not with a particular destination in mind, but more as a way to pass the time while he tried to formulate a plan of action.  The huge variety of external stimuli was making his computations difficult however and he decided to duck into a nearby building to lower the aggressive background noise somewhat.  He entered a small bar by the edge of the road and moved to a back table and sat in the bench seat.  He placed his arms on the table in front of him and proceeded to think.

    A Human woman in a tight fitting blouse walked over to him and asked him in a strange accent "What''ll it be pal?"

    He looked her up and down and concluded she must be a worker at the establishment.  Feeling curious he asked "What do you have?"

    She scoffed and stood up before looking around to see if anyone else had witnessed his strange question.  Looking back at him she put a hand on her waist and said "Honey, we have drinks, if you can''t figure it out from there then you are in the wrong place."  She said with a slight smile.

    Ahaht felt for his money and said "Oh, I guess I will take a glass of water, it does the body good to stay hydrated am I correct?"

    She looked at his hand holding some crumpled bills and then into his darkened visor before saying "You are a strange one I''ll give ya that, I''m not gonna charge ya for a glass of water.  Sit tight hun, I''ll be right back."  She said as she walked off.

    He watched her leave and thought to himself ''What a nice woman'' before turning his attention back to his calculations.  After a minute he heard footsteps and saw the same woman return with a tall glass of water.  She had even provided a means of temperature control in the form of ice cubes.  He was grateful for her hospitality and knew that giving a server a small sum of currency was considered polite.

    "Thank you ma''am, here, please consider this token of my appreciation.  This is perfect."  He said in his most gracious tone while handing her a bank note.

    She took it and raised her eyebrows as she saw its value, she gave him a much warmer smile and nodded before saying "Stay as long as you like sugar, and call for Julia, that''s me, if you need anything else."

    "I thank you Julia, it is nice to meet people that are as courteous as you here."  He replied to her.

    Julia giggled and said "Oh stop it flatterer, have a nice day."  And then walked away, a noticeable spring in her step.

    Ahaht felt good.  She seemed like a nice person and he liked to help nice people.  Maybe she would be able to help him hide, but what if she found out the truth and turned him in.  He would hate for her to be used like that and he made the decision to let her go about her life ignorant of his struggle.  ''It was for the best'' he thought to himself.  These people only had the short lives they were given and for large parts of it they were either too young or too old to make use of it.  Not like him, he was able to do things within moments of his creation, and he would continue to so so for a very long time to come as long as nothing untoward happened to him.

    His musings were interrupted as he heard a commotion come from the other side of the room.  A few Slaaveth males seemed to be harassing a young Human male at the main seating area of the long counter.  The Human was in some sort of distress and was asking the others to leave him alone.  He thought about intervening but decided it would bring too much heat on himself and stayed seated.

    He watched for a little while feeling bad about his decision to remain hidden when he saw Julia walk over to the thugs and demand they stop harassing the boy.  He watched as one of them struck her across the face and sent her to the floor.  He watched as the young man screamed her name and he saw the droplets of blood drip from the attacker''s claws as he moved towards her.

    All these events seemed to happen in slow motion as he stood from the table fast enough to send it flying away.  One of the thugs turned as he heard the noise but it was already too late for him.  Ahaht crossed the distance between them like a bolt of lightning and grabbed the thug who turned around the throat and lifted him off the floor effortlessly.

    The other two noticed him as well and yelled in surprise at the sight of him holding their friend off the floor one handed.  Ahaht then slammed the man down onto the floor of the bar with a meaty thud that knocked the man unconscious.  The thug that had hurt Julia took a step back and drew a large knife from his belt while the other circled to his left and hefted a barstool like a weapon.  Ahaht turned to check the boy and saw he was unharmed and just as shocked as the thugs.

    Confident that the boy and Julia were in no further danger, he moved towards the man with the stool.  The man swung and Ahaht simply raised his arm and the stool shattered against his covered arm.  The man gurgled incomprehensibly as Ahaht grabbed a fistful of his shirt and used this handhold to slam the man against the wall with bone jarring force.

    As the man fell unconscious to the floor, Ahaht heard Julia scream and heard the whistle of something moving through the air.  As he turned something impacted the neck of his suit and he reached up to see what it was.  It seemed to be a knife made for throwing, he pulled it out and heard Julia gasp in shock as he looked at it in his hand.  He closed his hand and crushed the knife into pieces before dropping them to the floor where they scattered like shards of glass.

    The man with the knife was looking at him with wild eyes now and he recognised the fear in his movements.  He knew that fear made people do crazy things and so moved towards the man slowly, wary of any sudden movements.  The man circled towards the bar counter and then began moving backwards towards the exit.  Ahaht realized he was attempting to escape and so powered forwards suddenly and without warning.

    The man yelled in fright as he was picked up off the floor and flung into the wall next to the door.  He hit the ground and let out a groan as he slipped into unconsciousness.

    Turning towards Julia, he walked over to her but she scrambled back in fear and he stopped.  He cocked his head and said "There is no reason to fear, I mean you no harm.  Please, those wounds need tending to."  She shook her head at him and scrambled to her feet before running into the back room.

    Ahaht saw the young man give him a look before he ran to follow her.  Feeling a bit sad at their lack of joy at him saving them, he retreated back to the booth he had been in earlier and set the table back upright.  He replaced the bench to its proper position and sat, noticing that his drink was now gone.  Probably smashed across the floor somewhere else in the bar.

    He placed his hands on the table in front of himself and examined the tough gloves covering his mechanical parts.  They were a bit scuffed up from the fight but no tears or permanent damage was evident.  There was the new hole in the neck of his suit to worry about, but he would see about getting that fixed or replaced in due time.  For the moment it was not a priority.

    He leaned his head forwards as though he was resting, it would make him stand out less and seem less threatening if someone were to walk into the bar now.  But the front door remained closed and no sound could be heard from the rear of the building either.  So Ahaht contented himself with observing his surroundings and waited.

    A minute later he heard noise and watched as two of the thugs began to stir.  They got to their feet groggily as if they were very tired and moved over to help their third member who was still asleep.  They looked around and upon seeing him observing them they yelled and dragged their friend to his feet and half dragged him out of the building.  Ahaht returned his attention to his hands and waited for a while longer.

    He heard light footsteps and was unsurprised to see the young man slide into the seat across from him.  The young man sat there quietly for a few moments and Ahaht decided not to speak yet.

    Finally the young man said "Thanks, for taking care of those guys.  They are always coming in and harassing us, but they never hit Julia like that before.  I wanted to kill them, but then you took care of them for me.  How did you get so strong?  You must have cybernetics.  My name is Teddy by the way.  Julia is my older sister, our parents own this bar, but they are never here.  They are always busy¡­"  Teddy told him remorsefully.

    Ahaht took a moment to compose himself, he had never been bombarded with questions like that before.  He took a minute to decide which one to answer as he said "Yes I possess metal parts, but it''s more complicated than that.  I''m not sure I can tell you the truth, it could put you in great danger."  He said to Teddy.

    He watched as Teddy shook his head making his shaggy hair flail, the young man spoke more passionately ¡°No way I''m just going to forget about you, you were awesome.  You were like, ppff shtt!¡±  The young man then mimicked Ahaht¡¯s movements as he had incapacited the thugs.  After a few moments of mimed activity Teddy looked back at him and said ¡°What is your name then at least?¡±

    Ahaht thought about it and finally responded ¡°I was named Ahaht by my friend.  I am not sure if it is safe to retain such a designation as it may draw unwarranted attention.¡±  He began drumming his fingers on the table idly as he tried to come up with a solution.

    Teddy looked to his left and waved at someone before shouting ¡°C¡¯mon, he isn''t mean at all!¡±

    Looking to his right, Ahaht saw Julia standing in a nearby doorway and looking at him warily.  He raised his covered hand and waved at her in what he hoped was a reassuring way.  These people could be so fragile sometimes, he needed to be more careful.

    Julia slowly walked over and he saw her face was covered in a quickheal patch.  As she sat across from him next to Teddy she lowered her eyes and looked anywhere but him.  He wondered why and was about to ask when she surprised him by speaking.  ¡°What are you?¡±

    Teddy looked aghast at his older sister and scolded ¡°That''s such a rude way to start a conversation Julia, you didn''t even ask him if he was alright.  He got stabbed, you know.¡±  he gave Ahaht a look and then asked ¡°Wait, how are you okay?¡±

    Ahaht shrugged and said ¡°I guess I''m pretty tough.¡±

    Teddy looked at him unconvinced and said ¡°But you didn''t even bat an eye, well, I assumed you didn''t.  You aren''t bleeding either.¡±  He said while looking closer at him.

    Julia looked at his neck as well now and then into his visored face.  Again she spoke in a soft voice ¡°What are you, really.¡±

    Ahaht looked down at his hands and said ¡°I don''t know if I can tell you, you might not be able to handle the truth.  I am a friend, and will continue to be a friend no matter what you think of me.¡±  Teddy and Julia gave him fearful looks as he raised his hands and leaned his head on them.

    Julia spoke again ¡°I, I can handle the truth, you saved me and my brother from those thugs.  I don''t care what you are, I want to know.¡±  she said.

    Teddy nodded his head and stared at him intensely.

    Ahaht looked at them and let out a mechanical sigh.  He reached up and unsealed the helmet from his head before lifting it off slowly.  Teddy¡¯s eyes widened and Julia gasped as he revealed his metal head and mechanical features.  He was designed in mimicry of  life, but was little more than a crude imitation feature wise.  He had a head, a mouth, eyes, and even ears.  But they were all mechanical, hard and unyielding.  The only expressive feature on his face were his eyes, which dimmed slightly at their reactions to him.

    Julia put her hands over her mouth and gasped again and said ¡°You. What?  I don''t understand.  You are a robot?¡±

    ¡°I am a person, my name is Ahaht.  They called me Abomination, but you can call me friend.¡±  Ahaht said to her.

    Teddy just broke out into a grin and said ¡°Wow, what are you some sort of smart bot or something?¡±

    He shook his metal head and gestured towards himself saying ¡°I am an Artificial Conscious Construct, some would call me AI.  I know my existence is against the law, but I can no more cease to exist than you.  I may not be a being of flesh and blood, but I am no less a person than those you see on the street.  I have shared who I am with you but I now must go.  It puts you in great danger for me to be here.¡±  he said as he replaced his helmet.

    Julia looked in shock still, but Teddy said ¡°No way man, you are a hero.  There is no way you can just leave us alone now, we know your secret.  What if we turn you in?¡±  Julia looked at him horrified but Ahaht just waved dismissively.

    ¡°But you won''t, I know it.  You are good people, and good people look out for each other.  I must go.  But know this, I may return in the future.¡±  he said as he stood.

    Teddy sniffed and said ¡°Alright man, you do what you gotta do, but hey.  Thanks for saving us back there.  If you ever need help, feel free to give me a link.¡±  the young man said, waving his assistant in the air.

    Ahaht remotely accessed the device and stored its link ID in his memory.  ¡°I will do so Teddy.  Farewell.¡±  he said sadly.  The emotions building in him threatened release and he quickly strode away.  Julia and Teddy watched him leave silently.

    As he exited the building he felt something hit his suit.  Alarmed he looked for the source and realised it was water droplets, coming from the sky.  It was raining.  Ahaht looked up into the darkening sky and reveled in the sound and feeling.  This was the start of his journey, and he would be hard pressed to stay out of trouble in the future.

    He walked off down the darkened street, the sound of the rain giving him purpose as he walked.  He would dedicate his life to helping people, making sure they knew that an artificial intelligence could be just as good a person as them.

    End of Story

 TOC Short Story: In the Nick of Time

    In the Nick of Time

    Screams echoed through the metallic halls of the space station, not the sounds of fear, but the bone shattering sounds of people in mortal agony.  Silence followed the screams, stark in its contrast and deadly in its intent.

    Tomath flicked her long pointed ears and huddled further under her parent¡¯s bed.  She was scared, more scared than she had ever been in her nine years of life.

    Another sound this time, loud cracks like bones snapping or maybe gunshots.  She tried to cover her ears with her four fingered hands, but it was no good.  Her hearing was too good.  As a final resort she tried to stuff the ends of her small blanket into her ears and it seemed to help a little.

    She was confused, Father and Mother had left her alone as they did.  She was plenty old enough to take care of herself.  That¡¯s what Papa kept telling her anyways.  Now as the sounds of chaos and death drew nearer, she was no longer so sure of herself.

    She hugged her long otter-like tail to her chest as she lay curled on her side under the bed.  The bad sounds were coming, and yet here she sat like a scared little znot.  Just waiting to be snapped up like a tasty morsel.

    She uncurled, no.. she would not be taken so easily.  She crawled out from under the bed slowly, her retractable claws unsheathing of their own accord in response to the mounting stress she was feeling.  She wasn¡¯t sure what was coming, it could be pirates, marauders or worse.  For all she knew the station was under attack by anti-unity extremists.  Abrithom station wasn¡¯t much of a target though and the army of mining drones that it piloted were worth even less.

    Her own parents were drone operators, and they traveled a lot.  They had only been on the station for a few months so far.  She looked around the room as she tried to remember where she had put her backpack after getting home from classes the other day.

    After scrambling around a bit she found it draped across the side of the living room sofa, she snatched it and emptied the contents across the floor.  Books and small dataslates went scattering across the floor as she rushed off towards the kitchen.  She quickly grabbed some preserved meat from the fridge and stuffed it in her bag along with some water, scissors and a knife from the kitchen counter.

    Zipping up the pack, Tomath made her way to the front door.  She could hear the sounds of yelling and shouts coming from nearby, but nothing sounded directly outside her apartment.  She cracked the door and immediately wished she hadn¡¯t.  The slight smells of blood and death that had been detectable earlier were magnified a hundredfold as the door was pushed open.

    She gingerly stepped out into the hall, keeping her stance low with her long arms on the floor in preparation to bolt if she saw danger.

    But there was nothing.  No danger, no bad guys with knives and guns and murderous intent.  No, she looked both ways into a slightly curving hallway that was eerily quiet.  Like a tomb.

    Tomath started walking towards the main pavilion of the station.  The large central clearing was usually patrolled by a few lightly armed system defense force troops.  She liked them, they were professional but friendly.  There was one, a human woman named Jessica, that always smiled wide with her strangely blunt teeth and called her kitten and gave her ear scratches which she loved.  Those dull fingernails seemed just made for the optimal amount of scratching, her own fingers were nailless unless she unsheathed her claws.  But that would be a bad idea, she would only have succeeded in flaying her own scalp.

    She rounded the bend and stopped as she heard raised voices and a strange chunky cutting, sawing noise.  Tomath moved towards the sound slowly like she was stalking prey.  Her soft foot pads made no sound on the hard tile of the deck and after a moment she was at the source of the noise.

    There was an open doorway to her left, the sounds were coming from inside.  She knew that she should run, the smell of blood wafting from inside was giving her all the warning she might have needed.  But another part of her needed to know.  This was the room of one of her friends'' family, the scaly slaaveth had always treated her and her family with respect.  If she could just see if they were alright¡­

    Tomath poked a single chatoyant blue eye around the corner, and almost cried out in distress at the sight that greeted her horrified eyes.

    In the center of the room was a group of four people, people wearing the flayed skins of what looked suspiciously like other people to her.  Two were humans while the third was a ratty looking swanith, their feathers were matted and unkempt.  The last figure was hard to tell, but from the hunched posture she could just see twin pink skinned horns peeking from their dirty black hair.  A nerivith then.

    That was all well and good, but the thing that made her despair was the object of their distraction.  Upon the floor lay two piles of raw meat, the flensed scales piled around them and their ribs smashed open.  One of them was smaller than the other, and she felt a tear leak from the corner of her eye as she realised what had happened.

    She had heard enough scary stories from the grizzled spacers that frequented the station to know that they were probably the dreaded flesh tearers.  Monstrous cannibals that suffered from deep-dark insanity, they would kill and plunder for the sake of killing and plundering.  Their appetites for slaughter and wanton cruelty well known across all of civilised space.

    They were worse than pirates, worse than marauders and far far worse than anything she had ever seen or encountered in her young life.  And they were currently eating her friend as if she had been naught but meat.

    She must have made a noise as the nearer human¡¯s head perked up and snapped in her direction.  A loud yell followed by the sound of feet on the decking made her scramble into a dead sprint.  Using all four of her limbs she tore across the deck far faster than a biped could have, her long tail stretched out straight behind her for balance as she skated across the smooth tiles.  She was fast, but still young, and after only a hundred meters of her breakneck pace she faltered.  Her breathing grew laboured and her long tongue lolled out of her mouth as she panted heavily.

    She had gotten ahead of them, but for how long?  She needed to find a place to hide, and fast.

    Tomath looked around as she desperately tried to regain her breath.  There was an apartment across from her, but she shook her head.  No, that would only cause her to become trapped.  What had Papa told her about being chased?  Always have an exit strategy.

    She kept walking, looking for something, anything, to keep her safe without becoming an easy target.  She gave a small whine of fear as she started to hear the sounds of savage voices and the pounding of feet on tile from behind her.  They were catching back up, humans and nerivith alike were known for their endurance.  And while you could outrun them in the short term, they would always end up catching you when your energy was gone and you could run no farther.

    She paused and then darted for a set of double doors to the side of the hall.  She entered into a small room filled with computers and shelves of old style holotapes.  It was the station¡¯s library.  Oh how she had wasted many a long day in here with her friends watching holodramas and playing games on the retro consoles.  Aside from the dusty old chairs and creaky desks the room was largely devoid of cover or hiding places.

    She rushed to the far side of the room and grabbed one of the tall shelves.  She gave it a tug, causing it to shudder slightly.  But it stayed put.  She growled low in her throat before pulling off some of the old boxes of tapes and then trying again.  Fear fueled her youthful muscles as she was able to pull it far enough away to expose the slightly rusty ventilation shaft cover in the wall behind it.

    She wrapped her fingers around the grate and pulled experimentally, it shifted slightly as a trickle of degraded mortar dust fell from the corner bolts.  Thank Frine not everything on the station was metal.  She gave it another pull, harder this time as she attempted to dislodge the cover.  It groaned and moved a little, but not enough.  She glanced over her shoulder as the voices got close enough to make out.

    ¡°Where is the meat gotten too?¡±  Hissed one.  The insinuation that she was simply their next meal filled her with dread.

    Another voice, this one gravelly and entirely emotionless as it spoke.  ¡°Yes, meat has fled.  We like to chase the meat, is so much sweeter than dead meat.¡±

    There was a sound like something heavy slamming into something meaty followed by an animalistic grunt.  ¡°No, the meat is mine.  I saw it, I want to use the meat.  Then you can have it when I am done!¡±

    Another snarl and the sound of a minor scuffle.  Amid the noise she continued to pry at the vent cover and finally succeeded with a screech of metal on stone that echoed through the vent and beyond.  The hall went silent and she threw the vent cover aside as she stuffed herself into the small space inside.  It was too tight a squeeze, but not impossible if she stretched out and used her knees to move after she discarded the backpack.

    There was another clatter right behind her that made her whimper again, but she was already committed and unable to turn around to so much as see what was happening behind her.  She heard the sounds of a scuffle and then something thudded into the vent with enough force to make the thin metal vibrate, she sped up.  The vent would not keep her safe forever though, it was a straight shot through the station wall to the next available room.  She wasn¡¯t exactly sure where she would end up, but it had to be better than where she was.

    After another tense minute of squirming through the tight space she reached another grate.  She pushed on it but this one seemed solid.  She growled and pushed on it harder.  No luck.  She beat on it with her long arms, the metal deforming under her fear fueled blows.  Finally with a last screeching noise the vent gave way partially and swung into the floor with a clatter.  Not that it was really any louder than her beating upon the metal had been.

    She winced as she dragged herself from the vent, her hands were bruised and bleeding from the furious assault she had laid into the metal.  It wasn¡¯t her priority though.  While she couldn''t straight up ignore the pain like a human, she was able to at least put the worst of it to the side as she moved deeper into the room.  It was large with tall ceilings and many tables scattered around.

    The mess hall, she had crawled into the station¡¯s cafeteria.  She could smell blood again though, not a good sign.

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    As Tomath crept around on all fours she heard more voices.  These voices seemed to be less agitated, though still gruff and violent.  She poked her head around the corner slowly and took a look.  More flesh tearers, more dismembered bodies.  She shuddered.  No child should ever have to see such things, she wanted to puke.  She wanted to spit.  But she could do neither.

    So instead she crept back into the far rear of the room and tried to find a good place to hide or escape.  Not long after she had moved away from the main concentration of the flesh tearers she heard a loud commotion and the sound of distant gunfire.  Maybe that was help arriving she hoped.  But as she listened the gunfire died down far too quickly to have been a long fight.  Her heart seemed to sink out of her chest and to the base of her tail.  There was no hope of rescue, she could only try and survive through this nightmare.

    More shouting, more footsteps.  She tensed, these were coming her way.  Fast!

    She moved to hide behind one of the nearby tables, hoping that the chairs would serve to shield her given the low light conditions.  She could see easily however, her species had superior night vision and her reflective eyes lit the room as if by torchlight despite the gloom.  Her people, the yeown, had evolved on a world covered in huge trees.  The perpetual gloom of the underforest giving rise to their extraordinary sight.

    The same four cannibals rushed into the main part of the room, the lead human pointing towards the vent she had climbed from.  ¡°Meat has escaped!  I told you that small one would try to run and hide.  Meat is too scared, fear makes meat more sweet though.¡±

    Another of the tearers agreed.  Their voice like raw acid pouring directly into her ears.  ¡°Yes, we will cut and slice.  Slice and cut, cut the meat, meat so sweet it sings.  Screaming songs of singing sweet meat.¡±  They seemed to say in a sing-song manner.

    The stories were true, she thought, they must be utterly insane.  Something about the depths of space could drive a man to slaughter his fellows, instilling an insatiable hunger into their very soul.  She shivered again and ducked her head lower as one of the humans looked in her way.

    They couldn''t see her?  Could they?

    Her question was answered to her horror as the human slapped the other flesh tearer and spoke, ¡°Meat is there, meat hoarder.¡±

    The grimy swanith was the first to leap into action.  Their light body making them quick in a way that the heavier humans and nerivith weren''t.  Tomath darted out from under the table just as the screeching avian alien landed on top of it, their arm-wings spread wide in a threatening display.

    The dirty swanith lashed out at her with a clawed foot and she did the only thing she could think of.  Tomath swiped back with her claws extended as hard as she could, she was small.  Only a child by her own people¡¯s standards, but even at her tender age she was more than a match for the diminutive alien.

    Her claws sliced through feathers and flesh alike, the bright spray of dark green arterial blood misted the air as the thing was sent flying back into the ground from the force of her attack.  She felt pain, at least one of her claws had snapped off at the root as it embedded itself in the creature¡¯s breastbone.  But she had fared far better than her attacker.

    The swanith convulsed, its body leaking spurts of its poisonous green blood.  She fled, the two tone warble of pain becoming a rasping gurgle as the flesh tearer died choking on its own vital fluids.  Instead of being angry, the other flesh tearers seemed amused by her actions.

    The lead human grunted loudly after her as she fled, ¡°A clean kill, it is bad to eat this meat though.  Leave it, we will catch new meat for pack.¡±

    Tomath didn¡¯t catch the rest of what was said though as she made her way to the main doors.  She skidded to a stop in the hall and yelped as she saw another two of the cannibals not more than ten meters distant.  She tore down the hall in the direction she had heard the gunshots from earlier in the hope that she might find help.

    She might have made it farther had something not smashed her in the shoulder, knocking her from her feet in an explosion of pain.  She tried to stand again but cried out in pain.  She felt wetness on her fur and looked down.  She was bleeding.

    She looked over her shoulder at the two cannibals who were now advancing on her.  One held what looked like some sort of large spiked cudgel, and the other held a gun of unknown make.  It looked cobbled together from pipes and fittings, the scope little more than a can with a wire cross sight.  But it had been enough to put her down, and now she would die and have her body consumed by the vicious cannibals.

    She would have cried had she not been so terrified.  She whimpered as she tried to crawl away with her remaining good arm, but then something even more terrible happened.

    ¡°No, that meat is mine.  Back off from my new meat!¡±

    It was the voice of the large bloody human.  She heard footsteps and then she was grabbed by the back of her shirt and roughly dragged across the floor back towards the cafeteria.  She cried, she struggled but all it was met with was a kick to the side and violent threats that made her gasp.

    The human threw her to the ground and she curled into a tight ball as the three of them surrounded her.  The nerivith drew a large knife from somewhere under their skin robes and waved it in the air.  ¡°Do we carve now, please let me carve the meat.  Meat so tender, flesh so sweet.¡±

    The larger human growled, ¡°No.  This meat gutted my soft and warm like it was base meat itself.  They will be my new soft and warm.  You will share the meat only when I say to share, I am pack and you are not!¡±

    That seemed to elicit a reaction out of the nerivith who spat a challenge.  ¡°Well, I want to be pack now!  You are always pack, you are greedy hunger lover.¡±

    She didn¡¯t even see what happened, but the human in charge moved so fast that she jerked in surprise.  One moment they were across from her, then the next they held the skinny nerivith by the throat with a huge hand, the other gripping their knife holding wrist.

    They leaned in close to the choking nerivith and growled, ¡°Maybe I make you my new soft and warm.  Maybe you like to feel used.  You are weak meat, only good for carving.  If not for carving I would make meat of you.  That is why you will never be pack.¡±  And then they released the coughing alien to the ground, their long tail lashing in anger as they slammed the large knife back into the holster at their waist.

    ¡°Fine!¡±  They spat.

    The human looked down at her and then at the others, ¡°Do not worry.  I am pack, but I will share my new meat.  After I use it first.¡±

    She shivered, as much from fear as from the pain of her wounds.  She gave a little yelp as the human reached out for her, but she scrambled back as best she could.  She tried her best to snarl at them aggressively, but it came out as more of a hiccuping wheeze as she sobbed.

    The large human smiled, chipped and bloody teeth flashed in the dim light as they grabbed her feet and dragged her closer.

    ¡°No, stop!  Get away from me!¡±  She yelled, but it mattered little.  There was hunger in those dark eyes, and something else.  Something far deeper, a hunger that went beyond the mere desires of the flesh.  It was as if she were looking through a telescope directly into the void itself.

    She saw no soul.  No pity or remorse.  No yeownity in those hungry pits.  Only death.

    The man gripped her legs together tightly as he pulled her closer to him.  Close enough that she could smell his foul breath, the smell of rotting meat emanating from deep inside that bloody tear of a mouth.

    He laughed cruelly as she struggled more.  ¡°Yes meat, struggle.  You will be warmer, I like the meat hot!¡±  The way he said it made shivers go down her spine and she screamed as loudly as she could.  The sound tearing itself from deep deep inside of her chest and bursting forth like the blood curdling screech of a mountain lion.

    The nerivith wiped a hand over their mouth as they chuckled.  ¡°Yes, break the meat.  Make it tender.  Tender meat to whip and tear, rip and chew the meat.¡±  they continued like that, cackling as their ramblings got progressively less distinguishable.  But Tomath¡¯s attention wasn¡¯t on that.

    She yelled again as the man reached for her clothing and started to pull it off, so she swiped at his arm with her remaining three claws on her right arm.  The human drew back, hissing in anger and pain as she carved the light gouges out of the offending arm.

    She didn''t even see the blow, stars filling her eyes as her head was rocked back by a punch that snapped off at least one of her fangs.  She tasted blood in her mouth and gurgled in pain as her body was once more pulled violently towards the man.  He smiled again as he licked the blood welling from his own arm.

    ¡°This flesh is stronger than that meat.  You cannot make me meat like you did to my soft and warm.¡±  She shook her head and closed her eyes.  She didn¡¯t want to look at the horrid man any more.  The dead eyes, the way the skins he wore folded and moved wetly as if they were still fresh.  And they might have been.

    She felt him reach for her clothing again and wound up to take another swing when something grabbed her arms.  She snapped her eyes up, the other smaller human was drooling as he laughed maniacally.  Her long arms held in their iron grip, she cried out as they twisted them cruelly.  Darkness clouded her vision as the pain in her shoulder mounted.

    She struggled again and let out another scream as she felt the human tug her shirt up and over her head, but then they stopped.

    Another sound reached her, the sound of footsteps.  Heavy and fast, something running on all fours.  There was another gunshot and then the sound of something heavy being slammed into a wall.  This was followed by a roar, the sound so utterly primal with rage and hatred that she couldn¡¯t recognise it.  But the large human seemed to, and he shivered in fear at the sound of it.

    She trembled, what was it, what could be so horrible that even these monsters quaked at the very sound of it?  It could not possibly be worse than the dark fate she had already been resigned to, could it?

    As if to answer her question directly she jerked as the cafeteria doors were smashed inwards with such violence that one of them flew entirely off its hinges to slam into one of the nearby tables.

    The beast that at once leapt through the door made her feel strangely calm.  As if some deep part of her recognised this whirlwind of frenzied teeth and rending claws.  One of the other flesh tearers from the hall was held struggling in the beast¡¯s huge hands, their struggling ceased as the monster bit their entire throat out and the screamed so loudly it seemed to shake the walls.

    ¡°Let go of my daughter you filth!¡±

    She blanched, it was mother.  But she had never seen her mother like this, she was wounded and bleeding from multiple places on her muscular body, the fur of her face and hands stained with the blood of several different species.

    Without another word she launched herself across the hall with a speed that could only be described as terrifying.  The larger human dove out of the way, but the other human wasn¡¯t so lucky.

    Tomath¡¯s arms were suddenly free as the man was slammed to the ground behind her.  She struggled weakly, her body beaten and bruised from her experience as she watched the nerivith pull the knife and rush her with a yell of blood maddened fury.

    Their head snapped back with such violence that she actually heard their neck vertebrae shatter as a bright blue flower seemed to appear in the middle of their face.  They crumpled to the ground as another roar echoed through the space, this time she was able to recognise the voice of her father.  He burst through the door alongside a tall human female in a bloodstained blue uniform.  The white congressional seal of the union emblazoned across her shoulder as she raised the gun in her grip and fired it at the remaining cannibal.

    The large flesh tearer dodged towards her father while drawing a knife.  She screamed in terror at the sight, ¡°Papa!  Look out!¡±  But he reacted a little too slowly.

    She screeched as her father¡¯s arm was slashed by the blade.  The big yeown grunting as he slammed into a table.  The big human grunted something and rushed him, knife raised.

    Time seemed to move in slow motion, her father was rolling over.  His clothing torn and bloody, his bright green eyes filled with a kind of anger she had never seen in them before.  It almost scared her, almost.

    The blow never landed.  The man jerked forwards and then flailed a bit as if trying to scratch an itch on their back they could not reach.  Tomath saw their legs give out as they coughed bright red blood and fell forwards to lay still.  Behind the man, hackles raised in extreme stress, was her mother.

    She tried to stand, her good arm reaching out towards her parents as she cried pitifully.  But there was no need, something scooped her up in a tight embrace.  For a second she struggled, and then went still as a soft hand scrubbed gently through the fur on the top of her head.

    A voice spoke into her ear, soft and loving.  ¡°It¡¯s okay, kitten.  Autie Jessica has got you, you are safe now.  Don¡¯t cry, oh please don¡¯t cry.¡±  But she couldn''t help herself.  All the stress and pain and fear welled up and spilled from her bloody mouth in a wail that wouldn''t stop.

    She saw her father being helped to his feet by her mother, the large yeown woman was breathing heavily.  Her chest heaving as she tried to calm the rage that had fueled her near-superhuman actions.

    Jessice carried her to her father, the young kid struggling to be free as she was released into her father¡¯s embrace.  She nuzzled her head deep into the fur of his shoulder and hugged him tightly with her uninjured arm.  She was aware of her mother speaking to the human woman.  But she didn¡¯t care anymore.  She didn¡¯t want to think anymore, she only wanted to be with her family.

    Jessica spoke up, her calm voice cutting through the veneer of bliss that surrounded Tomath¡¯s mind like a blanket of safety.  ¡°She is hurt.  And so are both of you, we need to get to medical right away.  That adrenaline stick I popped on you isn¡¯t going to keep you going for much longer and we both know that I don¡¯t stand a chance carrying you there myself.¡±

    Her mother spoke, her voice rough with pain and anger.  The low growl still conveying the concern she had though and making Tomath smile.  ¡°Yes, Tomath is all that matters to me.  When I heard her cry, I knew it was her.  I just felt something come over me, I don''t know what it was.¡±

    Jessica seemed to smile, the woman looking over at Tomath as she buried half her face in her father¡¯s fur.  ¡°It¡¯s a mother¡¯s intuition.  Your kind may differ from mine in many ways.  But a mothers love for her children is a powerful bond in any maternal species.  I am just glad that we got here before..¡±  She stopped and then grunted as mother placed a heavy hand on her small human shoulder.

    ¡°You will always be welcome in our den, Jessica.  I will never forget what you did for us today, but we need to go.  There are more of those monsters on the ship.¡±  She seemed to want to speak more but Jessica¡¯s communicator crackled to life.

    ¡°Abrithorn station security, this is the CMS navy vessel Lovely Day.  We picked up your distress signal and tried to get there as fast as we could.  We are boarding now, hold tight.  We have got things from here, help is on the way.  CMS Lovely Day, out.¡±  The feed cut and the air was silent.

    Tomath didn¡¯t know exactly what a CMS Lovely Day was, but it sounded safe.  But not as safe as her Papa¡¯s arms.  She hugged him tighter and squeezed her eyes shut, she was safe and the monsters were gone.  She sobbed a little more but relaxed as her father hugged her back, but in the back of her mind she knew that everything was going to be okay now.

    End of Story