Emergence: Chapter 24

Trexor watched as hundreds of quake survivors walked west to the fields of Tapal. Many leaned on each other for mutual support, whereas the able-bodied and unharmed carried the more severely wounded. Trexor knew there was no point in moving the most wounded; there was no way medical teams would arrive in time to help, if any could make it. Trem had shared his green miracle liquid with a few of the wounded, but there was never any hope of there being enough to go round.

Trem stood next to Trexor and pointed in the distance. “Look: the buildings have sank over there. Maybe we should check it out.”

Trexor grunted non-committally, before heading over to where Trem was pointing. Crossing the road was an ordeal in itself; it was twisted around in the quake, making it more akin to climbing a rocky wall than simply walking. Trexor gasped as he lost his footing; the stone beneath his feet crumbled and fell down, nearly taking him with it. When he reached the peak, he jumped back down to the ground and wandered over to the gaping holes in the ground.

Similar to the chasm in the centre of Raan, these stretched down further than the eye could see; a descent into darkness that no man should ever take. The size of just one hole was larger than one of the skyscrapers, and Trexor wondered what went through the occupants' minds as they plummeted downwards towards certain death; he couldn't imagine it.

Trem picked up a loose brick and tossed it down the chasm. It bounced off the side and cracked in two, but neither made another sound as they fell. “Damn, that could go right down, for all we know.”

“Could do, yeah.” Out of the corner of his eye, Trexor saw something move. “What was that?” Trexor drew his pistol.

Trem looked around. “What was what?”

“Something, over there. Moved.” Trexor edged round the chasm towards where he saw the movement. “Something silver.”

“Silver?” Trem sounded puzzled. “You sure?”

“Positive. Look.” Trexor pointed at it as it came back into view.

The thing stood on four legs and seemed to have a feline body-shape, minus the tail. All of its features were minimalist; only a sleek silver skin was note-worthy. No markings of any sort. Even the head was bare, consisting of a curved wedge shape without ears, eyes or nose.

“What is it?” Trem asked, his voice wavering.

Trexor looked at him, briefly satisfied hearing the fear in his former enemy's voice. “I have no idea. Maybe the Xaosians planted it here?”

“It does seem rather mechanical,” Trem conceded, “But there's something...off about it. Let's move closer.”

They did so, Trexor clutching his pistol tightly while making sure not to make a sound. His feet tapped silently on the ground, and Trem seemed to float behind him, no sound escaping from his loose clothes or array of weapons.

Sensing something, the thing turned to face them. Its head split open, revealing teeth inside, with a gaping hole, which Trexor assumed was a throat; this seemed to be a threat. Trexor let loose a shot and the bullet got lodged in the thing's head. It paid the bullet no mind as the skin around it folded over it, absorbing the bullet entirely.

“The hell?” Trem moved forward, but Trexor put a hand in the way to stop him.

The thing stared at them both for a beat, before it leapt into the chasm, sticking to the steep walls. As it ran downwards into Raan's core, others appeared from hiding spots behind buildings or under rubble, and followed the first downwards into the chasm.

Trexor moved back away from the gaping pit even as the things disappeared into the darkness below. “What are they?” he whispered, more to himself than to Trem, who didn't answer. “They don't seem dangerous though.”

Trem walked to the chasm and looked inwards. Trexor followed his lead, and all around the sides they could see the things descending.

“Wonder where they came from...” Trem voiced his thoughts aloud.

“Maybe they came from the Xaosians and are attacking Raan's core,” Trexor said slowly, “or they may be from the core and were disturbed by the Xaosians.”

“I hope it's the latter.”

“I hope it's neither.” Trexor said, still hoping that this whole thing was just a nightmare. But he knew it wasn't.

Emergence: Chapter 23

Like the prisoners they were, Ash and Carnat were put in chains and marched through sandy chambers and tunnels; the building, like so many others on Rat'hak, was actually below ground, to allow for moderate protection from the sandstorms. Upon hearing of this, Ash had thought that the tunnels would be dark and dreary, but they were as well lit as the chambers themselves.

“Carnat.” Ash whispered to his companion.

“What?” Carnat hissed back.

“Where are we going?”

A Hak'i looked at Ash and jabbed the butt-end of a spear into his belly. Ash's breath left him, and he doubled over, grabbing Carnat for support. The guard laughed. “He's lasting not long, eh?” The others laughed too, even as Ash dragged himself back up; it wasn't that the blow hurt, but it was unexpected.

Carnat looked down at him. “They're taking us to fight. In the arena.”

Ash stared straight ahead, giving no visible reaction. He knew that it would come eventually, but he didn't expect it to be so sudden. He cursed Carnat; this was his fault. As his stomach groaned, he wished he'd eaten more Protein Squares. He didn't want to die on an empty stomach; at least he could give the cleaners work when they have to clean his final death-shit off the bloody floor.

The tunnel opened up into a huge oval-shaped room; the arena. The floor was sand, streaked with suspicious red stains, and all around the edges were tiers and tiers of seats, where hundreds of Hak'i sat and waited for the fight to begin. The guards unlocked his and Carnat's chains, and shoved them into the arena.

A heavy, steel door swung shut behind them, and Ash heard the clunk of a lock.

“Shit...” Ash patted the sides of his thighs in a vague attempt to stave off the itch of fear and desperation. “Carnat, what do we do?”

Carnat gestured for him to follow, and Ash did so, until they reached a large rack. On the rack, was every kind of weapon Ash remembered, and more. Carnat reached up and passed him a black crossbow. It felt heavy in his hand, but lighter than the ones Carnat had made him use. Ash reached for a short blade, but Carnat batted his hand down. “You stay back. And try not to shoot me with that thing.”

Carnat walked away from the rack without choosing a weapon. “What are you doing?” Ash asked, “You can't win without a weapon.”

Carnat shrugged. “That's what you think.” He faced upwards to where a box of three seats stuck out from the rest. “Oh, Dominort!” He roared up to the Hak'i Dominort, or leader. “I am the warrior, Carnat, and this is Ash, a rising champion. May the sands bless you, my lord.”

Ash could just about see the Dominort stand, wider and taller than any other Hak'i. He raised a hand, before swinging it down. A horn blew out.

A tugging thought came into Ash's head. “Carnat. What are we fighting?”

“I don't know.”

“What do you mean you don't know?”

A door on the other side of the arena opened and a Hak'i entered. In one hand, it held a whip, and in the other a shield.

“Don't we get armour?” Ash asked.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Expensive way to dress a beast's meal.”

“Ah.”

The whip-wielding Hak'i walked backwards into the arena, leading something with it. The thing shrieked, before impaling the Hak'i with a leg. The Hak'i slid slowly down the leg, leaving a bloody smear down it.

“What is that?” Ash backed away from the twelve-legged beast.

Carnat thought for a moment. “Duodecinid. From what I remember, they like to use their legs as their main weapons-”

“Yup.”

“-but, you see the body is made of two pods and a head? The back pod has a stinger, and the head...well, it has fangs.”

“Right.” Ash's legs wanted to surrender now.

Carnat noticed, and placed a hand on Ash's bare shoulder. “Just stay back, I'll deal with it. Shoot it if you can.”

“Right.”

Carnat turned to face the beast and walked towards it as it shook the Hak'i's carcass off. Carnat looked back at Ash and nodded to him. Ash raised the crossbow and fired at the Duodecinid.

The beast turned as the bolt clattered uselessly to the ground next to it. Ash swore under his breath, and the panicked look on Carnat's face summed up how he felt. Carnat ran back to Ash as the Duodecinid pursued, moving all too gracefully for a beast of its size and shape. From the centre of Carnat's chest, an ivory coating spread over his body, forming a complete exoskeleton, leaving only eyes uncovered. Ash backed away as Carnat's arm twisted into a cylinder and a red pellet blasted out of it, tearing through the Duodecinid's head, splitting one of its eyes open. Carnat threw Ash aside, knocking him into the outer wall. The audience roared as Ash's head hit the wall and he winced in pain.

“KILL IT! KILL IT!”

“KILL HIM! KILL HIM!”

The Duodecinid shrieked as purple blood and orange pus erupted from its ruptered eye. Carnat walked around the wounded creature and spread his arms wide, proclaiming his future victory; Ash thought he was just vying for attention. The beast reared up behind him, but as it brought a leg down on Carnat, he twisted out of the way and grabbed the leg. Ash could only just make out where Carnat's exoskeleton shifted from being a makeshift-gun into a makeshift-blade, as Carnat sliced through the Duodecinid's leg with one smooth sweep. It shrieked again, stumbling and falling down. Ash heard Carnat whisper something, before he plunged the severed leg through the creature's head, ending its life.

Ash got up and walked over to Carnat, who's exoskeleton was retracting back into his chest. The audience applauded with roars and shouts as Carnat lifted Ash's hand high, signalling the victory. They turned and walked back to the entrance.

“You ok?”

“Yeah,” Ash nodded, “You?

“Of course.” Carnat smiled. “Why wouldn't I be? There was no way I would lose that fight.”

Ash was puzzled. “But I saw you when I missed that shot; you were terrified.”

“I wasn't scared for me.”

Emergence: Chapter 22

“...and Sol has been emitting an unusual amount of solar flares as of late, worrying scientists. Back to our breaking news: Xaosians have reportedly declared war on...”

The screen belted out the Empire News over, but it was only Saiun who was listening. The Quaren stood at the door to Cinradahs's office, while its owner sat in his chair staring at the screen. But Cinradahs heard nothing of what the Scaliman anchorman said; he was too occupied with his own thoughts.

“Solar flares.” Saiun raised his eyebrows. “Fun...”

Cinradahs broke his vigil. “Yeah, we don't need to worry about them.”

“Scientists are worried.” Saiun said, with a cheeky grin.

Cinradahs snorted. “They're always worried about something or other. Last week, it was the blips in the Empire Network.” Similar to the primitive wi-fi, the Empire Network was a web which linked every internet-enabled device across the Empire.

“To be fair, we don't know what that was.” Saiun muttered.

“Maybe not, but remember the whole “stars going out” débâcle?” Cinradahs waved it all aside. “Scientists, for all their smarts, are pretty stupid.”

Footsteps clattered towards the door, and Yuki entered. She gave a cursory nod to both Saiun and Cinradahs, before asking, “Anything from Raan?”

“No,” Cinradahs sighed. “As we told you earlier, The Dominion has left according to our software, but the planet is still under heavy bombardment. We also told you that we'd fetch you whenever we had news.”

Yuki seemed to deflate upon hearing this; her shoulders sagged and her chin fell. She shook her head. “Damn this all,” she muttered, “Raan doesn't deserve this.”

“No planet deserves an invasion.” Saiun interjected.

Yuki rounded on him, bringing a finger pointing up between his eyes. “Xaos does!” She yelled, her face twisting itself into a distorted portrait of madness. She turned to Cinradahs. “You need to stop this.”

Cinradahs stood, and put a hand on Yuki's shoulder. “I'm sorry,” he genuinely was; his own problems with the ruler of Raan were put aside for now, “but I can't until Lord Tahkshi commands me. And he went to get the support of the Pyrkagia.”

Yuki leant back on the door frame and let out a sigh, before sliding down to the floor, sitting with her knees bent. Saiun slid down to join her and gave her a small smile. “We'll get it done. Don't worry.”

She raised her eyebrows briefly, before falling into silence. Saiun glanced at Cinradahs, who gestured at him, and then at her. Saiun shrugged, and Cinradahs ignored him.

Everyone's attention was caught when Cinradahs's personal-com rang. Brow furrowed with intrigue, Cinradahs answered it. “Cinradahs here.”

“The Watchman is destroyed.” Even through the distortion, Cinradahs could make out Foton's voice.

“Foton? Is that you?” Saiun and Yuki walked over to listen to what he had to say.

“Yes. I survived the attack.” The transmission paused. “It was the Xaosians, they...they killed everyone but Devilclash and I.”

“And Tahkshi?” Cinradahs's heart raced in his chest like a caged beast.

“Dead. But not by Xaosian, but by-” a crackle of static roared over the end of the sentence.

“By what?” Cinradahs asked. “By what?”

But the message was over.

“Did we get a recording?” Cinradahs gestured to Saiun, who quickly checked.

“Yes sir.”

“Clean the static out.” Cinradahs demanded, in a more powerful tone than his usual. Saiun bowed, before heading down to a tech-room.

Yuki was the first to address the issue. “So, he's dead? What now?”

Cinradahs grabbed the local-com and punched in the code for the New Orban Shipyards. “They killed the Lord. Now we retaliate.”

Emergence: Chapter 21

The Stinger's three feet descended as it touched down, locking onto grey rock. Slipping into her spacesuit, and clamping one over the prone Strom, she opened the cockpit. Even through the heated spacesuit, she could feel the chill, which set her shivering. Dust on the ground rose up as her feet connected with it, and floated in the air like a small cloud, obscuring her vision. She hated the helmet she had to wear; it restricted vision from her peripherals. To Ilisa, this was blinding and, even though she was almost certain that there would be no-one else on Viran, it set her on high alert.

The station on Viran was simple in terms of design; a cube, with four spiralling towers surrounding it. The spiralling towers actually fed solar energy into the power station below the surface; Ilisa wondered if it still functioned fully. A circular hatch was in place of a door, and Ilisa climbed through as the hatch screeched closed. In front of her, another hatch awaited, but this one was translucent; presumably it was once transparent, but the dust got in and marred it permanently.

The other hatch opened and Ilisa climbed through. It closed with a hiss; airtight. While this should have meant that the station had an artificial atmosphere, Ilisa didn't trust it; it had been abandoned for far too long. And yet, it didn't look abandoned at all. Bright strip-lights illuminated the corridors, and Ilisa could see her reflection in the polished metal counters.

The only two sounds in the station were Ilisa's boots and the whirring of various machines. Endless corridors led to an almost-infinite amount of small side-rooms, containing either computers or weapons of a lost era. She stumbled around the station for what seemed like an age, never really knowing what was around the corner. Her heart was pounding, but her mind was surprisingly clear; she was focused on only one goal.

The corridor opened into a vast chamber; the shipyard. The walls were bland, but covered in burns thanks to the old fusion engines. Over time, an alcove in the wall had fallen in, throwing shards of metal over the concrete floor. She assumed that the wires had once sparked, but they just hung limp. She slowly entered the chamber, noting how differently her footfalls sounded in this chamber.

The ships were, as the man had said, ancient. Ilisa could see that as soon as they were in sight. The ancient vessels were covered in pock-marks and scratches from old battles, and many were actually broken; just heaps of metal arranged in a cuboid, compared to modern vessels. Despite that, she couldn't help but admire them, like one admires an antique. These were obviously from around the dawn of the Adjeti Empire, hundreds, maybe thousands, of years ago; the first vehicles used for interplanetary travel.

The way the ship's hatch opened felt exactly the same as the larger modern ships, and the layout inside was near enough the same, if not more cramped. This was a four-man vessel, she saw, but three would have been a squeeze. The controls felt familiar, somehow, despite them being in an entirely different layout. She gripped the lever, pressing the “signal” button, which sent a signal to open the shipyard roof. It slid open, revealing the star-filled void above her. The fusion engine roared, and the ship yearned for the sky.

Ilisa exited the ship, allowing the engines to boot up. Working her way back through the station, she knew her path now; get Strom, put him in the ship, and fly to New Orbus as fast as possible.

She couldn't afford any delays, and she broke into a desperate run.

Book Review: Metal Swarm and The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J. Anderson

*Beware of Spoilers*

These are parts 6 and 7 of the Saga of Seven Suns.

The release of Anderson's sequel to the Saga of Seven Suns made me remember that I had actually forgotten to review these two. That is why they're bunched together.

These two books are different from the others. This series could have ended in book 5. Leave Margaret Colicos dead, and move on. Klikiss dead, their robots dead. The Verdani and Wentals happy, the Faeros content, and Rusa'h being just a maniac who thought the sun was his friend.

Boy, am I glad it didn't. Basil Wenceslas and his breakdown is one of the biggest driving forces here, as it has been all series, and it really pays off in The Ashes of Worlds in a giant space-standoff. The Faeros are cool, but are kind of depthless; why are they doing this? Because a random Ildiran tells them to? Nah, they just like killing shit. At least the Hydrogues tried to give motivations.  

But these books aren't really about the elemental beings. They are just a framework for a brilliant story; a human story. The Klikiss arrival, and their subjugation of colony worlds is proof of that; in the end, even they become humanised thanks to Davlin's sacrifice.

The ending is a work of art, pure and simple. Yes, many things are left hanging: Where are the elementals now? Where does this leave Ildira and Earth? There are others, and they do leave me excited for The Dark Between Stars.

Metal Swarm

8/10

The Ashes of Worlds

10/10

This series ends on the highest point it could. No disappointments. Buy this series now, and read them before June 7th. Failing that, read them anyway.

My next book review should (hopefully) be along the way next week with The Dark Between Stars by Kevin J. Anderson. Hope you enjoyed reading!

Emergence: Chapter 20

The clock struck past midnight and Tors cheered, waking Pandora from her shallow slumber. It was Evacuation Day at last. Tors walked over to the window, before he sat in front of it. At this time of night, he couldn't see anything, but he figured that any ships would have landing lights on.

“You're not seriously going to sit there for the rest of the night, are you?” Pandora's voice contained more than a hint of ridicule.

“Yes. Maybe. I dunno.” Tors shrugged. “All I know is, I wanna be ready when they come. Where's Emola?”

Pandora looked over at Emola. “Sleeping like a baby.”

“Surprised either of you could sleep after seeing that...thing.” Tors shuddered at the thought of it. He remembered its shriek, and remembered the grating sensation that passed through his body as it did so.

Pandora knelt down next to Tors. “Look. Maybe there was something. Maybe it was just our imaginations, or a natural phenomenon-”

“-there was nothing natural about that thing.”

“Well, even if it's alive, its natural.” Pandora rolled her eyes. “But maybe it wasn't real.”

“It really was, though.” Tors hissed. “You know it. Deny it all you like, you know it.”

There was a flash from outside, followed by sudden silence. The winds dropped again. Tors's scales shifted darker. “It's back.”

“What?” Pandora seemed irritated.

“The winds died before, and it came for us.” Tors was genuinely afraid, his scales shifting between various shades of dark red.

Pandora put a hand on his back. “Tors, calm down.” Her voice seemed both soothing and irritable. A green flash from outside took them both by surprise. Tors moved closer to Pandora and she reluctantly put her arms around him, like a mother with a child. “Maybe they were real...” Pandora whispered, more to herself than to Tors.

Outside, green wisps of wind formed together in the serpentine shape Tors knew the creatures to be. He leant towards the window, both afraid and fascinated by this being. Its...head?...opened up, as it did before, but this time it didn't screech. This time was more of a whisper, as if it was talking to something else. This was when Tors noticed other wisps in the air.

More serpentine figures formed around the original and converged upon it. The whispering grew louder, mixed voices overlapping. Tors thought he could hear words in the winds, but he knew that it was just his imagination.

“The hell are they?” Pandora asked, more of a rhetorical question than anything else.

“What's going on?” Emola sounded sleepy and was rubbing his eyes as he came to the window; obviously the sounds outside had woken him. Then he saw the beings. “There's more of those things? Damn.”

Tors realised that Emola must be too half-asleep to care about these thing, especially as they did no harm before. Maybe, Tors thought, they come with all storms, but we can't see them. He noticed the creatures moving over to the decaying statue of Ardican in the town square. Craning his neck, he could just about see them as they separated and formed a circle around the statue. “There's eight of them now.”

“Yup.” Emola was still non-committal and vaguely dismissive.

Seven moved back, widening the circle, but one stayed in place. As Tors watched, it leaned steadily backwards, before lurching forward. As it did so, there was a flash of blue, like lightning, from its head. Tors looked away as it flashed, and when he looked again, the Ardican statue was cinders. Even in his shock, he felt Pandora's recoil. Her arms moved off of him and she stood up and stared outside. Even Emola was shaken out of his stupor. “My god...”

The offending creature shrieked, before decomposing into the wind. One other creature seemed to look at the cinders, before it lifted them into its own body. The others did the same, gathering the ashes into themselves. The ashes disappeared, but the winds grew darker, larger and somehow stronger. “Is this some sort of...feeding?” Tors asked, as if anyone else would know the answer.

“Looks like it.” Pandora was squinting, to try and see them more clearly. Her hair was wild, but mostly still.

As quickly as they came, the creatures disappeared, one by one.

The wind and rain returned, but not as strong as before. They sat for hours, barely speaking to one another, but just sharing a silent hope. Their hopes were answered hours later. Lights burned through the dark-grey sky, illuminating the battered house. In unison, they ran to the window and watched the giant cuboid-like evacuation ships land. Battling the winds, agents barged into houses and gently pulled people from their homes. Some people grabbed small items, mementos of a time gone. Neither Tors, Pandora nor Emola bothered to grab anything. As Tors ran up the metal ramp into the evacuation ship, he looked back out at Narcsia and his destroyed town. A pang of sorrow tugged at his chest; he remembered when it was beautiful, just months ago.

Putting that past behind him, he dragged himself aboard the ship, ready for a new and better life.

Emergence: Chapter 19

Groggy from his fall, Foton shook his head to clear the mist. Gunshots sounded around him, instantly killing their victims thanks to the unwavering aim of the Xaosians. Foton grudgingly admired their skills. He looked around at the corpses around him; he was lucky, the Xaosians obviously thought that the alien had killed him.

Wrotha stared up at him. Dead.

He felt a pang of guilt; he might have been able to save some of them if he hadn't been so preoccupied with getting Tahkshi out of there. And now he was dead anyway. He had failed to protect the principle.

But he could try and avenge him.

The alien was still on the bridge, surveying the Xaosians' work with a look of what appeared to be disgust in its barely-visible eyes. As a Xaosian passed Foton, he leapt up and jammed his hidden blade through its helmet; the diamond blade easily plunged through the Xaosian's head. Aware that the other Xaosian would probably be bringing his gun up to fire, Foton pulled a knife from his right shin and threw it in its direction. He heard a thud as the Xaosian went down. Seeing a Xaosian X-46 gun on the floor, Foton picked it up and swung it in the alien's direction. He set it to projectile-stun and swung it round to aim at the alien; even if it could evade bullets, it shouldn't be able to dodge the static-charges.

He became aware of a soft clapping from the bridge. “Well fought.” Part of the alien's exoskeleton shifted and pulled itself back, revealing red skin around its mouth.

Foton fired at the alien.

One shot. The alien jerked to the right, and the static-charge crackled as it hit the wall behind.

Second shot. After sliding to the right, the alien brought its pistol around and shot it down, before briefly aiming at Foton's weapon and firing.

Foton dropped the gun as it sparked and emitted smoke. The alien holstered its own weapon and leapt from the bridge to the control room below. Foton sized it up; it was about half a standard taller than him, and a little bit broader too. He knew that it was much faster than him, so he assumed that it would be stronger.

It lashed out, fist connected with Foton's shoulder. Foton stumbled back a few paces. His shoulder felt cold and numb: dislocated. As the alien swung another fist, Foton jerked out of the way, grabbing his dislocated arm and shoving it forcefully back into its socket, biting back the pain.

Foton fought back now. He swung his fist at the alien, drawing his hidden blade as he did so. But the alien saw the blade's reflection, even in this dull lighting. It grabbed Foton's wrist and squeezed. “A diamond blade...” The alien smiled. “Unbreakable, diamond, isn't it?” Its exoskeleton seemed to shift slightly, before taking on a shinier tone. Without warning, it brought its free hand down on the blade, cleaving it in two. “Only diamond breaks diamond.” Foton looked at the blade, stunned at what the alien had done. “And we can be anything.” It looked into Foton's eyes. “Remember that, Assassin.”

It released Foton, who stumbled away from it. “What are you?”

“The name is Otor,” Foton listened to the voice; masculine surely, “and my kind built this Empire-”

“-And destroyed it.”

Foton looked around to locate the voice; Devilclash was by the door, walking in slowly. “I thought your kind was dead. Adjeti.”

Foton's eyes widened at this; of course this alien was an Adjeti; he'd read about them before, studied them even. How could he be so blind? He finished his brief berating, remembering that the reason he didn't recognise it straight away was the fact that the entire race was wiped out. Or so the history books said. Obviously a few survived.

“Pyrkagias.” Otor spat the words out. “We both know that the Adjeti didn't destroy Orbus.”

Devilclash's bugs arranged themselves in an obscure way, as if they were confused. “The Swarm says you did. History books say you did. Are we to trust the word of a murderous outsider?”

“Murderous?” Otor gestured to the corpses around him. “You think I would do this if I had a choice about it? No. Your kind has driven me to desperation; I work for the Xaosians for one reason only: to restore my race.”

“They're all dead. Oblivion was burnt to a crisp.” Foton interjected forcefully; everyone knew the story of Ardican, the human who sacrificed himself to use the World-Burner to destroy Oblivion, the Adjeti homeworld, after their attack on Orbus.

“Are they?” Otor smiled, as if humouring them. He turned back to Devilclash. “When my kind return, you will pay for what you've done. Show the Swarm what I'm saying, and let them fear the days to come.”

“I could kill you right now.” Devilclash hissed, anger breaking her usual monotone. Foton knew this was bad; the two species were always enemies, but Otor's accusations only forced the tension higher.

“What's stopping you?” When he stopped speaking, Otor's exoskeleton snapped back around his mouth; a defence mechanism.

Devilclash leapt at him, the bugs squealing. Foton felt a primal fear rise up inside him, but he ignored it. Otor darted to the side and raised his hand. The exoskeleton covering his wrist twisted around and extended, forming a cone around his hand, with a thin cylinder sticking out the end of it. Like a barrel of a gun.

The bullet of the organic was a pellet of compressed blood, forced into a rock-hard state. It smashed into Devilclash's Hive-stone, knocking it out of formation with the rest of the bugs. Foton grabbed Otor's organic-gun-arm and wrenched it forward. Otor stumbled slightly, losing his balance. Foton drew his other knife and stabbed it into his eye. With no exoskeleton other his eyes, the blade went in deep, spewing thick red blood over the ivory around it. As Foton pulled the blade out, Otor fell to his knees, before falling face-first onto the metal ground.

Devilclash reformed herself, but Foton could tell hat she was in pain; he didn't know how he knew, but he did. Maybe it was some sort of instinct. “Nice one.” Her voice was distorted from the norm.

Foton ran over to one of the still-functioning computers and ran a check on the personnel aboard the ship; everyone was registered just like the bodyguards were in the Spire. Running a ship-wide search, he found only two; his and Devilclash's. He felt no grief at this, just a pang of annoyance; evidently the guards weren't trained well enough. He quickly checked the engines and found that they had been severely damaged by the Xaosians' attack; the Watchman wasn't going anywhere. Next, Foton ran a life-form scan on the ship. Twenty-seven recognised life-forms were aboard the ship; twenty-five Xaosians. From the image on-screen, he could see that they were retreating back to their ships.

“We've gotta get to the escape pods.” Foton announced. Devilclash agreed, following his long, fast paces through the corridors. “So, what do you tell the Primary when you get to Buun?”

“The Xaosians have waged war on the Empire, and an Adjeti was helping them in return for their help in somehow restoring the Adjeti.” Devilclash paused. “You said “you”. Don't you mean “we”?”

“No.” Foton shook his head. “There is nothing I can do on Buun that will help in the war. I'm going home, to Prauw. I'm not a bodyguard, really. I'm an assassin, and I'm almost certain you suspected that. I can rally the other assassins to fight, take down Xaosian leaders. You can do the same for the Pyrkagia.”

Devilclash was silent for a few seconds, until they reached the escape pods. Only two had been ejected, which made Foton feel a little better; at least two people had escaped. “So, your journey to Buun was for an assassination?” Devilclash asked warily.

Foton gave an affirmative; he remembered Buun. Smuggler. Fifty-thousand Credits. “Had you figured it out?”

“I had suspicions. Your hidden blade gave it away.”

“And yet no-one else paid attention.” Foton gave a small smile in spite of himself. He moved over to the first escape pod and opened the hatch. “I guess this is goodbye then.” He extended his hand to her. She looked confused at first, before she took the hand and tried to shake it. “Nice try.” Foton commended her on her effort.

She gave a small smile. “Thanks.” Her voice took on a solemn tone. “Goodbye, Foton. I hope we meet again.”

“So do I.” He climbed into the pod, and reached for the door.

Something smacked into his hand and he was immediately in pain. He looked around to see Otor, running along the corridor. Foton's heart stopped; how is he still alive? Then he saw Otor's wounded eye; it was growing back even as he watched. Devilclash looked at the Adjeti, before slamming the hatch down on Foton's escape pod.

Otor ducked under Devilclash's wild attack, and grabbed the Hive-stone. With his free hand, he ejected Foton's escape pod and threw the Hive-stone out after it, casting Devilclash into the unknown void. Foton could only watch; there was nothing he could do for her now. He had read somewhere that the Pyrkagia could survive in space by turning the bugs to stone. He hoped that was true.

Out of the small window, he saw the disc-like structure of Watchman being pummelled by missiles, before it fell apart in space. No sound, no flames.

He punched in co-ordinates for Prauw and the pod changed course. Looking at his hand; he found that, while it felt fractured, it seemed to be fine. The only strange thing he noted was that it was shaking violently.

Locked in an airtight box, drifting in an airless vacuum, after being attacked by a long-dead member of a genocidal race and having his principle killed, Foton felt more scared than he had his whole life.

But under that fear, he felt a rush; the thrill of the fight, of the chase, still made his blood rush with excitement: this was something new!