《Draegona Chronicles》


 Authors Introduction

    IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!


    THIS TITLE HAS MOVED TO BECOME BIOMAGITECH WITH A NEW PAGE. PLEASE CHECK OUT THE NEW TITLE FOR ANY FURTHER CHAPTERS.


    https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26884/biomagitech


    Draegona Chronicles has been my mind child of a story for the last 3 years. Since originally drafting the first chapter in 2017, I had never truly been satisfied with the direction of the story. The beginning just seemed like it lacked a proper punch. I, myself, dislike the intro I originally wrote. A dream sequence leading into prophecy and then into the main character waking up. It''s interesting and has a fun action sequence that I SHOULD have expanded upon. So after neglecting my story for more than a year for writing, I do owe a bit of an explanation as to my hiatus. Family, school, work... Need much else? eh... I wouldn''t think so. My life has been kind of too busy to focus on my book. But I have never abandoned it. In the dark depths of my phone, I''ve been writing chapter drafts over and over. It seems to me that after much consideration, the reason I wouldn''t continue the story is due to too many rewrites *crumples up the paper ball and tosses it*. So now we''re back at square 1... or should I say... Chapter 1. I think this is the best. I''d be able to set up a proper schedule for myself. Chapters will likely be weekly or biweekly depending on how these first few chapters go. I will be leaving up my original 20 chapters. This part of the story (the Sullivan/Keto arc) isn''t going to be scrapped. But it will be heavily rewritten. I guarantee there will be similarities. So enjoy what I leave up for you, and certainly expect to hear from me again soon. The holiday rush is over, and I''m anxious to write finally.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

 Chapter 1: Dreamfall

    Echoes of flames and metal grinding. Distant shouts and sirens blaring. The cries for help become muted by a deafening clang as blast doors bolted shut in front of Echo¡¯s face. The young human reels in surprise at the sound as he falls back into a thick leather chair that is bolted to the floor. A gloved human hand presses its palm up against the other side of a smoky glass viewport set into the upper portion of the blast door. The hand slowly drops away from the thick plexiglass as if reluctant to leave, but eventually fades into the smoke filling the interior hallway of the space cruiser.


    Sitting alone in an escape pod built to hold only one survivor, sits a young man in a full-body survival suit. His face is obscured by a black metal helmet that encases his entire head. The helmet is hermetically secured to the neck portion of the suit to provide a seal against the harsh elements of outer space. The mask portion covering Echo¡¯s face is solid black metal plating with inner ceramic layers that wrap around the head and can protect against high-speed projectiles in space, such as comet debris and microscopic asteroids. Its functionality was designed for mining metal in harsh asteroid fields, but now it was no longer used for that purpose. Beaten and scratched, the survival suit looked brand new compared to the rustic black helmet. A deep silvery scratch was inlaid along the right side of the helmet, notably different from the surrounding wear and tear.


    The black survival suit that Echo is wearing is simple in design, comfortable, and effectively functions as a vitality monitor. The survival suit resembles a scuba diver wet-suit. However, the interior is internally compressed with oxygen so that the user isn¡¯t harmed when transitioning from a vacuum, such as outer space, to an interior that is pressurized or vice versa.


    Echo¡¯s dulled voice calls out from inside the black helmet, ¡°Ari, there¡¯s no more time! We must leave them behind... Like right fucking now! Split yourself into shards and let¡¯s get the fuck out of here!¡±


    Deep blue light hesitantly flickers on inside the helmet, growing steadily brighter as the flickers become faster in pace and finally stop. Bright beams of light cut through the darkness inside the escape pod and emanate from the two plexiglass viewports on the front mask, casting a dull blue hue on the inner walls of the pod wherever Echo looked.


    Continuing with his desperate escape, Echo takes a few deep breaths before his gloved hands swiftly move to pull down the safety bars above his head. He yanks down hard on the bar that is attached to the seat behind him with large metal hinges. After a few awkward tugs, the safety bar loosens and starts moving downwards with a few metallic clicks as it locks into place against his chest.


    As the safety bar comes down, its curvature comes up over his shoulders and across his chest to secure him tightly to the seat. Once the bars were secured, a pressurized hiss emanates from all around him as the pod fills with oxygen through small holes inlaid into the ceiling. Several clicks resound from outside as locking clamps disengage from the escape pod, and it freely drifts away from its former dock. The escape pod had officially begun its automatic escape routine the moment that Echo was safely locked into his seat.


    While the escape pod floats away from the space cruiser, Echo tightly clenches onto the safety bars and his shoulders tense as he lifts his head to stare at the viewport. The pod was still close enough to the ship for him to see into the viewport on the blast door of the space cruiser. The hallway where the pod had been, glows orange with flames as the fire consumes the interior of the ship. He couldn¡¯t see very well with his limited view, but he could certainly tell there was no one sticking around in that blazing inferno. Everyone else had either already escaped or were about to get out of there fast, just like him. This cruiser was going to go down in a massive fireball soon enough.


    Echo continually tenses and relaxes his shoulders before firmly pressing his back into the chair. His hands still clenched tightly onto the safety bars as a high-pitched whining reverberates beneath his feet. The engine is beginning to warm up in preparation for takeoff. As the screech of the engine grows louder, a bright flash from the hallway of the cruiser bathes the interior of the pod in a golden light.


    Massive shock waves from an unseen explosion slams into the small escape pod, sending it careening away from the dock. Violently spinning out of control, status lights and buttons begin to frantically flicker on and off inside of the pod. A robotic voice starts speaking in a neutral tone within Echo¡¯s helmet, ¡°WARNING: Trajection vector has been altered. Attempting course correction. Attempting stabilization. ERROR: Primary engines offline. WARNING: Secondary systems engaged.¡±


    The inside of the pod goes dark as the pod¡¯s backup systems are activated, and all non-essential systems are cut off. The unemotional, robotic voice returns, ¡°WARNING: Gravitational anomaly detected. CLASSIFICATION: Class-M planetoid. COLLISION ALERT: Impact with planetoid is imminent. ALERT: Pod integrity compromised. Automatic rescue sequence initiated. AI activation protocol complete. Welcome to the Automatic Rescue Initiative. Hello, my name is Ari¡­¡±


    Ari¡¯s behavior changed from a neutral tone to one filled full of personality and worry, ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve split myself into several shards and sent the main shard to you. The ship is completely gone. Once the fire reached the reactor core, it detonated as I was getting out of there. I had barely enough time to escape, sir.¡±


    Echo began screaming into his helmet, ¡°Stabilize the pod already, Ari! I can¡¯t... Hold on! Aggghhh!¡±


    As the escape pod hurtled and tumbled in a fiery ball towards the planet¡¯s surface, the g-forces yank Echo¡¯s body back and forth in the safety harness. The helmet lets out a shriek as his vitals begin to spike. His arms flail wildly around the cabin in motion with the plummeting escape pod. Echo desperately tries to bring his arms back in to hold onto the safety bars, but he¡¯s not strong enough to fight against the direction of gravity continually changing. The spinning pod only added to the difficulty as the blood rushed from his head. Echo¡¯s vision began closing in and narrowing as the darkness crept in at the corners of his vision.


    Ari returns with a grim tone, the worry in its voice increasing exponentially as it talked quickly, ¡°Hang tight, Echo¡­ I¡¯m detecting an anomalous and hazardous environment on the planet¡¯s surface and I must begin the emergency evacuation procedures, or we¡¯ll burn up in the upper thermosphere. The outer heat shielding and the parachute took a hit from the cruiser detonating. We¡¯ll have to ditch the pod, Echo. There¡¯s no chance that we¡¯ll make it otherwise. Give me a few moments while I recalculate the trajection for an atmospheric rebound subroutine. We¡¯ll be firing the retro-boosters on full blast. I¡¯m gonna give it all she¡¯s got!¡±


    Echo screamed even louder this time in desperation as his vision turned black, ¡°Fucking hell! I don¡¯t care what it is! Just do it already, dammit!¡±


    Ari chimed in quickly, relaying information to Echo as the artificial intelligence worked on a solution, ¡°The primary engines are back online! Since the parachute is damaged, I''m setting the retro-boosters to full power and slowing our descent now.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The teardrop-shaped hunk of metal continued to violently whip around as a roar filled the interior of the pod. The pod began to aggressively shake under the force of the retro-boosters igniting. Slowing its rotation until it was upright and no longer spinning, the bottom of the pod was directed down towards the planet and began firing the boosters on full blast. Echo began to feel the blood return to his head. As his vision came back to him, the roar of the engine grew louder until it drowned out everything. It sounded as if Ari was still trying to speak to him, but Echo couldn¡¯t hear Ari over the deafening sound of the escape pod engines.


    The retro-boosters cut off without warning and Ari yelled out, ¡°Echo, we have to ditch the pod immediately. We¡¯re still in the upper thermosphere with over 100 kilometers of atmosphere to fall through, and we¡¯re out of concentrated rocket fuel. Evacuation in 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­¡±


    The blast door in front of Echo slams open with excessive force and the wind rushes in. Echo cried out in confusion, ¡°Wait, what!? I wasn¡¯t paying any attention! OH FUCK!!¡± The safety chair then rocketed out the escape pod door with a blast of pressurized air, pinning him to the seat.


    Smashing into the thick current of air rushing past the pod, Echo slammed his eyes shut, expecting the worst to come next. Moments later, he felt motionless and the wind stopped. It was as if he was no longer falling. He no longer felt the snug comfort of his survival suit anymore. Opening his eyes, he was now looking into pure and empty darkness. Reaching up to his head, Echo attempted to pull off the helmet, expecting the viewports to be blocked or shaded. But when he reached for his helmet, he felt nothing there. He felt as if he was moving his hand, but he couldn¡¯t actually feel his arm moving. He couldn¡¯t even feel his own fingertips brush across his cheek. It was as if he had been cut off from all sensations, but he instinctively knew where all his limbs were in the dark space.


    Echo muttered to himself, ¡°Wh-Where am I? Why can¡¯t I see?¡±


    A disembodied omnipresent voice of a woman surrounds Echo, ¡°You cannot see because you are blind to the future. Where you are is irrelevant as in your current state of mind, you could never comprehend this existence.¡±


    Echo yelled out as he imagined himself turning in circles to berate whoever brought him here, ¡°No... Where I am is extremely relevant! What the hell did you do to me!? Who are you!!?¡±


    The voice returns, ¡°I didn¡¯t do this to hurt you. Please relax and listen for a moment. What I have just shown you is your future. You are bound to this destiny. The chains of fate bind you to this future. It can never be changed. What happens next must be done by you alone. Her crystal soul will soon pass on to you. Her crystal soul cannot fall into the wrong hands or our portion of the universe will be wrought with never-ending war.¡±


    Echo called out in confusion, ¡°What the hell is a crystal soul?¡±


    The omnipresent voice did not return with an answer, but a prophetic spell,


    ¡°You can try to run from destiny.


    Fate will always find you.


    Have faith in your path.


    Let your dreams guide you.


    Take what you desire.


    Tear them asunder with ire.


    Break the chains of fate that bind you


    and shape your future with ice and fire.¡±


    Echo¡¯s vision filled with a devastating bright light that blinded him. The deep black space became pure white and painful, and Echo felt as if his head was going to split open from the pain. A searing headache soared across his brain as the light slowly faded back into darkness.


    ---------------


    Echo abruptly wakes in his desk chair and immediately recoils in surprise as he smacked the back of his head on a desk lamp. The lamp clatters over the edge of the desk, onto the floor, and the fluorescent bulb shatters. With moonlight streaming in through a window on one wall, there was still enough light to see in the dim bedroom, even without a lamp. Rubbing the short black hair on the back of his head, the young man groaned as he looked down at the book he was using as his pillow. A smudge of ink and drool covered the center of one page.


    ¡°Ah, dammit. Dad¡¯s going to be pissed that I ruined his physics book.¡±


    Rubbing his drooping eyelids with the back of his hands, Echo stands up from the comfortable chair. Walking over to a corner of the small bedroom, being cautious to not step on the fragmented glass, he grabs a broom that was sitting neatly inside of his closet. Grabbing a small garbage bin and placing it on its side, he sweeps the shattered bulb into the trash.


    As Echo is cleaning up the mess, the bedroom door behind him opens. A woman¡¯s voice carries through the crack of the open doorway, ¡°Is everything alright in there, Echo? I heard glass breaking¡±. The heavy wooden door opens fully to reveal Andrea. A tall woman with raven black hair. Her soft hand nervously gripped the door tightly, and her eyes shone through the dark room with a piercing icy blue hue.


    Echo turned to meet his mother¡¯s glare with his own purple gaze. Echo¡¯s deep purple eyes met his mother¡¯s, and he sleepily smiled at her. Rubbing his fingers through the top of his short black hair, he tried giving a good excuse but gave in almost instantly. ¡°I was up late studying the old physics book that dad had given me. I had a really messed up dream and I managed to smack my head on the lamp when I woke up.¡±


    Andrea peers over Echo¡¯s shoulder to find the broken lamp on the floor, but no glass. Looking at the broom in Echo''s hands she asks him, ¡°Did you already clean it up?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± answers Echo.


    ¡°Alright,¡± replies Andrea, ¡°You really should go lie down. It¡¯s still the middle of the night, and the two of you are going into town first thing in the morning. Apparently, Uncle Felix is expected to meet with you and Vikta bright and early for the next shipment. Goodnight, sweetie.¡±


    ¡°Goodnight, mom,¡± Echo smiles at her as he lays the broom against his desk and picks up the trashcan, placing it next to the desk as well.


    Andrea turns to step away from the bedroom door but is faced by the broad shoulders of a shadowed man she had not noticed there before. The woman gives a small yelp and chuckles, ¡°You really need to stop sneaking up on me like that Vikta.¡±


    A deep hearty laugh emanates from the chest of the large man. The man holds up a device in his left hand and presses a button on it with his right. The glow of an electric lantern fills the hallway and the bedroom. The light reveals a man with an athletic build. His thick dark brown beard covers his grin almost entirely. His hair is spiked up into an utterly unkempt mess. A severe case of bedhead. The white light from the electric lantern shines brightly upon Vikta¡¯s amber eyes. ¡°I hope everything¡¯s alright Andrea. I heard the commotion and scrambled out of bed¡±.


    Andrea answers, ¡°Yeah, Echo just knocked over a lamp. He''s already cleaned it up. I¡¯ll be in bed, dear¡±. Andrea places a hand on Vikta¡¯s shoulder as she politely pushes past him, kisses him on the cheek, and quietly walks down the hallway towards their bedroom.


    Vikta watches Andrea walk down the hallway before turning his head to talk to Echo, ¡°You had best get some rest, son. Uncle Felix is expecting¡­¡±


    ¡°Mom just told me. What¡¯s going on dad?¡± Echo eyes Vikta inquisitively.


    Vikta sighs in response, ¡°We apparently have more work to do with the storm sensors giving us bad news. Just before I went to bed last night, the sensors were reading a mass of clouds heading right for us. It¡¯ll be here by tomorrow night and last well past the end of the harvest. It¡¯s a bad idea to prep a shipment launch on the eve of such a shit storm, but we must make our quota, son. We need to wake up early if we¡¯re going to make it into town to meet Felix and be back in time to get everything prepped for the storm.¡±


    Vikta grabs the door handle and slowly begins to shut the door. Just before the door closes, Vikta softly utters, ¡°Goodnight, kiddo.¡±


    Footsteps reverberate across the floor of the hallway as Vikta returns to bed. With tired eyes, Echo finally picks up the desk lamp from the wooden floor and places it neatly on his desk. Once again looking down at the pages of the physics book, he finds the page wholly untouched and void of any ink stains. With a confused expression, Echo dismisses the disappearing ink smudge, closes the book, and clambers up into his bed. Becoming comfortably at ease between the covers of his bedsheets, Echo once again drifts off to sleep.

 Chapter 2: Just Another Work Day

    Okimoto, a brilliant star in the midst of the Takeda Star Cluster, dawns on the horizon of the agricultural planet Keto. The red light of the local star over the horizon of Keto saturates the clouds of a massive superstorm becoming barely visible on the opposing skyline. The cumulonimbus formations and massive sparks of lightning reach out towards space like tendrils of light in search of darkness. An ominous moving painting in the early dawn of Keto¡¯s sky.


    The morning star casts a red hue upon the Sullivan Family Farm, illuminating the crops of barley, wheat, and corn. Keto is a farming planet, occupied and terraformed to feed billions of creatures across the galaxy of Andromeda. The planet, along with the local star cluster, had been colonized and owned by the Takeda family for several centuries now. For thousands of kilometers around, there is nothing but dirt roads, drainage ditches, and crop plots that stretch as far as the horizon itself. The entire planet had been repurposed for harvesting by the Takeda family, but this change of the planet had also caused a significant imbalance in the global weather systems.


    Enjoying the glorious view of the sunrise and storm from his farmhouse¡¯s front porch, Vikta Sullivan takes a long smooth sip of his imported coffee. The blackened sugary drink let off its final puffs of steam as Vikta finished sipping. Gently placing his now emptied coffee cup down on a short table next to some rocking chairs, Vikta turns from the colorfully tinted sky and strides over to the front door. He clutches the handle and swings open the wooden door with a hefty shove.


    Vikta takes a deep breath before shouting through the open door from the porch, ¡°C¡¯mon boy! Get your ass moving! We¡¯ve got to get going. A storm is on its way and you just so happen to be taking your sweet ass time. This thunderstorm isn¡¯t gonna wait for you to get your pants on.¡±


    The clamor of feet scuffling and hopping across the wooden floorboards shakes the house. Vikta continues to grumble under his breath as he impatiently waits by the door. Echo comes bounding around the corner of the bedroom hallway, still trying to get one leg into his jeans with his shirt slung over his shoulder. Just as soon as Echo rounds the corner within sight of Vikta, he takes another hop to get his other leg into the jeans and his feet slip from under him, dropping him flat on his ass. ¡°Oof! Owww. Dammit¡±, exclaims Echo.


    Still sitting on the floor, Echo continues to get his other leg into the jeans and slips on his button-down black collared shirt. Reaching over to the wall near the corner, Echo grabs his work boots with a long stretch. Vikta just stands there, silently judging his son¡¯s progress with grumpy furrowed brows.


    When Echo finally finishes, Vikta gives a quick nod and says, ¡°You done screwing around? Let¡¯s get moving. That storm is moving fast and could be here sooner than I expected. I already see a large number of lightning sprites coming out from atop the clouds. This one is gonna be one hell of a superstorm.¡±


    Echo¡¯s expressions flutter between excited and worried for a few moments before he finally says, ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good. There are lightning sprites already visible from this far off?¡±


    Vikta just nods his head and says, ¡°Go look for yourself. We¡¯re going to have to sleep in the shelter tonight. It¡¯s heading right for us.¡±


    Echo jumps up off the floor and rushes past his father down the front porch steps, his boots thudding and crunching in the rocky dirt as he strides over to an open area where he can get a better look. Echo turns to stare in awe at the morning light show displayed above the thick clouds. The lightning strikes up from the top of the clouds multiple times every second, towards space in the shape of an upside-down cone. From this distance, they may look small but are a couple of kilometers across and reach hundreds more into the outer atmosphere before dispersing into thick leaf-like tendrils. These ¡®lightning sprites¡¯ are so powerful that they are capable of discharges that will take out any unlucky spacecraft flying overhead.


    Vikta takes a moment to look at the superstorm again before turning and calls out through the door once more, ¡°Alright hun, we¡¯re on our way out. Can you keep an eye on those storm sensors and call me if something changes?¡±


    Unseen from another part of the house, Andrea responds, ¡°Sure thing. I¡¯ll probably be in the storm cellar getting prepped for when you get back.¡±


    Vikta gently shuts the door and quickly strides down the steps of his porch. The soft dirt crunches beneath his work boots as he makes his way over to a spot beside Echo. Standing beside his son, Vikta can¡¯t help but stare in wonder at the sheer power of nature barreling down on their farm. His jaw clenches and untightens at the pace of his thoughts.


    If only we had more time to prepare for the storm. We have to make quota though, or many out there in the galaxy will starve.


    Vikta breaks the silence as he turns and beckons Echo with a light tap on his shoulder, ¡°We¡¯ve got to get moving, Echo.¡± Both of them turn and start walking around the house to the backyard. ¡°Our quota is due today, and the shipment launch is tonight. If we don¡¯t leave for Launch Central by noon, we may be heading back home through that superstorm with an extremely pissed off boss nipping at our heels. Let¡¯s get on over to the control station, bring the harvesters back in, and get the wheat shipment onto that railway immediately. I need you to go and make sure the engine is running with a full charge, hook up all of the shipment containers, and then go fill half of the containers with the barley stock while I bring in the wheat.¡±


    Echo and Vikta split up as they walk towards an outcrop of metal buildings behind the farmhouse. These simple box structures with slanting metal roofs are separated into three main buildings. These massive metal structures make the small farmhouse look like a children¡¯s toy house.


    There is one building for storing the massive harvesters and another for food. The control station for the tractors is located between the food storage and harvester storage buildings and up atop a skinny metal tower that stands twenty meters tall with two metal ladders on each side. A single long corridor set between the two buildings is the only way to reach the tower from either side. As Vikta heads into the small dark corridor between the two metal buildings, he flips a switch at the corner, and the passage lights up with a brilliant yellow glow that spills out onto the grass.


    The third building, to which Echo headed towards, is also a storage area. However, it stores a particular type of equipment. A train engine and eight steel shipment containers sit on a railway inside this metal building that dwarfs those next to it. From end to end, the building is about 120 meters long by 80 meters wide. Large enough to fit the train equipment neatly inside and still wide enough to fit a harvester for transferring crops to the shipment containers. Atop this building sits a multitude of solar panels and small wind turbines. Wires litter the top of the metal building, exposed to the elements, but protected by rubber coatings. Out of the back of the building is a railway leading a straight line all the way beyond the horizon.


    Echo enters the building with the train equipment through a small steel door near the corner of the structure and disappears into the darkness. He emerges once again into the artificial light of overhead spotlights that were activated by his movement through the doorway.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    A small black box begins shrieking on the wall next to the door. Echo covers his ears with his hands as he curses under his breath. The sounds of Echo''s curses are drowned out as he reaches for the shrieking alarm box. Quickly flipping open a flap on the black box, Echo enters a code with a free hand as he presses his ear against his shoulder and the alarm quits screeching. Stretching his jaw and shaking his head, Echo walks over to a nearby table with an old-school 20<sup>th</sup>-century amateur radio set and sits on one of the corners of the table.


    Before Echo even gets a chance to relax on his little corner of the table, the radio sparks to life behind him, ¡°Boy get your ass up off that table and get moving! I said there¡¯s a damn storm!¡±


    Echo falls forward off the table and onto his hands. He quickly and quietly pushes himself up off of the floor. Echo quietly mutters under his breath as he looks out the corner of his eye at a small camera neatly placed in the corner next to the door. Vikta¡¯s voice comes through the radio once more, ¡°And quit your bitching. You know what¡¯s at stake here.¡±


    Echo quietly makes his way over to the train engine, moving around small equipment and tools, and climbs on using a small ladder near the front of the train. Clambering up onto a small walkway on the side of the engine, Echo turns and opens the door of the cabin. Inside is two seats on each side separated by control panels with a windshield that wraps around the entire front, giving a 180-degree view. On the back wall is another control panel with monitors.


    Walking up to the back wall inside the cabin, Echo flips a single switch and a monitor flickers to life. On it, are readouts of power input, output, and charge. Echo turns to a control panel near one of the seats and flips another switch. Radio static fills the cabin with a loud sizzle and goes silent as Echo turns down the volume.


    Turning a dial on the same panel, Echo flips the channel to his farm¡¯s local radio signal and presses a red-lit button. The static clicks off as he speaks loudly in the enclosed cabin, ¡°Dad!? You there?¡±


    A few moments of static and a click, ¡°Yep, how¡¯s the engine doing?¡±


    Echo presses the button once more, turns his head back towards the monitor on the back wall, and starts giving readouts over the radio, ¡°Output at 0, obviously. Input at 30%. We have more wind power than the solar power to charge the engine right now. It¡¯s still early in the morning. The charge is holding steady at 95%. We should be able to make it to Launch Central and back with at least 30% charge left.¡±


    Echo lets go of the button. A few moments of silence and static. Vikta¡¯s voice comes over the radio once again, ¡°Alright, can you come up to the control station? It seems we have a bit of a problem. One of the harvesters is out of commission, and it¡¯s carrying our shipment of wheat.¡±


    Echo chimes in quickly, ¡°What about the barley? Don¡¯t we have to get that on board soon?¡±


    Vikta snaps back, ¡°I¡¯ll set the reserved harvesters out to fill up those containers. Just get up here, son.¡±


    Echo hastily flicks off all of the controls he¡¯s turned on since he¡¯s been in the cabin and makes his way off the train engine. Pushing past all of the tools and equipment in the room, Echo makes his way outside and towards the corridor that his father went down. Reaching the long hall, Echo picks up his pace and started jogging toward a ladder near the center of the walkway. Once he reached the ladder, Echo looks up and can see his father pacing back and forth on top of the large metal grating. Taking his time, Echo climbs up the tower to where his father is.


    When Vikta notices Echo finally reaching the top, he beckons him over and says, ¡°Come here and take a look at this.¡±


    Echo makes his way over to the control panel that his father is pointing at. On it are various controls for each harvester and a monitor showing the location of each one by way of global positioning systems. Next to that was another monitor with security footage for the inside of the buildings. On the monitor showing the harvesters, several red dots are moving about on screen. Only one of the red dots were blinking and not moving. In the center of that dot was a white ¡®#3¡¯.


    Echo blinks and looks over at his father, ¡°The monitor is showing that the harvester is stuck on the railway. This setback can¡¯t be good. It¡¯s 20 kilometers out, and we don¡¯t have the time to retrieve it.¡±


    Vikta calmly states, ¡°That is why you¡¯re going out there with the train engine. Get that harvester unstuck while I finish up the preparations here. Get going, son.¡±


    Echo silently turns and makes his way down the ladder. Rushing back to the other building, he climbs up inside the train and takes a seat in one of the chairs. His hands rush over the panels in front of him, and the train engine silently springs to life. Vikta chimes in over the radio once more, ¡°I¡¯m opening the door for you. Good luck. Check in with me when you get there and if you have any problems.¡±


    The sound of metal grating against metal fills the train storage building as gears next to the door start grinding and pulling the large metal plates open. As soon as there was enough space for the train engine to fit through, Echo pushes forward a large lever on the front panel. Hydraulic brakes loudly hiss as they release the wheels of the train. The hiss of the engine hydraulics becomes louder as the electrically powered generator works hard to get the wheels turning under the immense mass of the locomotive. The train sluggishly pulls itself ahead but quickly starts to gain speed. Once outside and traveling down the rails at a considerable speed, the only sounds coming from the electric train engine were now that of the wheels against the railways and the churning of gears inside. No steam is pouring out. The engine is using no gasoline. Just pure renewable electric energy from the elements.


    Echo stared in wonder at one of the most beautiful sights he has ever seen in his short life. On one side was a stunning view of the sunrise, and on the other, the torrent of an approaching storm. Echo relaxed in the chair as the train made its way towards the horizon. The harvester was too far away to see just yet, but at least he could enjoy this lovely morning. This moment alone gave him some time to think to himself.


    I wonder how Uncle Felix is doing. I haven¡¯t seen him in years. He¡¯s always so welcoming to be around. It¡¯s not often that I get to bring a shipment to him personally¡­


    Echo¡¯s thoughts drift away as he stares at the horizon in silence for a few moments before his eyes snap wide open when another thought crosses his mind.


    Last night was weird. I swear I could feel the pressure of the ship detonation and the G-forces as well in that dream. What the hell was it with that damn voice telling me about a crystal soul? The hell is a crystal soul anyways?


    Echo starts groveling under his breath again as he begins to confuse himself. He breaks away from his daydreaming and starts to focus his attention on driving the train once again and looks into the distance out the windshield to find the harvester. A tiny black dot can be seen in the distance as the train starts to slow down and near its destination. Coming to a complete stop just a few meters from the harvester, Echo can immediately see the problem.


    Clicking on the radio, Echo checks in with Vikta, ¡°Looks like the blades may have latched onto the railway. It might just be lightly hooked onto the rail. I¡¯ll go detach it.¡± Before Vikta can respond, Echo makes his way out the cabin door.


    Climbing down from the train engine and making his way over to the harvester, Echo is surrounded by nothing other than wheat crops with a few meters between the train tracks and the crops. The tractor portion of the harvester is shaped like a bulky domed beetle with blades underneath and dragging behind it is a significantly large box container for storing the crops. The beetle looking portion is pressed up against the train track, and its dome-like shape is covering any view of the exact problem. Echo climbs up onto the harvester and opens a panel in the center of the dome. Pressing a single button aboard the tractor, it begins to lurch, and the metal screeches as the blades retract up into the harvester. Another button press and it moves backward off of the rail. He continues backing up the equipment until it is entirely in the midst of the crops.


    Closing the panel, hopping down off of the harvester, and making his way back up to the conductor¡¯s seat of the train, Echo chimes in on the radio once again, ¡°It¡¯s all set. You can send the harvester back now.¡±


    Vikta exclaims, ¡°Good work! That was quick. If you don¡¯t mind... When you get back here, can you set the train to charge mode again, and then get those containers hooked up? After that, just wait for me in there while I get everything loaded up.¡±


    Echo clicks the radio on one last time, ¡°No problem, I¡¯m on the way.¡± Echo pulls a lever back and sets the train in reverse. As he looks back at the harvester in the midst of the crops, he can see it start to turn all on its own and make for the same direction that he was heading. Echo sat alone in the silent cabin as the train made its way back to the farm, with nothing but the sounds of the wheels on the railway and the view of the morning storm to keep him entertained.

 Chapter 3: Landing Permissions

    The moon Osiris is no ordinary moon. Orbiting around Keto, the moon stays tidally locked above the planet. This means that the same side of the moon always faces the planet as it revolves around Keto. On the far side, hidden neatly away, just out of sight of the planet, are two massive holes lined with metal structures that lead straight towards the center of the moon. These holes are large enough to fit a mountain inside or to spit one out, and gapes open into the emptiness of space.


    The humans that had colonized the planet Keto had also hollowed out the existing moon to serve the purpose of an interdimensional shipping lane. One tunnel was used as an entrance, and the other is an exit of course. The tunnels dive deep under the crust into a cavern-like structure that is unlike any other. This moon is far from hollow, for inside lay the key to interdieensional travel and the answer to the question of how do we achieve extended space flight to distant stars.


    The hollowing of the moon by mechanical means, funded by the Takeda Corporation took decades but the payoff was absolutely worthwhile. The construction crew, made up of millions of workers, fit a wormhole generator into the core of the moon. The generator takes up most of the interior, and is capable of transporting even the largest of ships throughout anywhere in the known universe to where there is another wormhole generator. Linking the star systems of the galaxies of Andromeda and the Milky Way, these massive moon-sized portals open the way for shipping materials and travel. Travel is nearly instantaneous with only a few hours lost during the travel due to space-time distortion near the event horizon of the wormhole.


    Resembling eight thick metal rings that are progressively larger, each is hundreds of kilometers in diameter with the largest of the rings taking up the entire space of the moon¡¯s inner core. The massive ring is able to almost touch the walls which are covered in electromagnetic support beams arranged in the pattern of a honeycomb. The rings seem to be rotating all on their own, with each going in a different direction and spinning like a top as they rotate. Lining the inner core of the moon are various metal structures whose sole purpose is to hold the rings in place while spinning and rotating magnetically. As the eight rings rotate together, they form a tight ball with gaps that show up periodically.


    Currently, the rings are rotating and spinning smoothly, but then start to pick up the pace. Faster and faster they rotate until a thick mirrored ball snaps into existence in the center of the innermost ring. The ball grows larger and larger until it consumes the innermost ring. The mirrored ball continues to grow steadily until all of the rings have been consumed, shrouding them from view. This mirrored ball doesn¡¯t show the rings contained within or the inner core of this moon but shows the inner workings of another wormhole generator from somewhere else in the galaxy. On one side of the spherical wormhole is the image of a ship that is growing larger as if it is about to burst out of a bubble.


    Once the image of the ship got close enough to look like it was going to pass through and come out of the wormhole, it seemed as if the entire ship was plastered across the surface of the mirrored ball. It emerged neatly out of one side and down one of the long tunnels to the surface of the moon. The silvery surface of the wormhole stuck to the ship as it made its way out of the moon-based portal. As the back of the ship exited the wormhole, it snapped back together into a sphere with water-like ripples across the surface. The wormhole generator powered down, and the mirrored ball disappeared from existence growing smaller in size as the eight rings slowed their rotational speed.


    The ship heading out of the center of the moon Osiris was a shipping class cruiser called The Zealot. Its large white English letters plastered on each side of the ship¡¯s body. From the front side, the ship looks like a giant plus sign with a window at the top of the plus. From the side and the top, the ship looks like an elongated rectangle. Nothing too spectacular about this ship besides the massive coating of paint it has confidently stating its name. Along the sides, back, and bottom are various thrusters for lift-off, landings, and flight.


    Sitting in the pilot¡¯s seat is a massive lump of meat. This dark-haired, grizzly looking man sits quietly in his chair with the tiny controls in-between his hands while his brown uniform and slacks are pinching against his body. Patiently, he waits until the ship reaches the end of the tunnel, once in a while looking out the window in various directions to check his distance from the walls. After reaching the end of the tunnel, the large man presses forward on his flight controls, and the ship lurches forward as it boosts out of the thin atmosphere of the moon. Once the ship had come within sight of the planet Keto, the man reaches over and flicks a switch to the local star system radio channel.


    ¡°Keto. Come in, Keto. This is shipping cruiser Zealot, ID number K29G95. Pilot ID, Felix Sutherland, ID number 67KF34NW. Requesting landing at Launch Central.¡± Felix flicks off the radio comms, sets the transmission to repeat and again patiently waits. A voice comes over the radio, but it isn¡¯t the one that Felix is expecting.


    ¡°Felix, it¡¯s Sophia. We¡¯ve got a problem down here in engine maintenance. We¡¯ll have to replace a fuel cell before we go anywhere. This one is scorching hot down here and won¡¯t make it for the return trip back. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll have time for it to cool down either. It¡¯s burning at 1500 degrees Celsius. It¡¯s going to detonate if we try lifting off while we''re still pushing out power like this. We¡¯re simply running the engine too much lately. Have you contacted the planet yet?¡±


    Felix clicks the ship¡¯s comms on, ¡°No, I haven¡¯t. I just sent out a request for landing permissions. We should be arriving in about a day. It¡¯ll take a few moments for my message to reach them and for them to get back to me. I¡¯ll send in another request as soon as I get permission to land.¡±


    Sophia continues, ¡°Well it looks as if our radiation shielding may have failed during the transition through the wormhole. Everything on the floor has heated up big time. It seems that our underbelly shielding finally gave in. It must be why our fuel cell is about to blow. Must¡¯ve absorbed the excess radiation from the wormhole dissolving. I¡¯m drenched in sweat down here.¡±


    Felix takes a deep breath before responding, ¡°Alright, seal up the hatches, set the heatsinks to maximum absorption, and get up to the bridge. There¡¯s not much more you can do down there. We¡¯ll have to land for repairs. The best thing we can hope for is that the heatsinks do their job and keep us from a reactor meltdown.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Sophia can be heard swiftly latching down metal hatches before Felix finally cuts off the ship comms.


    Reaching up to the panel above his head, Felix flips a couple of switches for various monitors with ship readouts that light up his face with blue light. His features are truly distinct. Black grizzly hair, thick beard, and bushy brows. Golden amber eyes and something else. Something¡­ foreign.


    His pupils were not that of a human¡¯s but resembling that of a reptilian''s eyes. A thin vertical slice of blackness filled in the center of his amber iris. Felix¡¯s reptilian eyes scanned the monitors, checking on the status of the engine room. The temperature of the fuel cell had rapidly declined from 1500 degrees down to 1200.


    ¡°Glad to see those heat sinks are working good as ever,¡± Felix thought to himself.


    A deep chalky gravely voice breaks Felix¡¯s thoughts, ¡°They ought to be. We did design them together, after all. Or do you find my theories on heat dispersion fallible? I fail to see why you keep doubting the capabilities of technology.¡±


    ¡°Okay, Dusty. I¡¯ve got one for you. There was that one time on shipping lane twenty-three. We damn near turned into a makeshift nuke while waiting in line for the wormhole transport.¡± Felix called out and wagged his finger in the air at the voice he heard. However, there was nobody else currently on the bridge, and Sophia had not made her way back from the engine room.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    An amber glow emanated from underneath Felix¡¯s brown delivery uniform, and a streak of golden misty light shot out through the center. The elongated golden smoky light did a single lap around Felix before landing on the floor next to him and forming into the shape of a dragon. Even though the dragon spirit did not hold a true physical form, its talons still clicked across the metal floor panels as it landed. Diminutive in size, the smoky spirit form of the dragon could easily perch on your shoulders and was about the size of a full-grown hawk. Every tiny detail showed through the misty transparent smoke.


    This specific dragon spirit wasn¡¯t your typical dragon though. Without wings, this dragon was of the particular species called a drake, and this one looked like a panther with armored scales. Even without wings, drakes can still be extremely deadly and could even take flight through magical means. Drakes are just one of the many species of dragons that have existed, but that is a story for another time.


    Dusty the dragon¡¯s fanged scaly mouth began to move as it spoke directly to Felix, ¡°As I recall, the engine meltdown was entirely your fault. You managed to¡­¡±


    Felix cut off the dragon mid-sentence, ¡°I managed to throw one of the best damn tailgate parties in space, and you just so happened to ruin it.¡± He pointed down at the dragon next to him as he finished.


    Dusty continued, ¡°You managed to push out more power than I ever thought possible, without even moving the ship! All the toilets running at full capacity, the air conditioning at max cooling, and the lights were turned into strobes and burned about as hot as the engine itself! Not to mention the musical coordinator had burnt out several power converters throughout the ship. You would most certainly be dead if it weren¡¯t for me turning off all non-essential systems.¡±


    Felix hung his head in response as Dusty nonstop grilled him on his mistakes, ¡±Yes, Felix. The reactor almost hit critical mass, and it was utterly your responsibility to make sure that didn¡¯t happen. Poor Sophia almost got a lethal dose of radiation because of that ¡®tailgate party¡¯ of yours or whatever you humans call it.¡±


    Felix sighed, ¡°Yeah, I know. I had no idea that was even possible to run the engine that hot with just the non-essential systems. It would have been fine if your heatsinks had not of failed.¡±


    Dusty snapped his jaw and jumped up onto Felix¡¯s lap. The dragon spirit gutturally growled before addressing the human directly, ¡°Had not of failed!? You botched the finest heatsinks we could get our hands on and the countless hours lost that were spent on modifications for them! You set the absorption rate to the max and thought that would be all there was to do. You left it to run and partied on, and when it failed, there was nobody around to notice when the reactor went critical.¡±


    The dragon poked Felix in the chest with one of his talons as he continued, ¡±I left my crystal just in time to notice the change of the electrical signals from around the ship. We had lost all of our heatsink equipment and the fuel cell because of your debauchery. Luckily enough you got the engineers that were partying aboard drunk enough to agree to fix the ship for free. I swear if it weren¡¯t for them, we¡¯d be bankrupt because of you.¡±


    Felix said nothing, but his jaw was left wide open. Slowly, he closed his mouth and nodded his head. Clenching his teeth, Felix said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. You¡¯re right. Now if you don¡¯t mind, would you kindly remove your claws from my thigh.¡±


    Felix continued to grit his teeth in agony as the dragon looked down to where it was perched. Looking up quickly and hopping down from Felix¡¯s lap, the smoky dragon sighed, ¡°It was only a matter of time before we reached the limit of the technology. As you may recall, everything has its limits. Too much of anything is always deadly.¡±


    Felix looked over his shoulder without turning his head, ¡°It¡¯s bad enough that we almost lost everything, now you¡¯re giving me philosophy lectures? I¡¯m no longer a child, Dusty. I know better.¡±


    The screech of metal hatches opening resounds from behind the duo, but the hatch to the bridge had not opened yet. Felix panics and whispers loudly, ¡°Dusty! Get back into the crystal. Sophia is coming.¡± A streak of amber strikes towards Felix¡¯s chest as the dragon disappears into an amber Draegona Crystal neatly tucked away under Felix¡¯s uniform.


    The hatch to the bridge opens and in steps a woman in protective yellow radioactive gear covering her entire body from head to toe. On her back, she is wearing oxygen tanks with tubes sprouting out of them and also has on black rubber gloves and boots. There is duct tape wrapped around where the suit meets the gloves and boots. The only view of her is through a thick plastic viewport on her hooded portion of the suit.


    Felix blinks his eyes rapidly before turning in his command chair. His pupils shifted from reptilian slits to human circles between blinks but retained their amber color. Finally turning around in the chair to face Sophia, he asks her, ¡°Did you remember to go through decontamination first?¡±


    Sophia¡¯s muted laughs can be heard from inside the radiation suit, ¡°Yes, now come unzip me. This thing is difficult to get off, and I¡¯m sweating my ass off in here. So, if you wouldn¡¯t mind helping me, that¡¯d be great.¡±


    Felix gets up out of the chair and walks over to a spot behind Sophia. He reaches out for a zipper on her back up near her neck and pulls down on it. With the other hand, he reaches up to the oxygen tanks and turns them off. ¡°You¡¯re good to go. Should be easy enough to get it off.¡±


    Sophia reaches up to her thick yellow hood and pulls upwards, releasing her head from the suit first. Pulling herself out through the zipper hole in the back, she sheds the rest easily enough starting with her hands and then feet. She¡¯s wearing a white tank top and brown cargo pants on underneath. Her hair is tied up into a ponytail on the back of her head.


    After reaching down to get the boots off of her feet, Sophia gently floats up off the floor, released from her magnetic locking boots and looks up at Felix who was still towering over her. She asks him flatly, ¡°So is there any word from Keto yet?¡±


    Felix responds, ¡°No, but I assume we¡¯ll be getting our answer shortly.¡±


    Sophia scoffs, ¡°You¡¯d think with all this advanced travel technology we have, that we would have thought of a better way to transmit messages by now. You know the worst part about having an engineering career these days?¡±


    Felix smiles, ¡°No I don¡¯t. Please, entertain me.¡±


    Sophia cracks a smile, ¡°I have to take two showers. One for the radiation, and one for the smell. It always has to do with heat, cold, radiation, or toxic gases. No matter where I go, I¡¯m always drenched with some kind of fluid. If it weren¡¯t for the amazing hazard pay, I¡¯d be taking my paycheck to a nice beach somewhere out on¡­¡±


    Sophia is cut off when the radio crackles to life, ¡°Shipping cruiser Zealot, this is Launch Central of Keto. You are cleared for landing on runway three. After landing, please wait while we get your ship moved into one of the hangers to be retrofitted with launch boosters. We have a massive superstorm inbound and may have to scrub the scheduled shipment launch due to high winds. We¡¯ll be monitoring the storm and keep you informed of any changes.¡±


    Felix leaves Sophia floating slightly above the floor of the bridge while he walks over to his chair, his own mag boots clicking as they lock onto the metal hull. Sitting down and swiveling the chair back towards the controls, Felix clicks on the microphone for the radio, ¡°Keto, this is Zealot. We understand the problem with the storm. In fact, we¡¯re in desperate need of repairs anyways. Our fuel cell is starting to overheat. We¡¯ll need a replacement fuel cell. It seems we also had some radiation shielding in the engine room fail. We¡¯ll need to have the shielding inspected and repaired before lift-off. Can you also do me one more favor? Tell Vikta Sullivan that I¡¯d love to see him and the boy tomorrow at Launch Central.¡±


    Felix clicks off the radio and turns in his chair to see Sophia already grabbing for the floor and pushing herself effortlessly towards the bulkhead door. ¡°Headed off to the shower, eh?¡± he asks with a hearty smirk.


    Sophia cheerily laughs, ¡°That and a nap. Wake me when we get there.¡± The bridge hatch clangs shut, and metal crunches as she turns the metal locking mechanism for the bulkhead.


    Felix turns back towards the controls and relaxes in his chair as the Zealot drifts towards Keto. A gorgeous view of a blue, brown, and green planet, not unlike Earth. The only difference was the mass of clouds forming a colossal hurricane. Watching both the planet and hurricane carefully, Felix notices something odd with the formation of clouds.


    Blinking once as his eyes change back to that of a reptilian¡¯s, Felix thinks to himself, ¡°Do you see this Dusty? Those discharges from the top of those clouds are unlike anything I¡¯ve ever seen before.¡±


    Dusty¡¯s voice resounds from within Felix¡¯s mind as he stares intently at the planet, ¡°Yes and it isn¡¯t good news at all. Anything flying over those clouds is going to drop out of the sky like a stone. I would not recommend flying the shipping cruiser over that hurricane. It¡¯s amazing that we can even see the lightning sprites from this far off. From what I can ascertain, those tendrils of lightning are reaching hundreds of kilometers into the outer magnetosphere. The clouds are producing probably the most electrically charged superstorm I¡¯ve ever seen. Not even gas planets produce lightning that powerful. We must get to the planet before the storm reaches Launch Central. Otherwise¡­ we¡¯ll be a vulnerable lightning rod in orbit.¡±

 Chapter 4: Launch Central

    ¡°Echo, wake up. We¡¯re almost there.¡± Vikta shakes Echo¡¯s shoulder in the chair next to him.


    Echo wakes with a yawn and stretches across the back of his chair inside the train engine cabin. As he sits back down, Echo sleepily looks over at Vikta and says, ¡°Must be nice to drive the train all the time. That sure was relaxing this morning.¡±


    Vikta smiles as he looks over at Echo, ¡°It is nice. It¡¯s the best time to think alone and daydream. I¡¯ve come up with some pretty good stories in my head as I sit here. Do you want to hear one?¡±


    Echo sits back in his chair as he looks out the front window, ¡°Sure, why not. I don¡¯t see the launch tower yet, you big liar. We¡¯re nowhere near Launch Central. You just don¡¯t like it when I sleep on the job.¡±


    Vikta chuckles, ¡°Exactly right, boy. It¡¯s a work day after all, and we¡¯re on our way to see Felix too. Now if my memory serves me right, I just may be able to do this story some justice.¡±


    Echo scoffs, ¡°Your memory could use some justice.¡±


    Vikta lets loose a hearty laugh before he asks, ¡°Alright then, smartass, what about a true story then? One in which your father fought in the Quadrant Blitz and clashed with a hundred muscular reptilian Skeras?¡±


    Echo¡¯s eyes opened wide as he turned his head to ask, ¡°You never talk about the war, dad. Why now?¡±


    Vikta¡¯s breath choked up in his throat. He clenched the armrests of his chair and the leather squealed under his enormous strength as he said, ¡°You¡¯re right.¡±


    Vikta hung his head and let out a choked breath before he continued, ¡°It¡¯s a dark past that I really don¡¯t want to visit ever again. It¡¯s no use digging up a past that has every intention to remain buried. Look kiddo¡­ War is a terrible thing. Filled full of innocent lives fighting for any number of reasons. War can be worse than that of hell.¡±


    Echo¡¯s eyebrows furrowed as he watched his father break down in front of him after asking, ¡°How is war worse than hell?¡±


    Vikta let go of the armrests as he folded his hands together in his lap, squeezing them together so tightly that his knuckles turned white. As he nervously clutched his hands together a few of his knuckles cracked loudly in the quiet train cabin. The electric train chugged silently along as he spoke with soft words. He remained still as he stared down at his hands, and each sentence seems to cut deep into him emotionally, ¡°Everyone, except for maybe the war generals and the leaders of civilizations, seems innocent enough, up until the point that they¡¯re forced to do something horrible. Soldiers do the bidding of their commanders because that is their duty. If they fail, then they lose more than just their life. They lose what they love most and hold dearest to them. A soldier¡¯s duty is to that of their home and their family. A soldier¡¯s duty forces them to sacrifice their livelihood and sanity for the sake of others. Unfortunately, that obligation also forces them to do unspeakable things, and some get comfortable with their wrong choices over time. Women and children of all races and species are caught in the crossfire of those taking care of their personal and military duties. It¡¯s also the reason why I left the Imperial Military shortly after the Quadrant Blitz. It¡¯s just¡­ The things I¡¯ve seen and done. They¡¯re too difficult to talk about. I¡¯m not sure that you would ever understand what I did¡­ What I had to do.¡±


    Echo sighed as he sat back in the seat, placed one hand on his cheek and rested as he stared out the window towards the storm. They both sat in silence as the train headed for its destination. The storm was looming larger than ever, and light particles of misty rain could be seen on the windshield.


    Echo turned back towards his father, pointed at the window, and quickly said, ¡°It¡¯s already raining. Are we too late?¡±


    Vikta snapped out of his stupor and craned his neck to look past Echo at the storm, ¡°No. We¡¯re just getting some light rain from the outer bands. The storm doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯ll be here until after we leave Launch Central. We might be getting back home just as soon as it starts to get bad.¡±


    Vikta looks forward out the windshield as he continues talking, ¡°We¡¯ll have to focus on delivering the shipment and heading back home with haste. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll have much time to talk to Felix, if at all. I can see the launch tower now, but I don¡¯t see Felix¡¯s ship. He must¡¯ve not landed yet.¡±


    Echo gazed out the train¡¯s windshield searching for Felix¡¯s ship on the horizon against the view of the enormous launch tower. The launch tower was an elongated inward curved spire that crested at a singular point. Its rounded spire design was engineered to withstand the harsh winds of the rocket engines during launch and that of the planet¡¯s immense storms. Out of four different sides, the ground outside of the tower was separated into four different launch pads by support beams that were also curved inwards with a similar design to that of the tower. Sitting atop two of the launch pads were two enormous shipping cruisers. Both ships had four launch booster rockets attached to each corner of the plus-shaped design of the ships.


    Echo turned to his father and said, ¡°I don¡¯t see it, either. Speaking of which, the shipping cruisers always look the same.¡±


    Vikta chuckled, ¡°No they don¡¯t, and that¡¯s probably because you¡¯ve never seen Felix¡¯s ship before. He really went out of his way to be different. It¡¯s got big white letters plastered across the side saying, ¡®The Zealot¡¯. It¡¯s a bit presumptuous, but he loves his ship. He¡¯s been piloting it for a long time now. His ship has taken quite a beating over the years though. That box of bolts and radiation isn¡¯t what it once was. We¡¯re coming into the station now. Echo, go to the back and get ready to detach the containers.¡±


    Echo swiftly got up from his seat and proceeded to leave the train cabin out the back door and along the side walkway on the train engine. He continued walking towards the back of the train while grasping a thick yellow railing attached to the side. The rain particles whipping him across the back made him slightly wet, but not drenched. He would dry off soon enough.


    As he reached the back of the train engine, Echo could see the plains of crops finally end, and small townhouses started to pop up in his peripheral vision as he focused on his job. The little wooden houses were shortly replaced by concrete work centers as they neared the station. Echo was unable to make out the features of any of the buildings because of the rapid speed of the train.


    Grasping tightly onto the railing, Echo patiently waited as the train made its way into the station. The train passed various concrete buildings before finally entering a tunnel. The rails started to angle downwards, and the train dipped below ground for about a couple of meters before leveling out again. Echo was shrouded in darkness and wind for a few moments before emerging into a brightly lit room that was large enough to fit a small city inside. Small electric carts and people bustled about all over the place. Some were waiting for the train that Echo and Vikta were riding upon to pass by so that they could go about their responsibilities once again.


    The train slowed to a crawl as it reached the center of the large circular room. The railway ended at a circular moving platform with one rail upon it. The platform was surrounded by eight other rails going out toward eight different cardinal directions resembling a spider web made of steel. Each rail that had spread out from the center leads to eight different tunnels. The platform was currently rotating to fit the railway aboard it neatly against the rails that Vikta¡¯s train was traveling upon. Once they reached the platform, the train went slightly past and onto the opposing rail. The train finally stopped when the first shipment container behind it rested on the rotating platform.


    Vikta stuck his head out of the doorway to yell in Echo¡¯s direction, ¡°Alright, disconnect the containers. I got a notice on the radio that Felix is coming in for a landing now. The workers will take care of the rest of the heavy lifting for us. Come on and hurry up if you don¡¯t want to miss the landing.¡±


    Echo reached down to a space between the train engine and the carts behind it and pulled a single pin out before jumping down to the station floor to join his father. They strode over to the nearest wall of the room, which took more time than one would expect. The room was massive, covering about a kilometer of flooring in diameter. The thick white tiles of the train station floor contrasted heavily against the rusting metal of the railways. The overhead fluorescent lights added to the white buzz of the reflective flooring. The bright sight was almost painful to stare at.


    On their way to the wall, the duo stepped over a few railways and past a couple of workers in hardhats on their way to go collect the new shipment. As they approached a wall on one side of the room, a silvery elevator door could be seen in stark contrast against the white wall. The elevator door opens as they approached and out flooded various people in business suits and construction gear.


    Echo was nearly knocked over by a businessman in a black suit who looked as if he was in a rush to get somewhere. ¡°Ow, watch where you¡¯re walking!¡± Growled Echo as he was nearly knocked to the floor when the businessman¡¯s shoulder bumped against his. Turning in surprise at the man in a rush, Echo noticed something peculiar about him.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    The man wore an all-black suit and slacks with a fedora upon his head. Lining the outside of the slick black fedora was a thin metallic band. Underneath his hat, the businessman was bald. Apparently taken by surprise by bumping into Echo and being yelled at, the bald man also turned to face Echo while only about a meter away. They were practically staring each other down, face to face, in silence.


    ¡°What the hell!?¡± Echo yelped.


    The man had no eyebrows, no beard, and his eyes were wholly inhuman. Deep blues and purples shifted across his eyes in smoky clouds of dust that seemed to envelop everything. The only white showing through were sparkles of light that resembled thousands of stars deep in space. Echo¡¯s jaw began to gape open as he stared directly into the bald man''s eyes. The starry eyes of the man lured Echo¡¯s to stare even deeper into them. Echo had been utterly stunned and was now unable to look away. The bald man stood there unblinking for what felt like an eternity as engineers and corporate workers bustled about around them. None of the workers bothered paying any attention to the two men just standing there in silence by the elevators. The eyes of the various employees seemed to glaze over them as they walked by but did not seem to notice anything odd.


    Echo and the bald businessman both finally blinked once, and then the businessman glanced up at Vikta who was still paying attention to the multitudes of people walking out of the elevator. Panic quickly spread across the odd businessman''s face. Blinking multiple times in rapid succession, the man¡¯s eyes changed into a standard human form with light green eyes. Turning quickly and sprinting away from Echo, the man hurriedly disappeared into the crowd. Echo did not bother to chase him but just stood there with his mouth gaping open.


    ¡°Echo. Echo, come on. The elevator door is going to close.¡± Vikta grabbed Echo¡¯s arm and nearly dragged him to the elevator.


    Echo turned to face his father as they stepped into the elevator together which was now packed full of people again. Echo still had a perplexed expression on his face as he asked his dad, ¡°Did you see that odd man in the black business suit come out of the elevator with those really freaky eyes?¡±


    Vikta just turns, glares at Echo, and then looks back up at the inside of the elevator door, ¡°No, and that isn¡¯t something you should run around saying anyways. It¡¯s quite judgmental and ignorant of other people¡¯s feelings. I just saw a bunch of workers come out. Nothing weird. We¡¯re arriving at our floor anyways. Come on.¡±


    As the elevator doors open once again, Vikta and Echo make their way out past the people crammed into the elevator and into a long circular hallway lined with windows. The corridors reached out to the left and right and curved away from them. Vikta takes a left and Echo follows. As they continue walking down the hallway, Vikta says, ¡°We¡¯re up near the top of the launch tower. You should be able to get the best view of Felix¡¯s landing from up here.¡±


    Echo turned his head to stare out the windows as they walked in silence down the long-curved hallway. A misty rain fell from the sky and lightly coated the windows. Out the window, he could see one of the ships in extremely close detail that was upright and ready for launch. They were high enough up on the tower to be looking down at the ship slightly, and it was absolutely massive in scale. Sitting upright, the ship was about 120 meters tall. The four launch boosters strapped next to it were each 90 meters tall. Bulky, but capable, this rocket combination could launch nearly any shipment that could fit within the shipping cruiser from just about any terrestrial planet.


    Vikta and Echo stopped walking when they reached a set of doors that were set into the inner wall of the hallway. Vikta called back towards Echo as he pulled out a keycard and pressed it gently up next to a tiny black box near the doors, ¡°Stay here. I¡¯ll go ask when Felix is landing.¡±


    Echo continued to gaze out the window for a few moments at the approaching storm. There was an overcast of clouds, so it was unlikely that he would be able to see Felix¡¯s atmospheric entry above the clouds. As he was patiently waiting for his father to return, a booming sound smashed into the building, shaking the frames and floors. Echo could feel the boom in his chest and beneath his feet as he stood there. He could hear random items throughout the building shake and shiver from the boom. Pressing his hands firmly against the windows, Echo looked in every direction for the source of the sound. No fire or smoke was to be seen anywhere in the buildings below. All was quiet below and the workers bustled about without running. The rain peacefully ran down the windows and created small vertical rivers as they collided with other drops of water on the window. Echo could feel the cold from the window seeping into his palms as watched for any sign of where the sound originated.


    Vikta exited out the set of doors behind Echo with a short, portly looking man with balding hair and a big grin plastered across his face. He wore a bright white collared shirt with an emblazoned company logo titled, ¡®Takeda Inc.¡¯ on his sleeves.


    The stocky man walked up to Echo and said, ¡°It¡¯s nice to see you again, Echo. You¡¯ve grown up quite a bit.¡±


    Echo turned and gave him a hefty handshake, ¡°Heya, boss.¡±


    The plump man chuckled, ¡°Call me Jacob.¡±


    Jacob returns Echo¡¯s handshake with a robust grip as he continues talking, ¡±I¡¯m not actually the boss, and you know that already. The Takeda¡¯s are the ones who call the shots around here. I¡¯m just the messenger. Anyways, that sonic boom you just felt should be the best indication that your uncle is about to arrive any moment.¡±


    The three of them keenly gawked at the clouds above the tower. Each of them patiently waiting for something different. Jacob was waiting to get his next shipment off the ground. Echo wanted to see his uncle. Vikta was after something that he had thought was lost long ago.


    The Zealot burst out through the bottom of the clouds with a swirl of misty rain in its wake. The bold white letters on the side were immediately recognizable in contrast to the other ships on the ground which had nothing like that on them. Each one had a simple serial number near the back of the ship with the cruiser''s ID number painted on in small letters and numbers. The plus-shaped design of the ship had wings that had already been extended from the sides for atmospheric flight and would usually be retracted when in space. It also has several landing wheels which were currently protracted downwards out of the bottom of the ship¡¯s underbelly. This ship circled the launch tower twice before touching down neatly on a runway near the base of the tower.


    Echo turned to run down the hallway, but Jacob stopped him by putting a hand up, ¡°Stop right there. You¡¯ll probably want to see this, and Felix will be heading up here soon enough. I don¡¯t really want you wandering on your own around here anyways. Too much sensitive equipment and you¡¯re not even qualified to be in here. You¡¯re likely to get hurt if you end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The next shipment is about to launch. Watch that rocket over there.¡±


    Jacob pointed out a rocket on one of the launch platforms. A few moments after Jacob put his hands down to rest by his side, the building started to rumble once more. A siren wailed from around them as the building began to shake even more violently. An intercom clicked on, and an unemotional voice came through the loudspeakers, ¡°Launch in thirty seconds on platform two. Please remain indoors. I repeat. Please remain indoors as the launch is taking place. Launch in approximately twenty seconds¡­¡±


    A heavy stream of water flows down the tower from the top, shrouding their view of the ship that was about to lift off. Jacob attempts shouting over the intercom, "This water deluge will protect the building from any damage that the rocket engines might cause. It will also keep us from getting fried to a crisp from the heat". In reaction to his view being shrouded by the stream of water flowing down the building, Echo presses his face up against the glass to attempt to see through the thick current of water.


    The intercom clicks off as the rumble gets boisterous and the building trembles violently. White smoke can be seen billowing up around the shipping cruiser. The siren is now piercing as the unemotional voice returns over the intercom and begins counting down, ¡°10¡­ 9¡­ 8¡­ 7¡­ 6¡­ 5¡­ 4¡­ 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Shipping cruiser Vex is cleared for take-off. I repeat. Vex is cleared for take-off.¡±


    As the intercom clicks off with a loud buzz and the siren continues to howl, the launch tower began to shake so violently, that it felt as if the entire building was going to rip itself apart. The roar of the four rocket engines nearly drowns out the sound of the siren. The smoke outside billowed upwards and shrouded the shipping cruiser in a white fog of rocket fuel exhaust. The ship¡¯s features were barely visible through the thick smoke as it began to ascend. Slowly the ship rose into the air, and the light from the booster engines burned brightly as they lifted the heavy load off of the launch platform. The three men watching the spectacle had to shield their eyes as the ship started to pick up the pace, and the bottom of the engines reached eye level with them. At this point, the building now shook so violently, that it felt as if it was going to shatter under the enormous pressure of the rocket engines.


    As the ship reached the clouds and disappeared into the murky mist of the overcast, the siren clicked off, and Jacob turned to Vikta with a delighted expression. Putting out one hand, palm up, Jacob pointed down the hallway. Jacob addressed the two men, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind gentlemen, can you please wait in the mess hall downstairs. I¡¯ll be sure to send Felix your way as soon as I¡¯m done speaking with him. It looks as if they are going to taxi his ship off the runway and into one of the hangers.¡± Jacob pulled a keycard out of a pocket on his slacks and opened the door of the control center, disappearing inside.


    Vikta patted Echo on the shoulder as they walked back towards the direction of the elevator, ¡°I¡¯m glad you got to see a good launch before we left. I¡¯m surprised that they are still launching ships with the storm so close.¡±


    Echo¡¯s heart was beating rapidly in his chest, and he could still remember the feeling of the building shaking to its very core as the shipping cruiser had launched into space. He turned his head to Vikta as they walked and excitedly stated, ¡°That was amazing. I¡¯ve been here on the planet all this time, and you¡¯ve never shown me that!?¡±


    Vikta gives a light chuckle as he responds, ¡°It¡¯s not often that I get to bring you here. What¡¯s more is that you were either too young or too busy for me to bring you along. I had to make sure you got your education while I was working.¡±


    Echo sighed, ¡°Yeah, I know...B-but that was still one of the coolest things I¡¯ve ever seen! A real launch is nothing like what it looks like in books or on the Infonet. The power of those rocket engines is incredible.¡±


    Echo and Vikta continued talking excitedly about the launch as they made their way to the mess hall downstairs. After seeing the launch, Echo had forgotten the strange man he had seen at the train station and continued to babble on about the rocket engines and their functions. The young man had apparently done his homework. Vikta silently listened as his son started to ramble on about rocket engineering and wondered what news Felix had for him. Bad news or good news, it did not matter. Vikta was unsure if he would enjoy hearing the results of Felix''s travels.

 Chapter 5: Family Reunion

    ¡°How¡¯s the sandwich?¡± Asked Vikta, rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand.


    Echo responded with a mouthful of food, ¡°Uhm... Yeah, it¡¯s great. This baked bread is incredible.¡±


    Vikta gives a toothy smile as he points at Echo, ¡°It should be. That bread is made from freshly harvested wheat. It is probably from one of the other farms on the planet, seeing as how I haven¡¯t been here for a couple of days.¡±


    The two of them were sitting together at a table in a large circular room. The room occupied the width of the tower, and the open interior of the room was surrounded by floor to ceiling windows on every side except for where there was an elevator. In the middle of the room was a kitchen with a full staff of chefs that would cook up just about any meal you could think of, within reason of course. The sounds of metallic electric grills and ovens could be heard hissing in the background. There was a large number of people going about their break time who were holding conversations all on their own. The sounds of laughter could be heard throughout the room. Even with the looming storm out to one side of the building, the atmosphere within the mess hall was one of positive cheer and love. Everyone here was seeming to be enjoying their breaks from work or time with family just like they were doing now.


    Echo continued to chew his food in silence while Vikta was staring at the elevators behind his son. For quite some time, Vikta lets Echo eat in silence as the two of them waited for Felix. Echo was enjoying his meal and happily chewing away on another piece of his sandwich when he notices Vikta get an extremely sly look on his face. The large man starts to giggle and hold one hand up to his mouth as he squeezes his eyes shut. Vikta is trying his hardest not to laugh.


    Bewildered, Echo mumbles through a mouthful of food, ¡°What¡¯s so funny? Do I have some on my face?¡±


    As Echo finishes his sentence, a muscular hand reaches around his peripheral vision and grabs the back of Echo¡¯s hand. Shoving hard, the muscular hand smushes the half-eaten sandwich into Echo¡¯s face, smearing the contents all over him before it fell onto the table. Echo reels and flinches as the sandwich smashes into his face letting out a garbled, ¡°NOT AGAIN!¡± Echo sits in silence with his eyes tightly shut, and his mouth was wrinkled in a frown. Echo reaches up with his hands to wipe away the oily sandwich contents from his eyes.


    ¡°You do now, kiddo!¡± A hearty laugh and choke from a big black-haired grizzly looking man reverberates from behind Echo. ¡°Ohhh, I just couldn¡¯t resist. You were too vulnerable.¡± Wiping tears from his own eyes and still laughing quite a bit, the big man gives Echo a hefty pat on the back that almost knocks him forward into the demolished sandwich on the table. As Felix sits down next to Echo, he reaches over to a spot in the center of the table to pluck out a couple of napkins from a small box.


    Shoving the napkins into Echo¡¯s hands, Felix then says, ¡°Here, boy. Clean yourself up. You¡¯re too damn easy to sneak up on.¡±


    Echo growls, ¡°I¡¯m not a boy anymore, Uncle Felix. Daaaad! You said you were going to warn me next time!¡±


    Felix scoffs at the young man while poking him in the shoulder, ¡°Not a boy anymore? You think you¡¯re a man now?¡±


    Felix turns his head to Vikta as he exclaims, ¡°Is he old enough to drink?¡± Vikta nods his head as Felix yells out and holds up three fingers in the air, ¡°Chef! Three shots of whiskey, please!¡±


    The chef on duty in the kitchen points with a knife and yells out, ¡°I¡¯m not a fucking butler! Go to the counter to order alcohol!¡±


    Vikta howls with laughter as Felix gets up with a few grumbles to go collect his liquor. In between choked laughs and while wagging a finger at Echo, Vikta says, ¡°As it turns out¡­ I may have fibbed a bit. It¡¯s much funnier when he gets the best of ya.¡±


    Echo continued to clean himself with a grumpy frown and growls. The laughter starts to subside as Felix sat down again, placed a shot of whiskey in front of each of the three of them and they all relaxed back in their chairs. Vikta places his hands on the table, folding them together, and his expression rapidly turned serious.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    With a long breath and a low tone, Vikta asks, ¡°I assume that you found what we were looking for? You know what would happen if they found it, right?¡±


    Echo asked through a mountain of napkins against his face, ¡°What were you looking for?¡±


    Vikta quickly snaps at the young man in a loud whisper, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, Echo. Just some old family relics.¡±


    Felix¡¯s expression also got serious as he glanced over at Echo, who was still busying himself with cleaning up the sandwich mess in front of him. Felix shook his head and just says, ¡°No. No, I haven¡¯t found any of them, yet.¡±


    Vikta sighed and hung his head, ¡°Dammit. What do we do now, Felix? We need those relics if we¡¯re ever going to get off this planet.¡±


    Felix reached over and patted Vikta¡¯s folded hands, ¡°You wait. It¡¯s all you can do for now. Just wait. I¡¯ll find them¡­ Eventually.¡± Felix relaxes back in his seat and starts adjusting his clothing. While fixing his clothes, Felix continues talking about a different subject, ¡°How¡¯s my sister doing?¡±


    Vikta lifts his head and smiles, ¡°She¡¯s doing better than ever. It¡¯s peaceful out there, as always. Also, you look ridiculous in that tiny brown uniform. Doesn¡¯t it hurt to wear that piece of shit?¡±


    Felix begins to stand as he says, ¡°I can never find clothes in my size and on top of that, this is the biggest size they manufacture for delivery uniforms. It¡¯s terrible, but we have regulations for a reason. I¡¯ll give you a call over the radio after the storm passes. I¡¯m grounded until after the storm is completely gone and the other cruiser launches first. No more launches today. We are already way behind schedule, and this storm isn¡¯t helping. They should be taking down the other cruiser soon for storage. No way it will stand up against the wind from that storm.¡±


    Echo looks up at Felix and asks, ¡°Why is that?¡±


    Felix chuckles, ¡°For one thing, the wind shear in the upper atmosphere is pushing the air so hard in different directions, that the ship would go too far off course if it launched. Down here near the surface, the winds will toss a big ship like that right over onto the ground. There¡¯s also the problem of it being an electrical storm which can mess with our sensitive equipment on-board. Lightning usually isn¡¯t a problem, but that storm is pushing out so much voltage, that there¡¯s no way we could pass through the clouds unscathed. We also need to replace a fuel cell and several radiation plates. My ship took a beating going through the Osiris wormhole. I¡¯ll need to get going now. I have to head back to the hanger to monitor the repairs and the fitting for the rocket boosters.¡±


    Vikta gives out a sigh before he says, ¡°I¡¯m surprised you forgot your whiskey.¡±


    Felix blinks and looks down at the three shots of whiskey on the table which were still full. Felix smiles and says, ¡°It¡¯s a good thing too. I don¡¯t drink very much anymore. The boss doesn¡¯t like the pilots drinking and flying. Like I said... I¡¯m grounded until the storm passes, so it doesn¡¯t matter anyways. This is some quality whiskey too. It would be a shame to waste it.¡±


    Felix gives a delighted wink to the two of them and chuckles again. Echo, who had just finished cleaning himself looked over his shoulder at Felix before saying, ¡°You¡¯re going already? You just got here! Why not stay and have a meal with us?¡±


    Felix smiled and placed a hand on Echo¡¯s shoulder as he looms over the young man and picks up his glass of whiskey. Vikta and Echo also picked up their drinks before Felix responded, ¡°I can¡¯t, and that¡¯s because we all have our responsibilities to take care of. Like I said, I¡¯ll call you later over the radio when the storm clears.¡±


    Felix raises his shot glass high into the air and lets out a hearty toast, ¡°To extraordinary adventures! May our dreams continue to guide us!¡±


    All three of them downed their shots of whiskey in a single gulp. Vikta and Felix grimaced and shook their heads at the sharp taste of caramel, toasted oak, and a high alcohol volume. Echo coughed and choked on his own whiskey, nearly spitting it out before gulping it down. Felix patted Echo on the back as the young man coughed before placing his emptied glass face down on the table.


    Felix called out over his shoulder and waved a hand in the air as he walked away, ¡°I¡¯ll be in touch. See ya later!¡±


    As Echo turned back around in his seat to face his dad, he said, ¡°So when will we be leaving?¡±


    Vikta eyed Echo for a few moments before placing down his own whiskey glass and saying, ¡°I think now would probably be a good time. I¡¯ve been watching that storm outside the window.¡±


    Vikta points out the window before continuing, ¡°And it¡¯s threatening to rip us apart if we don¡¯t hurry back home. The rain is already starting to pick up the pace. Come on... Let¡¯s get moving.¡±


    Echo and Vikta got up from their chairs and swiftly made their way over to an elevator, leaving behind a mess of napkins and a destroyed sandwich on the table. As the elevator dings and the doors slide open, Echo lets out a hefty burp in the faces of some workers which sends Vikta reeling in laughter once more.

 Chapter 6: No Answer

    As the elevator doors open and the two men make their way over to the train across the blindingly white floor, Vikta turns his head to Echo and says, ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve enjoyed yourself, but we need to get home before the worst part of the storm gets in our way. If the wind picks up to hurricane force winds and hits the train at the wrong angle, it could end up derailing us since we are driving with no load in the containers. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem if the containers were weighted down with crops.¡±


    Echo and Vikta stroll over to the train and climb up into the cabin. They both take their seats next to each other and Vikta gets to work turning on the train engine. As Vikta gets up from his chair, he says, ¡°Hang tight for a minute. I¡¯m going to go make sure the rear facing camera and the new empty containers are properly secured before we take off.¡±


    For a few moments, Echo is left alone in the quiet train cabin as Vikta is checking the connections between the train carts. When Vikta returns, he hastily flips on the radio as he sits down. Reaching down to click on the microphone, Vikta says, ¡°Tower, this is Vikta here in the train station. We¡¯re good to go. Would you mind opening the door for us?¡±


    The radio crackles for a few moments before Jacob¡¯s voice comes through, ¡°The way is clear. We¡¯ll have to lock the door behind you due to the storm. See you later, Vikta.¡±


    Vikta gives Echo a quick wink and a smile before pulling back on the acceleration handle, sending the train into reverse to head directly back to the farm. The train is now traveling in reverse with eight empty shipment containers, ready to be filled full of new crops.


    Once the train had exited the station through the tunnel and reached ground level once again, a massive steel blast door could be seen closing over the entrance to the station. This blast shield was intended to be used during launches or when there was an attack. However, these blast doors also worked well in protecting against the raging storms of Keto. Since the two of them had arrived, the wind and rain had gotten much worse. The wind was whipping the crops back and forth as the rains saturated the soil, turning it into the kind of sloshy mud that sticks to everything. The clouds had completely blocked out the sun, making it almost impossible to see through the dark downpour of heavy rain.


    Upon exiting Launch Central, Vikta reached down to a spot near the acceleration handle and flipped a small switch. Bright fog lights illuminated everything around the train. Flipping another switch, a monitor turned on in the cabin on the back wall. Vikta looked over at Echo and said, ¡°Keep an eye on where we¡¯re going. I don¡¯t want to hit anything that might be crossing the tracks, especially a harvester. It would be horrible to derail in the middle of a hurricane and have to walk back in the darkness.¡±A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Echo got up from his chair and walked over to the back wall. He was looking at a camera feed of everything behind the train. From Echo¡¯s perspective on the monitor, they were going forward. The view on the small screen indicated that the camera had been attached to the container at the back of the train.


    As Echo stood in silence, watching the small screen, Vikta picks up the radio once more but switches it to a new channel. Speaking with a cheery voice, Vikta says, ¡°Hey, hun. You there?¡±


    Vikta clicks the microphone on once more after waiting through a few moments of silence, ¡°Hey Andrea? Are you near a radio?¡±


    The radio is silent, and nothing happens.


    No answer. Just static.


    The rain begins to whip violently against the windshield as the silence increases in weight. Flashes of lightning temporarily bathed the interior of the train in the bright blue light from the overhead clouds releasing their powerful strikes of electricity. Vikta¡¯s face twitches and a worried expression spreads across his face as the wait becomes increasingly unbearable.


    Vikta yells out, ¡°Andrea!? Is everything alright at home!?¡±


    Andrea finally responds with a bothered sigh, ¡°Yes, yes. I¡¯m busy if you don¡¯t mind. How¡¯d it go at Launch Central? Did you two get to see Felix?¡±


    Vikta smiles and lets out a sigh of relief, ¡°It went fine. Felix is also doing great. His ship apparently took a beating going through the Osiris wormhole though. We¡¯ve finished up here, and now we¡¯re on our way back.¡±


    Andrea scoffs, ¡°Felix should think about getting another ship. That damn rust box that my brother holds onto so tightly is going to get him killed one of these days.¡±


    Vikta nearly chokes on a laugh, ¡°That¡¯ll never happen. What¡¯s going on with the storm sensors? Anything new?¡±


    Andrea¡¯s side of the radio signal goes silent for a few moments again before she responds, ¡°It¡¯s not looking good. The storm is already showing a high frequency of hail and the potential for tornados. You need to get back here as soon as possible. We¡¯re going to get hit head-on by the eye wall of the hurricane¡­ Please be safe out there Vikta. I love you.¡±


    Vikta nods his head, ¡°I love you too, sweetie. Just stay in the house until we get there. It¡¯s dangerous outside.¡± Vikta let¡¯s go of the microphone button before turning to Echo and asking, ¡°How¡¯s it going back there? See anything yet?¡±


    Echo gives a sly smile as he sarcastically answers, ¡°Yep, a lot of rain, wind, and train tracks.¡±


    Vikta chuckles, ¡°Alright, smartass... Let¡¯s get these containers back home.¡±

 Chapter 7: Shelter From The Storm

    Inside the Sullivan farmhouse, near the dining room, is a door that leads to the basement. Its old rickety wooden staircase had never been replaced since the house was built. Splinters and halfway rusted nails stuck out from the bottom, but the staircase still holds strong. However, underneath the basement staircase was another door. This hatch was set into the concrete floor of the basement and was made of thick titanium.


    A single lock on the hatch was currently unlatched. The door was open and propped up against the wall. Through this metal hatch in the ground is a small concrete-lined hole. On one side of the hole is a ladder that leads down for a few meters and the interior opens up into an underground bunker-style storm shelter. A long hallway leads away from the ladder and deeper into the shelter. Simple in design, the bunker was a singular hallway with multiple doors set into both walls and one at the end of the hallway.


    The doors on the walls of the corridor were of simple wood design and shut tightly closed. The door at the end of the hallway was made of layers of steel and copper mesh. This door was even thicker than that of the metal hatch at the top of the ladder. There was no viewport on the door, and there was no need for one. A small domed camera sat in the corner at the end of the hallway above the metal door. The corridor was dark and silent except for the door at the end of the hallway. The bulky steel door was partly open, and a dim blue light was pouring out onto the concrete floor of the corridor.


    Inside the well-protected room sat Andrea, who was currently reclining in her chair and watching old documentaries on the ancient species and cultures of Andromeda. From the speakers near the display, it almost sounded as though a human was speaking, but the words were from an unrecognizable language. Large captions filled in the bottom of the screen as she watched. Andrea¡¯s feet were propped up on the desk that was holding up the display screen. She looked quite comfortable wearing her loose blue jeans and a warm hooded jacket with the hood fit snuggly around her head.


    For a long time, Andrea just sat there in her chair, happily enjoying her documentary. The interior of the room was not very large, as it had just enough room for the door to fully open, with a small desk set against the back wall. The room was not currently lit up by anything other than the monitors, but there was a small electric light set into the concrete ceiling. It seems that this room had been built with the intention of being a panic room that could monitor the rest of the farm.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    On the desk, next to the display that Andrea was watching, were a few monitors. One had a colorized radar showing the storm overhead. On this storm monitor, was a massive blotch of red to one side and the rest was covered in green. Small dots of white popped up periodically on the monitor, possibly showing the locations of recent lightning strikes. On another monitor was a camera feed of the entire farm. It showed the interior of the bunker and the three metal buildings behind the farm. On a shelf above the monitors was a small radio box with simple buttons and knobs on it, and a small electric lantern. The radio was belting out static at a nearly imperceptible volume. The sounds of the documentary effortlessly drowned out the static of the radio.


    As Andrea was watching her show, she noticed movement on one of the camera feeds. Andrea swiftly moved her feet from the table and planted them firmly on the ground as she leaned forward to get a better look. The massive metal door for the train storage building, which protected the train tracks, was currently sliding open. When the door reached its full width, the back of the train could be seen gliding along the tracks to rest inside the building. The lights inside the building came on automatically and as the train finished moving, the bulky metal door slowly bolted shut in front of the train¡¯s cabin.


    Andrea watched as Vikta and Echo clambered down from the train and strode over to the door where the camera was placed. Andrea pressed a small button on the radio and said, ¡°Be careful when you leave the building. I¡¯m reading multiple lightning strikes every second around us. You need to run to the house when you get outside.¡±


    Vikta holds up a hand to Echo and the young man waits in place as his father walks over to the amateur radio on the table inside. Andrea can see Vikta press a small button on the side of the radio before asking, ¡°Is it really that bad already? I figured we would at least have another hour before the worst part of the storm arrived.¡±


    Andrea sighed before saying, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s going to get worse, but it¡¯s already bad enough. Please be careful running to the house. I don¡¯t think we can get any medical assistance for some time if something bad happens to you.¡±


    Vikta looks over his shoulder at the camera before saying, ¡°We¡¯ll be alright. Echo, get to the house as fast as possible and...¡±


    Vikta lets go of the button on the radio and points over at Echo. On the camera feed, Andrea sees Echo walk over to the black box on the wall and set the security code. As the door to the train storage building swung open and the two men ran into the rain, Andrea hurriedly got up from her comfortable chair. Rushing out of the panic room, Andrea swings open the thick metal door with a hefty pull. As the door continued to swing open on oiled hinges, Andrea jogged down the corridor and quickly climbed up the ladder. In her rush to get up the ladder, the hood of her jacket fell off, and her long black hair flowed out from behind her.

 Chapter 8: The Tempest Outside

    As Echo runs up the front porch steps, soaked from head to toe in the torrential downpour, he turned his head to look back at his father. Vikta was still trudging through the thick mud to get to the front of the house. Echo turned back around and ran over to one of the rocking chairs on the porch. Shivering from the cold rain, Echo was now reaching down to undo the laces of his steel toe work boots which were currently plastered in mud.


    As Vikta finally came up the front porch steps and sits down next to Echo, the young man flings his muddy boots onto the floor, and with a heavy thud, mud splatters all over the wooden deck. Vikta proceeds to do the same thing as Andrea throws open the front door and peeks outside. Looking over to her left, Andrea notices the other two busying themselves with their boots and utterly soaked from the rain.


    Andrea yells out through the roaring storm, ¡°Come in now! It¡¯s not safe out here!¡±


    A few flashes of lightning illuminates all of them in bright blue, and a thunderous clap quickly follows. The clouds were all momentarily illuminated as the thunderous boom reached them. The wind roared, and the freezing rain was thrown sideways onto the porch, soaking everything and everyone. Vikta and Echo flew upwards from their seats and rushed for the door as the storm was pelting them, and they nearly shoved Andrea out of the way.


    Andrea stepped aside to let the two men in and slammed the front door closed behind them. She had gotten a bit too wet from the rain being pushed sideways by the wind and didn¡¯t look very happy about it. Vanishing down the hallway for a few moments, Andrea comes back quickly with a few towels in her arms. Handing one towel to Vikta and another to Echo, she asks, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you think about going down to the shelter soon?¡±


    The wind started to pick up and howl as Echo spoke up, ¡°Yeah, It¡¯s cold up here and I need a hot shower right about now.¡±


    Andrea pointed towards the dining room, ¡°It¡¯s warm downstairs, and I already brought your stuff down to your room in the shelter. Go ahead and get yourself cleaned up while you¡¯re down there Echo.¡±


    Echo strides over to the dining room and busies himself with drying off. Vikta and Andrea watched as Echo made his way over to the dining room door and jogged down the steps to the basement. The interior of the house was fortunately still brightly lit. The inside of their comfy home was warm and inviting in contrast to the cold dark of the storm outside.


    The wind howled and whistled through the cracks of the house. The windows shuddered from the pressure of the tempest whipping all around them. Every few moments, it seemed to get worse and worse until the wind wailed a high pitch that made the whole house groan. Vikta¡¯s expression got extremely worried as he stepped over to Andrea and hugged her tightly.


    Andrea coughed from the strong hug and laughed, ¡°Alright there, big bear. You can let me go now.¡±


    Vikta gives a small chuckle as he lets her go and plants a warm kiss right on her lips. They embrace again for a few moments before backing up, but still holding each other¡¯s hands as they spoke.


    Andrea takes a deep breath before asking, ¡°Since when did you become such a pussy?¡±


    Vikta¡¯s jaw drops and then his mouth curls up in a frown, ¡°Since I fell in love with you.¡±


    Andrea gives Vikta a big hug and a smile. The wind outside began to howl even louder now as the storm seemed to be reaching its peak. Every moment was filled with bright flashes of lightning and chaos. Vikta turned towards the dining room and attempted to lead Andrea but she tugged hard on his arms, and he stopped mid-step and turned his head to look at her inquisitively.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Andrea asks in a soft tone, ¡°I¡­ I want you to stay up here with me for a bit longer. Please. It reminds me of the night we had little Echo¡­ That night when you had to¡­¡±


    Vikta grasps her hands tightly and shakes his head. He bites his bottom lip and a single tear rolls down his face as he steps in close to her, his hands bringing hers up to his chest. By the time they were close enough to kiss, they both had tears in their eyes. They did not speak, they just stood there, crying in each other''s arms. A memory that was too painful to speak of for the both of them.


    Andrea sobs ever so slightly before speaking up, ¡°Please¡­ I don¡¯t want to go through that again. Felix needs to find our crystals, or we¡¯ll never get off this planet.¡±


    BOOM... BOOM¡­ BOOM¡­


    Andrea and Vikta gasp and jump up in fright as they turn towards the sound of the three heavy knocks ringing out from the front door. The wooden floorboards of the front porch groan under the enormous mass of an entity shifting their weight from side to side in impatience.


    A deep scratchy voice calls out from the other side of the door, ¡°I do apologize, Andrea, but I couldn¡¯t help but overhear that you may have misplaced your crystal. If you would be so kind as to let me in and tell me where your crystal might be, I might not have to bust the door down. It¡¯s freezing out here, and you know how we Skeras loathe the cold. It would take a simple kick, and everything shatters inwards. My employer would be upset if I had to destroy property that belongs to the Takeda. Please¡­ Open up, my dear.¡±


    Vikta yells out, ¡°Who is it and how do you know my wife¡¯s name!? If you attempt to break in, I will kill you!¡±


    The grave voice of the reptilian Skera growls and huffs as it screams out, ¡°Vikta! Open this damn door before I snap your spine like a twig! It¡¯s me¡­ Lazarus! So, I would suggest you open this door before I rip this whole damn house apart! I¡¯ve also brought some undesirable guests with me, and they would also like to come inside very soon. We have much to talk about.¡±


    Vikta¡¯s and Andrea¡¯s eyes widen with terror as they both back up from the door slowly. Both crept backward on light feet and were no longer holding each other¡¯s hand. Their moment of peace was shattered like brittle glass. Neither took a single breath. Neither dared to speak. Both still had tears in their eyes. Vikta and Andrea were struck with horror as they backed up towards the dining room.


    As they continue to back up and finally reach the dining room, Vikta speaks precisely in a rushed whisper, ¡°Get ready to move when I move. Stay on my heels the whole way down. He¡¯s not going to let us go without a fight. Grab Echo on the way down, and I¡¯ll get the guns.¡±


    Lazarus calls out once again, ¡°I can hear you in there. You can try to hide and fight back, but there¡¯s nowhere to run to anymore. You¡¯re trapped, Vikta! Give up now, and I¡¯ll refrain from crushing your throat!¡±


    Vikta yells out as he turns and tears off towards the dining room door, ¡°Fuck off, Lazarus! I¡¯ll make sure to put a titanium slug through your fucking skull this time!¡±


    Andrea flips the bird at the closed front door and confidently bellows, ¡°Bring it, you overgrown yard lizard!¡±


    Vikta hops down the stairs step by step as Andrea finally starts sprinting for the basement stairs. The Skera releases an ear-blistering screech, and the front door behind Andrea explodes inwards. Splinters and rain soar everywhere, pelting the room with shrapnel. Pieces of splintered wood whiz by Andrea¡¯s head, nearly clipping her by mere millimeters.


    Andrea does not bother to look behind her as she grabs the door to the basement and slams it shut with a hefty shove. Andrea almost flies down the stairs in her attempt to escape her worst nightmare¡­ A monstrous being who was supposed to be dead long ago. Grabbing the railing at the bottom, she swings herself around and runs for the hatch underneath the stairs. As Andrea climbs down the ladder and into the underground storm shelter, she reaches up and closes the hatch above her. While still on the ladder, she reaches over to another spot on the door and turns a small wheel which locks it with thick bolts.


    The raging tempest on Keto is here, and it brought with it a demon. A demon from the past that has reared his ugly head and is out for more than just blood. The Sullivan¡¯s are utterly trapped, and there is no escape from this concrete hell. They must fight back or suffer a fate worse than torture.

 Chapter 9: Battle Preparations

    The metallic ladder squeals as Andrea slides down, lightly gripping the sides with her bare feet and palms. Her feet softly thud on the ground as she reaches the concrete. She was going down the ladder too fast and stumbled backward as she landed, but quickly caught her balance, turned around on her heels and sprinted for the first door on her left with panic in her eyes.


    As Andrea swung the door open with a reckless shove, there was a loud thump from the other side of the massive wooden door and a yelp from Echo, ¡°Oww! What the hell was that for?¡±


    Without looking entirely into the room and not seeing her son on the other side, Andrea reaches around the door and grabs Echo by the wrist with a vice grip that nearly crushes his arm, ¡°Run for the panic room! Now!¡±


    As Echo swings around the thick wooden door on light feet, he screams, ¡°There¡¯s a tornado already!? Oh shit!¡±


    Andrea screams over her shoulder as she drags Echo down the corridor, ¡°Don¡¯t think! Just run!¡±


    Both of them dash for the panic room at the end of the hallway with Echo stumbling all the way. The thick metal door was still wide open, and Vikta was at the desk in the back of the room. Vikta currently had his back turned away from them and was busy working on something shrouded by his thick physique. The only light coming down the corridor was from the monitors on the desk in front of Vikta.


    When Andrea and Echo were nearing the panic room, all of the monitors inside abruptly turned off, including the camera feeds and weather monitor. The power had been efficiently cut to the entire building, and everything was shrouded in darkness. No light was able to penetrate the underground shelter from above. Vikta grumbled under his breath as he searched for the electric lantern that was nearby in the dark room. Finding the electric lantern, Vikta pressed a button on one side of the lantern and placed it on the table, bringing light back to the room which then spilled out into the hallway. The small lamp added a soft light blue hue to the room, but all the other lights remained off as Andrea and Echo finally reached the room with staggered breaths.


    Vikta looks over his shoulder as Andrea and Echo enter but keeps his focus on what he¡¯s working on at the desk. He looks back down at his project before calling out, ¡°Andrea. I need your help with installing the EBON mat.¡±


    Andrea continues dragging Echo by the wrist until they are entirely in the room. She turns swiftly, and a few tears stream down from her face. Breathing heavily, Andrea places her hands on Echo¡¯s shoulders and says, ¡°There isn¡¯t much time to explain. What I¡¯m about to say isn¡¯t going to make any sense¡­ Many people are going to die tonight, but it¡¯s necessary¡­¡±


    Vikta growls and slams his fist on the table, sending a few minuscule metallic spheres rolling off of the table. The spheres send a sharp ringing sound across the floor as they bounce. Vikta bellows in a deep undertone, ¡°This isn¡¯t the time for that, Andrea! They will be down here any moment!¡±


    Echo¡¯s brows furrow as he leans to one side and says over Andrea¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Wait¡­ What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Andrea scowls over her shoulder at Vikta, reaches up to Echo¡¯s cheek, and moves his face back over to look at her again. She strokes Echo¡¯s cheeks with her palm before dropping her hand down to his shoulder again. Andrea looks down at the ground, and her voice carries through the air with a tinge of guilt, ¡°We have obligations to some very powerful people, hun. We¡¯ve protected you from the truth for a long time. I promise to tell you everything as soon as this is over. Okay?¡±


    Echo vigorously nods his head as Vikta pleads, ¡°Andrea! I need your help! Please!¡±


    Andrea swiftly guides Echo into a corner of the panic room and forces him to sit down on the cold concrete. As Andrea jogs out of the room, Echo finally notices what Vikta was working on at the desk. Two huge black assault rifles, knives, and tools lay upon the surface surrounded by hundreds of thick, shiny spheres.


    The design of the rifles are unlike anything Echo has seen before. The thick cylindrical barrel has a coil of metal wrapped around it. Surrounding the barrel coil is thick black plastic with multiple attachments such as a flashlight and scope. On one side of the weapon sits a rectangular battery pack with clips to hold it in place. The coil on the barrel is attached to the battery pack by thick cables wrapped in rubber. The battery pack looks as if it can be easily removed and replaced. There is no clip on the underside of the weapon, but there is a trigger and grip.


    The back of the rifles have round bulbous stocks, but they also have a rubber stock extension to make holding it against the shoulder more comfortable. There is a large sphere installed within the stock made of ballistic plexiglass. On top is a cap that can be popped off of the sphere and has a small string to keep it attached to the weapon, so it does not get lost. The sphere is surrounded by black plastic arranged in a web design but still allows vision into the sphere. Inside of the plexiglass sphere sits hundreds of the same tiny metallic balls that are on the desk.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Echo gawks at the unfamiliar sight and slowly asks, ¡°Dad? What are you doing?¡±


    Vikta stops moving and freezes in place. The hairs on his body stand up, and he clenches his teeth. He stares down at the weapons with a frustrated appearance. However, he looks more afraid than angry. Without moving his head, he continues working on putting more metallic balls into the spherical container on one of the weapons.


    As Vikta grabs a handful of the spheres, he says flatly, ¡°These are buckyballs.¡±


    Vikta¡¯s expression goes neutral as he forces himself to relax. Vikta then drops his handful of buckyballs into the spherical container on the rifle before continuing, ¡°Buckyballsare made from atitanium carbide alloythat ishighly reactive to electromagnetic currents. This means that these titanium carbide slugs can be moved using fields of magnetism such as a current from aGauss Coil. The coils on thisGauss Riflemove an electric current towards the end of the barrel, effectively creating aforward moving field of magnetism that requires no moving parts except for the ammunition. The best part about a buckyball is that they¡¯re reusable. You can pick them up after firing and use them again and again¡­ Over and over.¡±


    Echo¡¯s expression at this point was perplexed, ¡°Why are you telling me this? I don¡¯t understand.¡±


    Vikta huffed as he dropped another handful of titanium carbide buckyballs into the gauss rifle, ¡°In case I get dropped by gunfire, then I need you to know how to use this weapon. It¡¯s going to be a war down here very soon, son. If you run out of ammunition, then grab a handful of slugs off of the floor and use them again. Doesn¡¯t matter how much blood is on them. They¡¯ll still work every time.¡±


    Echo went from confused to hysterically terrified at hearing those last few sentences. He started to shiver as he yelled, ¡°Dad!? What the hell!? I¡¯m not killing anyone!¡±


    Vikta sighs as he turns and walks over to the scared young man sitting in the corner, ¡°You don¡¯t have much of a choice if you want to get off of this planet alive. These people want to capture us and torture us for information that we can¡¯t give them. There is so much more that you need to know, but there isn¡¯t time. You have to fight back tonight. If you get out of this alive without us, then find Felix. He¡¯s the only one that you can trust. Get off this planet as soon as you can. You are no longer safe here. If they catch you, they¡¯ll torture you. Never let them capture you. Run and hide. You can¡¯t fight them all.¡±


    Vikta jabs a finger into the chest of his confused son to further establish the importance of his statement. Andrea dashes back into the room and hurriedly throws a few items to the floor. In the pile of objects is a rolled up black mat, two leather jackets, and two pairs of fresh work boots. Andrea had already changed out her hoodie for a brown leather jacket and had her shoes on as well.


    Vikta turns around upon hearing the stuff hit the floor and leans down to grab two leather jackets out of the pile and hands one over to Echo, ¡°Wear this. They are likely using stun slugs so they can capture us alive. This leather will protect you from the electric shock.¡±


    Echo hesitated and just sat there staring down at the leather jacket in his hands. Its material was smooth to the touch on the outside, but the inside had a padded cotton threading that felt warm and inviting.


    Vikta said, ¡°Move quickly, Echo. We have only moments before we¡¯re attacked.¡±


    Echo snapped his attention up to Vikta and quickly put on the jacket. Vikta sat on the floor as Echo reached over to pull on his boots. As they busied themselves with their shoes, Andrea grabbed the black mat and began unrolling it. To Echo¡¯s surprise, the mat became clear as it was flattened out on the floor. The mat was in the shape of a giant rectangle, big enough to fit over a doorway. On the side facing down to the floor was a black tape which became suddenly visible and outlined the heavy rectangular mat.


    Echo asked Andrea, ¡°What is that thing? I¡¯ve never seen anything go from deep black to clear like that.¡±


    Andrea flips over the mat, and it becomes jet black on this side. As the mat thudded on the ground, Andrea began to remove the almost unseen black tape from the perimeter of the mat. As she worked, she said, ¡°This is anElectromagnetic Ballistics and Ordinance Net. Also, known as anE-B-O-N Mat or EBON. It will allow us tosee the enemy without them being able to see us. From our side, we can see everything out there, but they can¡¯t see us in here. The EBON effectivelyshrouds us from thermal and night vision. Anything past ultraviolet and infrared on the visible spectrum gets blocked. It should also theoretically protect us from radiation, small arms fire, and shrapnel. Hun, can you hand me the knife on the table?¡±


    As Vikta finished getting his first boot on, he reached over while still on the floor and plucked the knife off of the table. As Vikta handed the knife over to Andrea, she continued, ¡°This should protect us from anything they throw at us for some time.¡±


    Andrea grunted as she cut two small square holes halfway along the width of the rectangular mat. When she finished, Andrea turned to ask Echo, ¡°Can you help me put this mat in the doorway? It should fit perfectly. We have to hurry before the glue hardens.¡±


    Echo got up from his corner in the room after he finished getting his boots on and rushed over to Andrea. As Andrea grabbed one side of the mat from underneath, Echo went for the other side and they both lifted. Andrea shambled over to the doorway with the mat in her arms and pushed the large metal door fully open with her foot. They both heft the EBON mat into the large door frame. The mat fits in the doorway as if it was meant to be there, sliding into place with ease. The mat sticks to the concrete structure instantly as it adheres to the wall with its sticky black surface covered in glue. The two square holes that Andrea had cut earlier was large enough to fit your arm through. Echo could not see into the corridor of the shelter. Complete darkness filled the corridor doorway except where light streamed through the two holes in the mat from the lantern on the desk.

 Chapter 10.1: Breach and Capture

    As Vikta finishes getting his other boot on, he tells Echo, ¡°Go back to the corner. I don¡¯t want to risk you getting hit by gunfire. It¡¯s going to get brutal and bloody in a moment. Come on, now. Move your ass out of the way.¡±


    Vikta grabs a gauss rifle from the desk and gently pushes Echo to the side as he crouches down on the left side of the doorway. Placing his right knee on the ground and his left foot in front of him, Vikta then rests his left elbow on his left leg. His right arm remains relaxed at his side as he places the barrel of the gauss rifle in the square hole with his left hand. From this position, Vikta looked as if he would be able to fire the titanium slugs down the corridor and have a perfect field of view from all angles.


    Andrea walked over to the lantern, picked it up, and then walked over to Echo. Andrea says, ¡°Turn this off when I tell you to.¡±


    As Andrea hands the lantern over to Echo, she swiftly moves to the desk and grabs the other gauss rifle. Kneeling down on the right side of the doorway and placing the barrel of her weapon in the other slot, she mirrors the stance of Vikta on the other side. Together as one, they look down the scopes of their guns. Neither of them can see anything in the dark corridor of the shelter.


    Everyone is still. Everything is silent. Not even the sound of the raging storm can be heard. For an extreme amount of time, nothing happens. No gunfire. No explosions. Pure¡­ Uncomfortable¡­ Silence¡­


    A small whistle can be heard increasing in volume. It becomes accompanied by a set of whistles which all get increasingly louder until the sound is almost painful. The whistles all cut out at once, and a series of loud snaps shake the air.


    Andrea and Vikta both look at each other confused. Andrea asks, ¡°Are they not breaching the corridor through the hatch?¡±


    Vikta retains a neutral expression, ¡°No. They''re breaching the rooms in the hallway. Cover the doorways.¡±


    Andrea and Vikta both shift their stances to angle more towards each other. Andrea on the right side of the door aimed her rifle at the doors on the left of the hallway. Vikta on the left side aimed towards the doors of the right side of the hall. Both of them froze and tensed up. The hairs on their necks could be seen standing up.


    Andrea snapped at Echo in a harsh whisper, ¡°Turn it off! Now!¡±


    Echo swiftly clicked off the lantern in his hands. Everything was dropped into complete darkness, shrouding everyone. No one moved. Only their heavy nervous breathing could be heard. As the silence grew heavier and the darkness became more uncomfortable, Andrea whispered, ¡°Now?¡±


    Vikta shushed Andrea, ¡°Just wait¡­¡±


    The sounds of feet shuffling across concrete echo from the corridor.


    Vikta whispers, ¡°NOW!¡±


    Andrea and Vikta both flip buttons on the flashlight attachments connected to the barrel of their gauss rifles. The corridor was lit with a blindingly bright pair of strobe lights which flashed brilliantly several times per second. Numerous soldiers in jet black uniforms were illuminated from within the corridor. Each one was wearing what seemed to be black ceramic plated suits which allowed for flexible movement and encased the entire body. They each had a thick black helmet which covered their face with a matte black face shielding, likely made from the same material as the EBON mat, but in a different form.


    All of the soldiers were forced to shield their eyes from the blinding light as they were using night vision goggles built into their helmets to see in the dark corridor. Bright lights are the enemy of night vision as it causes a bright flare of light on the display of the goggles, effectively blinding the soldiers. This moment of blindness would only last for a moment though as the goggles immediately attempt to turn off the display to protect the eyes of the soldiers. This is a standard safety protocol for night vision goggles. Even though the screen turning off protects the user of the goggles from being blinded by the light, it does force them to use different tactics for sight as the night vision becomes useless in the bright light. However, using their eyes in the painful strobe lights made bright spots appear in their vision, and effectively blinded them anyways. Without their night vision, the soldiers began stumbling around blindly in the shelter corridor.


    As the armed force reeled in surprise from the blinding strobes and their night vision became useless, Vikta and Andrea opened fire upon the soldiers. Multiple rounds of titanium slugs silently exited the barrels of the gauss rifles every second. The only sound to indicate that the weapons were effectively firing were the whistles and pings of the titanium slugs flying and striking their targets. With the slugs leaving the barrel at such a high velocity caused by the electromagnetic coils, each slug tore through at least two soldiers at a time. The men at the front were riddled with holes and red gore before dropping to the ground, dead on impact. The soldiers behind the men in front were still caught off guard but managed to raise their weapons before also falling dead in a hail of gunfire.


    The soldiers in the back managed to begin returning fire towards the panic room doorway before being hit at least once. No soldier was left unscathed. If a round missed, it would bounce off of the walls and hit anyone from behind. Multiple shots of rebounded buckyballs struck the surface of the EBON mat, warping its surface and safely catching the rounds of ammunition, protecting the Sullivans from harm. A series of shock slugs also hit the EBON mat as well, embedding into the surface with thick needles and delivering multiple blue sparks to the surface of the mat. Titanium buckyballs bounced all around the room like a pinball machine from hell. At the end of it all, the floor of the corridor was slick with blood, bodies, and titanium slugs. Nothing moved any longer. All of the soldiers lay dead in the corridor. The bright strobes from Andrea¡¯s and Vikta¡¯s flashlights illuminate the bloody mess in harsh bright flashes.


    Vikta looks over to Andrea and says, ¡°It isn¡¯t over yet. They¡¯re regrouping.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The hatch above the ladder explodes and slams into the floor of the corridor with a devastating bang, crushing bodies, armor, and bones. A splash of red paints the lower walls of the hallway as the blown hatch slams into the pool of blood. A colossal and imposing figure falls down the hatch, landing upon the circular piece of scrap metal and further throwing up specks of red in the harsh light of the strobes.


    The reptilian Skera was covered from head to toe in elegant blue scales. His cobalt scales shone brightly, and specks of light bounced off its brilliant surface. Standing two and a half meters tall, the Skera¡¯s horned head almost touched the ceiling. The horns were located on the back of his elongated skull and pointed directly backward with no curve. Each horn was about a quarter meter in length and coated in gray ebony bone. The snout of the Skera resembled that of a raptor¡¯s, and his mouth is lined with thick rows of serrated teeth. Small colorful blue feathers fill in the top of his head and along his spine. His hands consisted of three long claws arranged like that of a hawk¡¯s, with three claws pointed upwards and one downwards. The single digit pointed downwards acted as a thumb while the other three were for grasping items and prey. The Skera¡¯s feet were arranged the same way. However, these massive claws are attached to thick muscular legs. The knees of the Skera are buckled inwards, indicating two knee joints for each leg.


    Lazarus is covered from his shoulders to his toes in a black metal plated suit that shifted smoothly with his motions. He is wearing a long black hooded cape tied to a collar around his neck. Slung along his sides is what seems to be a pistol on one side and on the other is a Medieval Earth style long sword with an odd ancient pagan hilt design. In the center of the metal pommel of the handle is a carved pentagram with a skull in the center. The pistol on his other hip seems to be a small version of a gauss rifle but holds the titanium slugs in a 21<sup>st</sup>-century clip design. It is immediately apparent upon seeing the Skera commander that this large reptile had a taste for artifacts from Earth, which was over 2.5 million light-years away.


    Lazarus does not bother to draw his weapons and holds his position. He stands at the end of the corridor, patiently waiting. After a few moments without any movement, Lazarus huffs out a growl as he waits for an imminent attack, ¡°Come on, bastard. Do it. I know you want to, Vikta.¡±


    Vikta¡¯s voice grows nervous as he begins to shout at the Skera instead of firing his weapon, ¡°Give it up, Lazarus! You¡¯re outmatched! You¡¯ll lose more than it¡¯s worth trying to bring us in alive.¡±


    Lazarus makes a few clicking noises with his mouth before speaking with loud grunts, ¡°You are so very mistaken. You have no chance of escape. You will submit and surrender immediately, or I¡¯ll make sure to keep my promise to crush your fucking throats. Don¡¯t test my patience, humans. Drop your weapons and come out now!¡±


    Vikta yells out to the imposingly large Skera commander once again, ¡°We¡¯ll do no such thing! Leave us in peace, and I may let you live!¡±


    Andrea harshly whispers over at Vikta with a snappy pissed off expression, ¡°You idiot! What the fuck are you doing just talking with him!? Shoot him already. You have a shot! He needs to die after what he¡¯s done to our family!¡±


    Vikta¡¯s voice shakes as he talks without taking his eyes off of Lazarus, ¡°Something isn¡¯t right. He hasn¡¯t made a move since he got down here. He¡¯s too confident. I was expecting him to rush us already.¡±


    A deep rage fills Lazarus, and he shows off his serrated teeth as he talks. Growing angrier with every passing second, Lazarus shouts, ¡°You overstep your bounds begging me to leave in peace. There will not be any peace for you. You¡¯ve made your choice, and I have made mine. You just slaughtered innocent men who were only following my orders! Those were some of my best soldiers, you fucking bastard!! AND YOU EXPECT ME TO LEAVE YOU IN PEACE!!??¡±


    Lazarus growls once again before throwing his arms up across his chest in an X-pattern with his clawed palms facing to the left and right. Lazarus charges down the corridor with extraordinary speed. His movement is so sudden that the Sullivans are caught off guard. Red specks of blood are flown into the air and left in his wake as he hurtles towards the panic room. Andrea and Vikta fired their weapons in a futile attempt to stop the charging beast. The rounds strike an invisible force in front of Lazarus, reflect at an odd angle to the side, and bounce off of the walls around him. Each time a slug strikes the invisible force in front of him a small purple spark of light illuminates from under the Skera¡¯s cape.


    Before more than a few slugs were slung down the corridor, Lazarus reached the doorway with blazing speed and breached the room with a swift kick to the EBON mat that was so intense, neither Andrea or Vikta was able to move out of the way in time. Both of them were flung to the side as the EBON mat flew across the room and smashed all of the monitors on the desk. Glass from the monitors was tossed sideways and littered the ground as buckyballs fell off the table and struck the ground with a metallic ring as they bounced.


    Andrea and Vikta lay upon their sides in the room and Echo was still in the corner, trembling in terror. The bright strobes from the flashlights on the weapons had not gone off and now illuminated the inside of the panic room with rapid flashes of light as the weapons lay on the concrete floor. Echo was struck silent with terror as the reptilian Skera called Lazarus grabbed his mother and father by the throats as they lay on the ground, picked them up, and choke slammed them both back down into the ground. As their bodies struck the ground with a heavy thud, Lazarus growled and screeched. With bloodlust in his icy blue eyes, he snaps his attention up to Echo in the corner, and his pupils dilate. Showing his serrated teeth, Lazarus turns his attention back to his new captives.


    Lazarus snarls at Andrea with long hisses, ¡°What¡¯s this? You¡¯ve been breeding, eh? I¡¯m completely astonished that you¡¯d fuck such a cold-hearted monster, Andrea! I¡¯m disappointed, to say the least.¡±


    Vikta gurgles through his crushed throat, ¡°Leave¡­ Them¡­ Alone!¡±


    Lazarus hisses once again, clutches Vikta¡¯s throat, and swiftly bangs his head against the pavement, ¡°I was talking, bastard. Don¡¯t interrupt me. Anyways, you are the property of my employer, including the boy. But you already knew this, didn¡¯t you? He was better off not being born. Such a shame.¡±


    Echo panics and attempts to scramble to his feet. Before Echo can get to his feet and bolt for the door, a whooshing sound snaps as the Skera¡¯s tail whips through the air to wrap itself around Echo¡¯s throat. Echo flails around wildly as he¡¯s violently thrown to the floor from the force of the tail striking him in the neck and tugging down hard. Without lifting Echo off of the ground, Lazarus drags him by his neck over to Andrea¡¯s side. Echo struggles hard to free himself from the chokehold but to no avail. He begins to choke and can¡¯t breathe. Gasping with large mouthfuls of air, Echo can¡¯t get any air in or out of his throat and quickly starts to turn blue. The strength of Lazarus¡¯ tail is too much for Echo to handle. Echo gives up and begins to whimper and cry as he gasps for air while being drug across the floor.


    Lazarus chuckles at the sadistic pain he¡¯s causing to the young man. Echo gasps and reclaims some air as Lazarus finishes dragging him across the floor and loosens his grip. Echo¡¯s color starts to return to his face as he¡¯s able to breathe again. All three of the Sullivans stare up into the eyes of their captor. All of them were being held down under the pure strength and weight of Lazarus the Skera.


    Lazarus shakes his head from side to side as he talks, ¡°You should have killed me when you had the chance, Vikta. I wanted to feel what it¡¯s like to be betrayed again by someone that I once called my friend.¡±

 Chapter 11: Lazarus, the Tempest Draegona

    ¡°You¡¯re getting slow, old man. Why did you hesitate?¡± Lazarus asked Vikta with a scowl as he held down the entire Sullivan family under his brute strength. The grip in his claws and tail was enormous. Combining that with his sheer weight, even if they did struggle, they would never have a chance to wriggle out of his grasp.


    Vikta coughed as Lazarus let up some of the pressure on his throat. While laid out on his back Vikta said with a hoarse voice, ¡°I figured that I¡¯d let you have the chance to live this time. I¡¯ve always regretted what I did to you.¡±


    Lazarus made clicking noises with his throat as he asked, ¡°Chance to live? Regret? Are you sure about that?¡±


    Vikta spoke, ¡°I¡­¡±


    Vikta reeled in pain as electricity surged through his body. Convulsions overtook his muscles as he screamed. Massive blue sparks of lightning broke the air around Lazarus¡¯ right arm and engulfed it from his shoulder to his claws. The electric sparks seemed to travel down the length of his arm and along the surface of the metallic black armor until it reached his claws and arced into Vikta¡¯s neck. Vikta continuously convulsed in pain as Andrea and Echo watched in silent horror. It seemed to last an uncomfortable amount of time. After a while, Lazarus looked as if he was attempting to kill Vikta, but he suddenly stopped without notice.


    Lazarus¡¯ long thin tongue flopped happily out of his mouth for a moment before he regained his composure and closed his mouth. The corners of his reptilian jaws upturned into what looked to be like a smile. Lazarus says with joy in his voice, ¡°Well I certainly hope you regret it now. It¡¯s not enough though. We¡¯re going to have a lot of fun when we get back home. We¡¯ve missed you for far too long. We have some new toys to play with. You¡¯ll love what we¡¯ve done with the place.¡±


    Andrea screeched through choked breaths with red, teary eyes, ¡°This isn¡¯t a game, Lazarus! Please! Let us go! We only want to be left alone.¡±


    Lazarus grunted, ¡°Hell no. Orders are orders. If you wanted to be left alone so badly, why do you keep sending your brother on errands to find the crystals?¡±


    Andrea frowned and asked, ¡°How did you¡­¡±


    Lazarus cut her off, ¡°How did we know? We¡¯ve known exactly where you were since you landed on this planet decades ago. All we had to do was find Felix and follow him back here. To our surprise, this planet was perfect for keeping tabs on you. We figured it would be better if you were in a place that was easy to access and didn¡¯t run off while we were searching for what you lost. Did you think you could hide from us? We¡¯ve known exactly where you¡¯ve been since you ran off with the dragon spirits. The only problem now is finding them. I¡­ We¡­ need your help to find the Draegona Crystals. What we didn¡¯t know is that you had a son. He¡¯ll be coming with us too, all things consider¡­¡±


    Andrea spit a massive loogie into the mouth of the talking Skera with impressive aim. After cheering for a brief moment, she yelled out, ¡°Fuck you! Don¡¯t you dare touch my son!¡±


    Lazarus coughed and then screeched as he reeled backward in anger. Lazarus landed on his knees and currently had Vikta''s throat in his right hand, Andrea''s throat in his left hand, and his tail wrapped around Echo¡¯s neck. Lazarus squeezed hard on all of their throats, choking them and nearly crushing their necks. Picking up only Andrea by her neck, her body leaves the ground, but her feet drag across the concrete.


    Holding his position, Lazarus deals a devastating electric shock to the entire family as he choke slams Andrea back into the ground. Andrea thuds loudly into the concrete, and she screams louder than the rest of her family. Bolts of lightning engulfed the entire body of the Skera and his armor as he electrocuted all three of his prisoners. It looks as if he was now attempting to kill them, instead of capturing them, but again he stops without notice.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Lazarus growls loudly, ¡°What the fuck do you mean stop? I¡¯ll do what I please, Yethica.¡±


    A purple glow emanates from under the cape on Lazarus¡¯ back. A streak of purple lightning travels along the surface of the back of his armor, down the back of his leg, and into the concrete. Roughly a meter behind Lazarus, a spark of purple lightning strikes from the floor to the ceiling as a purple smoky dragon spirit appears instantaneously on the bloody ground. Flashes of purple lightning travel along the floor of the bloody corridor and causes some of the dead bodies to convulse.


    The smoky transparent dragon spirit has two front feet and an elongated body resembling a serpent, and its glowing body made the dark corridor shine with a deep violet hue. There are no wings on this transparent dragon, but it still seems to float above the surface of the ground. The face is broad and squarish with a flat square snout lined with serrated teeth. On both sides of the muzzle is long tendrils roughly half a meter in length that floated behind the dragon, like two flags on a windy day. The length of the serpent-like dragon was about a meter in length, and it also drifted from side to side as if being blown by the wind. Along its spine, it has long thick fur and has a mane of smoky purple hair around its face. Only its clawed feet touched the ground as its serpent-like body squirmed from side to side as if it was swimming in a current of water or wind. This species of dragon is known as a Lindwurm.


    The dragon spirit speaks in a voice that¡¯s sharp, harsh, and coarse, ¡°Stop this sick torture at once, or you¡¯ll end up getting thrown in front of a firing squad. Our orders were to bring them in alive. We can¡¯t afford them to die accidentally. You¡¯ve had your fill of violence. Stop this feral behavior right this moment!¡±


    The Skera loosens his grip on the family and lets their throats go. Lazarus also unwraps his tail from around Echo¡¯s neck. Too tired and exhausted from the torture that Lazarus laid out on them, the Sullivans lay there in a heap of heavy breaths. None of them could move after what they had just endured. Lazarus reached down with both arms and his tail and proceeded to drag the family of three by their ankles. Echo was dragged across the chest of his mother and into a spot between his parents. Lazarus then pulled all three of them out into the bloody hallway, covering all of them in a mess of gore as they were drug across the bodies of the dead soldiers.


    Echo immediately vomited upon the floor once he became covered in gore and started crying loudly. Echo asked through short dry heaves, ¡°What the fuck is going on!? Why are you doing this to us!?¡±


    As Lazarus passed by the dragon spirit, he stops in his tracks and roars, ¡°It¡¯s not my fault that your parents are cold-blooded murderers who just slaughtered over a dozen soldiers. If you are paying any attention to the blood that you are now covered in¡­ It seems as though they overwhelmed an entire squad of my expert soldiers with two gauss rifles, a hallway, and some fucking flashlights! After what these fugitives have done, I would like to think that I was rather generous with my mercy. So don¡¯t chastise me for well-deserved punishment, child. Your parents are monsters.¡±


    The dragon spirit now floats above the ground to eye level as Lazarus passes by and keeps pace with his walking. As Lazarus continued to drag the family down the corridor, the dragon spirit asks, ¡°Is it worth risking decades of espionage for some simple enjoyment?¡±


    Soon after, Yethica, the dragon spirit flew a lap around Lazarus before disappearing into the small oblong purple crystal embedded into the back of Lazarus¡¯ black armor set.


    Lazarus made a couple of clicking noises resembling a laugh as he spoke, ¡°Yes¡­ Yes, I believe it is. Don¡¯t underestimate them, Yethica. They''re stronger than they look. Isn¡¯t that right, Vikta?¡±


    Vikta coughed out a reply, ¡°Fuck you, gizzard fodder!¡±


    Lazarus laughed once again with a series of clicks, ¡°Give your insults a bit more enthusiasm next time, would you? Don¡¯t worry, though. I¡¯ll beat a good insult out of you soon enough.¡±


    Lazarus continued dragging the family down the corridor of the shelter and towards the ladder. He began humming a tune as he slowly strolled along the bloody hallway. The family in unison started flailing around wildly on the ground and were attempting to escape while they hurled ignored insults at the Skera. Lazarus increased the strength of his grip on their ankles as he continued onwards and jumped up half the length of the ladder with little effort.


    The Sullivans flail wildly in the air while being hung upside down and smack hard against the concrete back wall. Echo gets knocked unconscious as his forehead slaps a rung on the ladder sending a short, sharp ringing noise through the metal. Lazarus yanks hard as he reaches the top of the ladder and pulls his limp prey out of their hiding place like a hunter that successfully caught his quarry. Lazarus continuously hummed his little tune as he brutally dragged the family up the basement stairs.

 Chapter 12: Ice and Fury

    Lazarus emerged from the demolished basement doorway and into the darkened dining room. Unimpeded by the dim lighting, Lazarus continued to drag the Sullivan family by their ankles until they were well into the living room. Lazarus let go of them and dropped them to the floor. Vikta and Andrea reeled in pain from their injuries, but Echo remained still, breathing lightly in his unconscious state.


    Andrea cringed in pain as she observed her surroundings with bleary eyes. Rolling over on her side, she was still winded from the torturous encounter with the Skera. There were no soldiers in the house, only Lazarus. The house was a complete disaster. The floor was littered with glass, wooden splinters, and rain. All the windows had been blown apart by the pressure of the storm. The front door being kicked open by Lazarus had caused the house to become unstable due to the wind. The rain was able to rush in through the open doorway and windows, drenching everything in stabbing cold water. No pieces of the front door remained except for a few large fragments attached to the hinges of the door frame by only a few screws.


    The housed creaked like a wooden sail in the torrent of wind. Rain swept in through the front door and windows, drenching everyone in the cold stinging rain. The shower of rain was coming in sideways and at such a high speed, that it felt as though a thousand ants were biting and stinging with every single moment that passed by. The entire house moved in motion with the mighty wind and deafeningly groaned as the walls were pushed back and forth. It would not be long before the house is finally ripped apart in the intense hurricane. A few large splinters lay next to Andrea¡¯s head, and her eyes lit up as she snapped her attention back to the Skera. Lazarus was now lifting the hood of his cape over his horned head and remained with his back turned to the family.


    Vikta attempted to prop himself up on his elbows but dropped onto his back and cursed under his breath. His face scrunched up in pain whenever he tried to move his left leg. Vikta tested his ankle by moving it in a circle a few times before huffing out a sigh. Turning over to lay on his side, Vikta sees Andrea watching Lazarus with hate and contempt. She looked worried and terrified, but also incredibly annoyed. As the moments passed, Andrea seemed to look as if she was going to burst into a vicious outrage. Vikta¡¯s expression grew worried as he watched his wife become more furious as time passed.


    Looking over his shoulder, Lazarus noticed the sour expression on Andrea¡¯s face and a smile began to creep across his toothy snout. Lazarus chuckled with a couple of clicks as he turned around and stomped on Vikta¡¯s already busted left ankle, breaking it with ease. Vikta screeched in agony as Lazarus viciously placed all his weight down on the ankle and dug his massive claws into a chunk of flesh on the back of his leg.


    Bones crunched as Lazarus leaned over and put his elbow down on his double-jointed knees to bend down further and say, ¡°Don¡¯t go running off. I still have some questions for you. I hope that you will finally behave yourselves without any weapons to cause trouble.¡±


    Andrea remained still as she growled through gritted teeth, ¡°What¡¯s your problem, Skera? Haven¡¯t you done enough damage already?¡±


    Lazarus smiles, ¡°It¡¯s not me who has the problem, my dear. You two don¡¯t know when to give up. Don¡¯t make me hobble you too. It would be a shame to break you so soon before the real fun begins. Please refrain from doing something that will get you killed. We need you alive, after all.¡±


    The wind is roaring so loud now that it is nearly impossible to hear Lazarus crack his dark-humored jokes. His cape flaps over his shoulder and above him as the gale whips through the house and past the massive Skera. Vikta continued to yell in pain as Lazarus stood up and released his claws from Vikta¡¯s leg. Lazarus swiftly turned away and walked over to the front door. Pointing with a large clawed hand through the dark doorway and then pointing it again over his shoulder, it looked as if he was silently giving orders to soldiers who were stationed outside. The wind, rain, and darkness outside the front doorway gave no indication that someone was there until lightning broke the sky once again and dozens of dark-suited bodies could be seen trudging through the muddy front yard. They would soon be reaching the house and coming inside, but the thick mud and raging wind slowed them down.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    As Vikta was still tending to his broken ankle and Lazarus was distracted with giving silent orders to his soldiers, Andrea propped herself up on her elbow and with some extra effort, sat up on her knees. Facing towards Lazarus, closing her eyes, and sitting back on her ankles, Andrea began to steady her breathing. Placing her hands flat on her knees, and breathing in through the nose and out through her mouth, she began to meditate on the spot amongst the broken glass, fragments of wood, and water. Over a period of a few seconds, Andrea had stabilized her heavy breathing to slow deep breaths.


    Keeping her eyes closed, Andrea reached down to the floor and began slowly wiping her palms on the soaked ground. The water seemed to stick to her skin as she moved her hands gently across the ground. After a few moments, the water had impossibly engulfed her hand, and a thin surface of water flowed across the back of her hands. Finding large splinters of wood on the floor with her fingertips, she grasps one in each hand. Holding the splintered wood with her thumbs upwards and the spiked end of the splinter facing downwards, she readied herself for an excruciating experience. Lifting both hands from the ground, the water then flowed down to the wrist and over the pieces of the wood, conforming to their rough shape.


    Suddenly clenching her hands tightly around the deadly splinters, the water solidified into white ice and hardened instantly around Andrea¡¯s fists. Andrea silently held back a yelp of pain and bit her lip, which drew blood. The small droplet flowed down her face but solidified into a red droplet of ice on her chin. As Andrea tried to hold back tears, it looked as if she was now wielding two daggers made of ice, formed from the water and splinters on the floor. Andrea finally opened her eyes and began to smile a toothy grin.


    Slowly getting up, as to not make a sound, Andrea moved with flow and form that was almost too perfect. Placing her right foot behind and her left foot forwards, Andrea took up an offensive kickboxer¡¯s stance, pointing the daggers of ice directly towards the front door where Lazarus was standing.


    An unseen soldier yells out from the front yard as dozens of bright flashlights turn on to spotlight the dangerous woman, ¡°Sir! Look out behind you! She has a weapon! DON¡¯T MOVE A FUCKING MUSCLE! DROP THE WEAPONS! I SAID FUCKING DROP IT OR I¡¯LL DROP YOU, BITCH!¡±


    Silhouetted by the bright light, and without turning his body, Lazarus looked over his shoulder at the mother defending her family. His confident grin disappeared and was replaced with astonishment at the sight of the ice daggers, ¡°Unaugmented magic!? But how?¡±


    Andrea smirked, and without moving a muscle, the tips of the ice daggers shone with the brilliance of a star. The rain continued to sweep in through the door past Lazarus, undeterred by the imposing figure blocking the droplets. Without warning, the droplets began to change direction as they passed the doorway and headed straight for the tip of the daggers. Soon, even the droplets of water coming in through all the windows were also redirected towards Andrea. None of the droplets were able to hit the ground. The water upon the ground began to crawl up her legs, along her body, and to the tip of the daggers, where they then disappeared into the blinding light.


    Lazarus stood there in awe at the raw magic pouring from Andrea and into the daggers. Keeping his weapons sheathed, he grips his sword with one hand and the grip of the pistol with the other, readying himself for a fight. Before he could turn around to face her and attack, he was too late to figure out what she was doing. Multiple shock slugs flew past Lazarus from the front yard. Bullets of ice lashed out from the blinding light of the daggers and towards the slugs. The ice that came from Andrea¡¯s defensive spell deflected the shock slugs away at odd angles to strike the ceiling, walls, or another part of the house. The particles of ice drifting through the air, created from smashing into the shock slugs with kinetic energy, eventually made their way back into the light of the daggers.


    Lazarus finally recognized what she was doing, but too late. Lazarus turned and bellowed one final order to his soldiers before they perished in a maelstrom of pure magic, ¡°GET DOWN NOW! TAKE COVER!¡±

 Chapter 13: Counterattack

    Lazarus dives away from the doorway and clatters into one of the soldiers. They both tumbled down the wooden steps of the front porch and into the thick mud. The other soldiers began diving for the mud, face first, and taking cover from the unexpected counterattack. Some of the soldiers were still standing when Andrea finally let loose her devastating ice spell from the tip of the daggers.


    The light being emitted from her ice daggers finally dimmed and grew dark. As soon as the light was gone, thousands of sharp needles of ice spewed forth from the tip of the weapons. The blast of ice was broad enough to hit the entire front wall of the house and blow it out.


    Traveling at supersonic speeds, the needles of ice struck the wall and splintered what remained. As the wall exploded outwards, it was replaced instantaneously by a thick wall of ice, which kept the building intact and barricaded the family inside once more. The debris from the blast was rocketed away at an absurd speed towards the soldiers. First came the stinging ice, and then the massive splinters of wood that shredded everything in its path.


    All the remaining soldiers who were still standing were dead upon impact. The ice and wood tore through their bodies and tore muscles from the bone. Shards of ceramic armor were sent flying in every direction. Limbs and heads were severed from the extreme force of the ice needles. The soldiers who had taken cover were able to dodge most of the damage, but nobody got out unscathed¡­ Except for the soldier that Lazarus had bumped into.


    A purple glow was steadily thrumming underneath Lazarus'' cape as the Draegona Crystal spewed out power. None of the ice shards had reached Lazarus as they had been deflected away. Although, a small piece of wood stuck out from the side of his neck. Lazarus screamed through his pain, ¡°Fucking bitch! I¡¯LL KILL HER!¡±


    ¡°Sir, are you alright!?¡± Said the soldier that was underneath Lazarus.


    Lazarus broke his rage for a moment and stared down at the soldier underneath him with a look of regret, ¡°No I am not. I need medical attention. My dragon spirit cannot heal this wound.¡±


    Looking around him, Lazarus noticed that most of his soldiers were either dead or injured. At least half of the dozen soldiers had been completely ripped apart by the force of the ice spell. Limbs littered the ground everywhere, and the blood was almost indistinguishable from the mud on the ground. The few soldiers who had taken cover were extremely injured. Some were missing an arm or a leg and groaned in pain. Others had merely taken shrapnel to various body parts.


    Rolling over into the mud and onto his back, Lazarus let the soldier sit up and tend to the wound on his neck. The wind and rain continued to pelt them as the soldier worked on helping his Skera commander. The soldier sat up on armored knees and looked over to the front of the house. The front of the house was now encased in a wall of ice as were the windows.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    After removing the hood from Lazarus'' head, the soldier yanked the splinter of wood out of the Lazarus¡¯ neck with a swift pull. The Skera howled in pain and growled. Putting pressure on the wound with one hand, the soldier reached around to their side with the other and pulled out a bundle of gauze pads and a syringe from a large backpack. The soldier gripped the plastic protection cap of the needle with his hands, yanked off the cap with a swift pull, and immediately returned to putting pressure on the wound with a free hand.


    As the soldier stabbed the needle into the neck wound, they then starts talking through the microphone built into the helmet. On the front portion of the mask is a small speaker that allows them to speak normally while still being protected by their headgear. As the medication is slowly injected, the soldier starts relaying information to Lazarus, ¡°Sir, the rest of the men are either K.I.A. or severely injured. I¡¯ll need to evacuate them and treat their injuries. The fugitives have barricaded themselves inside the house with some kind of ice magic. You¡¯ll need to breach the ice with a thermite pad to melt through. Alright, the Isomeds should be kicking in right about now. I¡¯ll wrap up the wound, and you¡¯re good to go.¡±


    The wound on Lazarus¡¯ neck started to foam with a thick white substance which quickly hardened and stopped the bleeding. For extra protection, the soldier began wrapping Lazarus¡¯ neck with the gauze and tied a tight knot to keep it in place.


    As Lazarus sat up on his elbows to examine his surroundings, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s your name, soldier?¡±


    The soldier responded through the black helmet, ¡°My codename is Hellhound, sir.¡±


    Lazarus smirked and grunted as he stood up from the muddy ground, ¡°Consider this an unofficial promotion to Lieutenant. Get these soldiers out of here as soon as you can. I¡¯m going in alone.¡±


    Lieutenant Hellhound swiftly acknowledges the order, ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    Lieutenant Hellhound left Lazarus standing there and immediately started tending to the other soldiers who were injured. Lazarus began slowly trudging through the mud as he watched his soldier give medical attention to the others. He broke his attention away from the mess of bodies, walked past his fallen soldiers, and up the steps of the Sullivan farmhouse encased in ice.


    Lazarus then places his palm up to the wall of ice and grips it with his thick claws. The purple glow underneath his cape grows to a frighteningly deep bright violet and then the light disappears as begins to radiate beyond the visible spectrum. A thrumming sound, akin to that of a steady drumbeat, emanates from the Draegona Crystal set into Lazarus¡¯ armor.


    The drumbeat picks up a steady tempo and increases in frequency at a dramatic pace. The beat grows in rhythm so quickly that it now sounds like a buzzing insect and then a whistle. The whistle rises in pitch and nears the decibel range of a jet engine. A purple light stems from underneath Lazarus¡¯ palm moments before the ice wall shatters inwards. A lightning bolt of concentrated energy smashes into the ice, superheating it and vaporizing it into harmless steam. The house groans in distress as Lazarus steps into the demolished home once more.

 Chapter 14: Never Say Goodbye

    A few moments earlier...


    The floor was once again drenched in the barrage of the rain immediately after the front of the house exploded outwards. After Andrea released the overwhelmingly dangerous bombardment of ice, she slams the ice daggers into the ground. The blades pierce through the wooden floorboards and shriek as the freezing ice slides against the wood. The walls of the home begin to lean towards the back of the house, and the structure cracks as the hurricane force winds attempts to shove the house over.


    Rain sweeps in towards Andrea from the gaping hole in the house and strikes the ice daggers that are frozen to her fists. The ice from the knives reaches out in tendrils upon the floor and races towards the doorway, freezing the wet floor instantaneously. Once the ice reached the threshold of the home, it took a vertical turn and shot upwards towards the ceiling. The tendrils grew in the air like vines without a grip. With each droplet that hit the ice, it instantaneously froze and added to the wall of ice vines. Moments later, the holes between the ice vines had enclosed and encased the interior of the home in a thick wall of ice. Within a matter of seconds, the ice had replaced the structural damage, and the house finally settled back in place.


    Turning swiftly on her heels, Andrea wrenches the ice daggers out of the floor and turns towards the kitchen window. Throwing a quick right punch with the dagger frozen to her fist, she casts another ice wall spell at the window. A single needle of ice flies forth from the dagger and embeds itself into the bottom of the wooden window frame. Tendrils of ice reach out from the needle, and the ice vines cover the entire opening. The holes between the vines disappeared as the ice wall rapidly hardened in the window frame.


    Looking down at Vikta and Echo upon the ground, Andrea sighs and drops to her knees. Andrea says, ¡°You need to leave. Get Echo out of here and find Felix. My brother will know what to do next.¡±


    Vikta grunts as he props himself up on his elbows, ¡°That damn lizard broke my ankle. I¡¯m not going anywhere like this.¡±


    Andrea curses under her breath, ¡°Shit. It doesn¡¯t look good. It looks like your ankle is completely crushed, and several veins have been cut. You¡¯re bleeding out fast. The best I can do is set the bones in ice.¡±


    Vikta grimaces as he knows what comes next. Calming his nerves, Vikta utters, ¡°Do it.¡±


    Reaching down with one of the daggers, Andrea places the tip against the exposed muscles of Vikta¡¯s broken ankle. Upon contact, the vulnerable flesh flash freezes and his entire foot becomes encased in ice. Vikta howls and lets loose a blood-curdling screech of pain. The flesh near the ice puckers and turns red and then blue as it drains the heat from his tissue.


    Drained of energy Andrea starts breathing heavily and has to prop herself up on her hands and knees to keep from tumbling over from exhaustion. She begins to hyperventilate, and her breaths become ragged. Retching and heaving, Andrea vomits on the frozen floor in front of her. Falling over on her side, she begins having a seizure. Shaking uncontrollably, her eyes roll into the back of her head. The muscles in her arms and legs start constricting nonstop sending her limbs flailing wildly in every direction. She hunches over into a fetal position as her seizure continues without an end in sight.


    Vikta panics and screams, ¡°Andrea! No, no, no... Not now. Please not now. This isn¡¯t happening. Andrea!¡±


    Rolling over to his stomach, Vikta crawls over to Andrea¡¯s side by way of his arms and one good leg. Grunting with each movement, Vikta powered through the pain and swiftly crawled over to her. Each time the iced over ankle moved, he grimaced in pain but never stopped moving towards his wife. Reaching Andrea, Vikta propped himself up on his side and reached out for her arms.


    While they were facing each other, Vikta lunged out with his hands grabbed Andrea by the elbows. He was attempting to force her to stop flailing around with only his brute strength. Andrea was powerful, even for Vikta, and one of the ice daggers eventually clipped his shoulder. Vikta howled in pain once again as the unrestrained raw magic eviscerated anything it touched. The dagger sliced through and left a small scratch on his right shoulder, which immediately froze over and prevented any bleeding. One of the small ice daggers in her hand turned red as the ice consumed the blood it had touched and instantly integrated it into the weapon.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Vikta eventually gained dominance and was able to cross her arms and pin them in place. Vikta held back tears as his voice cracked, ¡°Fight through the pain. You¡¯ve been through this before.¡±


    Andrea continued with her seizure and showed no sign of stopping. Tears rolled down Vikta¡¯s face as sobbed on the floor in front of his wife. Vikta began shaking her softly as he cried out, ¡°Andrea... Please come back to me. You can¡¯t do this to us. You can¡¯t leave us like this. We need you. I NEED YOU!¡±


    Echo wakes at the sound of his father yelling and steadily blinks his eyes open. He sits up and rubs a red spot on his forehead. It was sore to the touch, and he grimaced as pain shot through his head with a searing headache. Echo looked over to his father and mother and assumed they were hugging on the floor until he noticed what was wrong. Echo panicked as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. Sitting speechless, Echo was struck dumbfounded with horror. He was watching his mother die from magical exhaustion.


    For a few moments, it looked as if nothing would change and this would be the end, but then Andrea began to slow her spasms and ragged breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, she started coming back to reality, and her eyes rolled forward to look at Vikta. Sobbing and gasping for air, Andrea says with a hoarse voice, ¡°I... I¡¯m not going anywhere, hun. Help me up.¡±


    While Vikta still has Andrea gripped by the elbows, they sit up together. Vikta let¡¯s go of her, and they begin hugging. Andrea makes an effort to keep the frozen daggers far away from him as she embraces Vikta and plants a kiss on his cheek. They let go of each other and turn their heads to look at Echo, who was already sitting upright and watching the both of them with an incredibly confounded expression. Looking past his parents, Echo noticed the massive ice wall and his face scrunched up in confusion.


    Echo asked, ¡°What the hell happened to our house!?¡±


    Vikta sighed, ¡°I¡¯ll explain later. Right now, we need to go.¡±


    Andrea coughed a few times and tried to regain her composure. Taking a deep breath, Andrea turns towards her husband who was still staring at Echo and says, ¡°No, you need to go. I¡¯ll hold off the big dumb lizard while you make your escape.¡±


    Vikta snaps his attention towards Andrea and growls, ¡°I¡¯m not leaving you here. You¡¯re coming with us. If anything it should be me taking on Lazarus. Not you.¡±


    Andrea sighed as she calmly says, ¡°What will you do, then? You¡¯ll hold him off for maybe a few seconds with that busted ankle. He¡¯ll just laugh at you and then chase us down. It¡¯s not like you¡¯ll be able to stop him. We¡¯ll never have enough time to make it to the train if you argue with me on this. I¡¯m staying and giving you more time to run. There¡¯s no other way.¡±


    Vikta hesitates for a few moments, and then grabs Andrea by the cheeks and plants a long kiss on her lips. As they embrace, they both begin sobbing, and their lips shiver as they touch for the final time. With streams of tears on his face, Vikta pulls away and says in a soft voice, ¡°I love you. I¡¯ll come looking for you. I¡¯ll find you and save you. I promise.¡±


    Andrea gives a slight smile between his palms as tears begin rolling down her face and over Vikta¡¯s fingertips. Vikta let¡¯s go as Andrea turns her head back to Echo and asks, ¡°Can you help your father get up? His ankle is busted, and he¡¯ll need your help to get out of here.¡±


    Echo simply said, ¡°But mom... What about you?¡±


    Andrea snapped, ¡°Just get to the train and make haste for Launch Central. Get off this planet with Felix. He¡¯ll be able to protect you while your father heals up. Now get going. I¡¯ll be alright.¡±


    Getting up from his spot on the floor. Echo walks over to Vikta and attempts to lift him by his arms. Vikta helps with his one good leg as the young man raises him. Echo slings Vikta¡¯s left arm over his shoulders and lets his father put the weight down on him to prop himself up.


    As the duo stands together, with Vikta¡¯s left arm over Echo¡¯s shoulders, Vikta says, ¡°Let¡¯s climb out through your bedroom window and run to the train. It¡¯s our best option right now.¡±


    Andrea began standing up from the floor with her ice daggers still in hand. Once she was standing, she glared at her ice wall at the front of the home. Her arms drooped heavily by her side as she shifted her feet into a fighter¡¯s stance once more. Vikta and Echo turned towards the bedroom hallway and began walking towards the room at the end. Halfway down the hall, Echo stopped in place and turned his head to look over his shoulder.


    Vikta coughs as he turns his eyes to Echo and asks, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? We need to keep moving.¡±


    Echo¡¯s lips shiver as he says, ¡°I just wanted to say goodbye.¡±


    Vikta turns his head fully toward the young man, and the two of them stare at each other for a long moment. Vikta glares heavily into Echo''s eyes as he says flatly, ¡°Never say goodbye. Goodbye is forever.¡±


    Those words would torment Echo for the rest of his life.

 Chapter 15: Dangerous Prisoner

    The ice wall in front of Andrea evaporated before her eyes, and her arms sprung up in defense. The steam was pushed into the home by the storm, flowed past Andrea in a large cloud of hot mist, and traveled down the hallway, before finally disappearing under Echo¡¯s bedroom door. Lazarus steps forth through the demolished front wall. The wooden structure creaks as the house struggles to stay upright in the intense wind.


    Andrea and Lazarus stood only a few meters apart from each other, hate and contempt for one another boiling in their eyes. Andrea stood her ground in a defensive stance and waited for Lazarus to make the first move. She was outmatched on her own, and she knew it. All she could do for now is hold off the Skera for enough time, so her family could escape to the train.


    Lazarus stood still for a moment and studied his opponent. A smile spread across his face when he noticed how weak Andrea looked. Her knees buckled and shook. The droplet of red ice on her chin had finally melted and dropped to the floor. In one hand Andrea wielded a dagger of blue ice and in the other was a dagger of blood ice, created from the wound she inadvertently inflicted on Vikta¡¯s shoulder. Her hands trembled as she struggled to remain still. She stood up feebly and straightened her legs, stopping them from shaking. Solidifying her resolve, she gritted her teeth and waited for the attack.


    Without speaking, Lazarus began undoing his collar and dropped the cape to the floor. The cape flew into the home and took a sharp turn down the hallway. Lazarus¡¯ smile grew ever larger upon seeing this. Andrea flinched for a moment and glanced down the hallway. Growling at Lazarus, she returned to her defensive stance. Reaching down, Lazarus began unbuckling his weapons belt. Grabbing it with his claws, he slung the sword and pistol to the side, and they hit the floor with a heavy thud. Lazarus mirrored Andrea¡¯s defensive stance and dug his clawed feet into the wooden floor, creating deep grooves upon its surface.


    Lazarus spoke while putting up his guard to protect his abdomen and face, ¡°I¡¯m going to assume they¡¯ve escaped through the window and are making their way to the train as I speak. They can go ahead and run if they want to.¡±


    Andrea asked inquisitively through gritted teeth, ¡°You¡¯re awfully content with the fact that they are getting away. What is it that you want? The thrill of the hunt? Or do you just like being a sadistic bastard?¡±


    Lazarus chuckled, ¡°You¡¯re overlooking the obvious. I¡¯m exactly where I need to be. I¡¯ve got orders to bring you in. Not Vikta. He¡¯s nothing more than a nuisance to me and completely useless to our organization. I was going to toy with him a bit more before crushing every bone in his body. As for your son, he¡¯s nothing more than a passing scientific interest. His genetics could be useful to us. However, we don¡¯t really have much of a use for him either. You¡¯re a high-value target with some interesting capabilities, Andrea. The BMT Council would be keenly interested to hear about how you were able to cast unaugmented magic.¡±


    Andrea¡¯s face drained of color as she responded, ¡°You will never take me back to that hellhole alive. I¡¯d rather die than to let you do experiments on me again.¡±


    Lazarus returned to a neutral expression before continuing, ¡°Oh, really? We can¡¯t afford for our precious experiment to become irreparably damaged. I¡¯m not going to kill you. I¡¯m just going to crush your body until you stop fighting back. Drop your weapons. It¡¯s over. You¡¯re coming with me back to base whether you want to or not.¡±


    There was no warning when the house finally fell apart. The roof peeled away from the walls and flew upwards like a sail in the wind. The walls buckled and cracked as the storm ripped the house to shreds. The wall in the back caved and fell over into the backyard, bringing the rest of the house with it. When the rest of the walls caved and took flight in the hurricane, there was nothing left but the wooden floorboards attached to the foundation. The storm had reached a crescendo as it ripped the house apart piece by piece. The wind raged ever harder as the lightning blazed brightly all around them. Lazarus and Andrea struggled to stand upright in the intense hurricane force winds.


    Andrea¡¯s faced scrunched up in anger as the Skera seemed to grow impatient with every passing moment. Lashing out, Andrea rushed the Skera while swinging the ice daggers up over her head. Stepping to one side, Lazarus dodged the ice daggers as they came down towards his head. Pivoting on one foot and twisting his hips, Lazarus delivered a devastating knee strike to Andrea¡¯s stomach. Sparks flew forth from his armored kneecap as it struck Andrea and the crystal in the center of his armored backplate blazed to life with a deep purple.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Andrea hunched forward and dropped to her knees. She was forced to use her hands to keep from falling to the floor. The air had been knocked out of her, and she struggled to take in any breaths. All she could do is gasp and try, but no air would go into her lungs. As Andrea was still trying to breathe, Lazarus backed up slightly and stomped hard on each dagger, shattering them like brittle glass. All she was left with was simple splinters of wood in her cold hands.


    Lazarus backed up before yelling through the howling wind, ¡°Give it up, Andrea! You have no chance of defeating me. You¡¯re only going to be hurting yourself at this point.¡±


    Andrea finally regained some air and looked up from the ground and into the eyes of her assailant. Her eyes showed that she was dangerously close to losing her sanity. The pure unadulterated fury was pouring through every inch of her being. Without saying a single word, she flew up from the ground at the Skera. She spun on her heels and swung one of the wooden splinters in a wide arc at Lazarus¡¯ head. Lazarus leans backward on his clawed feet, and she narrowly misses him.


    Andrea follows up with a flurry of lethal punches aimed at slicing the Skera open with the splinters. Each time she strikes out, he narrowly dodges the blow. Left hook. Right hook. Left jab. Right uppercut. Nothing connects. No matter how fast she is, Lazarus is faster. The Skera¡¯s head bobs up and down, side to side as he dodges the killing blows. Finally one of the blows connects, and a large streak of red blood seeps out from Lazarus¡¯ right cheek.


    Lazarus shrieks in rage and catches Andrea¡¯s wrist as she throws her next punch. Surprised, but not backing down, Andrea throws a punch with her other free hand. Lazarus promptly grabs her other wrist mid-punch. He squeezes hard on Andrea¡¯s arms, attempting to break them. Her wrists pop as the pressure on them grows larger by the second. Finally, the small bones in her wrists snap and break. Andrea cries and screams in pain as the remains of the ice daggers fall to the floor. The wooden splinters are caught by the wind and are sent flying away into the darkness. Without wasting another moment, Lazarus headbutts the disarmed Andrea on her chin, sending her head whirling backward from the force of the blow.


    Still dazed from the shock of being headbutted, Andrea blearily looks through her drooping eyelids to notice one final attack. Lazarus let¡¯s go of her busted wrists and places one of his massive legs behind her ankles. With a single uppercut to the stomach, Lazarus lands another solid hit that sends sparks flying from his body and into hers. Andrea coughs once as her body goes limp. The force of the punch sends her flying over Lazarus¡¯ leg, and she falls to the floor, unconscious and motionless.


    Lazarus turns his head to check his surroundings and notices Lieutenant Hellhound standing still behind him. Lazarus growls, ¡°What are you doing just standing there? Are the injured soldiers taken care of?¡±


    The lone soldier responds while walking past the Skera commander, ¡°Yes, sir. Many of the soldiers are already aboard the Valkyries. All of them are seriously injured and most will never recover. Is the high-value target still alive?¡±


    Lazarus sighs as he replies loudly to talk over the wind, ¡°She is, but not for long if we don¡¯t get her on board the ship soon. She¡¯s a tough customer. She¡¯ll live. Restrain her, now. I don¡¯t want her getting loose aboard the ship. That would be bad for all of us. She is to be designated as an extremely dangerous prisoner. A minimum of two soldiers are to be watching her at all times, and she is to be placed in full-body restraints. We can¡¯t afford to have another incident like this.¡±


    Hellhound turns around and walks over to Andrea¡¯s limp body. Reaching to the side,Hellhound then grabs a large bundle of metal out of the backpack that the soldier was wearing. The soldier then gets to work unfolding the pieces and snapping them together. Lazarus smirks as he watches the new Lieutenant wrap Andrea¡¯s legs and arms in the metallic restraints. The cuffs clip around her hands and ankles and binds them together like an animal that has been subdued. The restraints are not designed like your typical prison cuffs for they do not allow any movement for the prisoner. A solid bar of metal connects her hands while another restrains her feet. Between them is another, long bar that joins the other two bars together.


    Hellhound asks as he stands up, ¡°What will we do about the other fugitives, sir?¡±


    As Hellhound picks up the limp woman by her restraints, Lazarus responds, ¡°The fugitives are escaping by train and are heading for Launch Central. We¡¯ll have to chase them down in the Valkyrie. Let¡¯s get this prisoner on board the ship as soon as we can. We still have work to do.¡±

 Chapter 16: Escape

    A few moments ago...


    Echo places his father down on the floor of his bedroom, turns, and slams the door to the hallway shut. The door bangs close with a massive thud, which shakes the walls. Turning around once again, Echo sprints for the window and grabs the latch near the bottom.


    As Echo pulls up on the window to open it, Vikta says from his spot on the floor, ¡°Grab the physics book that I gave you for your birthday. It¡¯s extremely important.¡±


    Echo turns his head as the window opens and asks, ¡°What¡¯s so important about it? It¡¯s just a book.¡±


    Vikta barks, ¡°It¡¯s not just a book! It¡¯s so much more than that. Don¡¯t question me, dammit. We need that book!¡±


    The bedroom door bursts open and rips itself from the hinges. The door crashes into the floor next to Vikta and slides towards the window. The door clips Echo on the ankle, but he quickly steps up onto the door to avoid getting tripped up. The wind howls through the front of the house, down the hallway, and out the window. Moments later, Lazarus'' cape flies down the hallway and past Echo''s head. The cape is pitched out the window by the wind and disappears into the night. Turning back around, Echo noticed Andrea at the end of the hallway taking up a defensive fighter''s stance and she glances over at him for a moment.


    Echo doesn''t waste any time and runs over to his desk. He grabs the closed physics book that he had used as a pillow the night before. The book was in immaculate condition and was bound in a black hardcover binding. On the front, in gold lettering, it merely said ¡®Advanced Physics: A Master Guide to the Universe¡¯. Jogging back over to Vikta, Echo picks him up off the ground and supports him once again with his shoulders.


    Vikta winces as his frozen ankle strikes the floor and sends a hot stinging sensation up his leg. The two of them hobble over to the window. Echo helps his father through the gap, first by helping his busted leg through the window and then the rest of him. Vikta promptly falls over into the mud and lands on his side. As he fell, he accidentally put pressure on his bad ankle and yelped in pain.


    Echo clambers out the window with ease and picks Vikta up from the mud. His father is covered head to toe in the thick mud with a sour expression of discomfort. Vikta''s ankle was clearly bothering him every step of the way. The large man grunted each time his busted foot grazed against the ground. The two of them make their way to the back of the house uncontested. With no soldiers in sight, they begin making their way over to the train storage building. Halfway to the building and a gust of wind slams into their backs as the storm reaches a crescendo.


    The wind flings Echo and Vikta face first into the mud, covering them completely. With his father''s arm still draped over his shoulder, Echo helps Vikta up just in time for a long piece of wood to smack against Echo¡¯s back. The hardwood makes a loud slapping sound as it hits the young man and he flinches from the pain. Luckily, the wood hadn¡¯t done any damage to him other than to his pride. Echo turns his head to see where the piece of wood had come from and gapes in astonishment. His house was completely gone. The wind had shredded the house apart, and massive pieces of wall and ceiling were hurtling in their general direction.


    Echo screams out as his pushes his father back into the mud, ¡°GET DOWN!¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    The massive debris narrowly misses them as it flies overhead. A few pieces of thick plywood fall on top of them, pushing them further into the mud before being picked up again by the wind and hurled away at top speed. Shingles and wood whipped over their heads, traveling at deadly speeds from being launched by the extreme winds. Waiting for a few moments for the wreckage to pass by, Echo then props himself up on his hands and looks behind once again to make sure there wasn¡¯t any more debris flying at them. The lightning flashed overhead, and he could see Lazarus and Andrea already in a heated fight. The Skera seemed to get the upper hand quickly as he dodged Andrea''s first blow and slammed into her chest with a knee strike. Echo watched his mother hunch over and fall to the floor. His eyes widened in shock at the sight of his mother being brutally attacked. Lazarus just stood there, shouting at Andrea. At this distance, Echo was unable to make out what they were saying through the rushing winds.


    Vikta picks his head up from the mud and screams over the wind, ¡°We can¡¯t stay around here any longer! It''s too dangerous!¡±


    Echo nods his head at Vikta and pushes himself up from the mud. Quickly losing strength from carrying his father, Echo struggles to pick up Vikta from the mud. It takes longer than before, and Echo stumbles a few times when the wind blows harder than expected. Finally, with much effort, the two of them stand up together and quickly limp over to the train storage entrance. Echo swings the door open, and a loud shriek pierces his ear. Echo lifts an arm to reach over and turn off the alarm, but Vikta sharply smacks Echo¡¯s hand away. Undeterred by the loud noise, Echo and Vikta then limp over to the train engine cabin.


    Climbing up first, Echo helps his father up by grabbing his hands and pulling upwards. Vikta hops up the ladder with his one good leg as he uses Echo to balance himself. Once aboard, they made their way into the cabin of the train. Safely inside the quiet cabin compartment, Vikta says, ¡°We need that alarm to go off. They didn¡¯t cut the power to this building because it basically runs off of wind and solar energy. The alarm will notify Launch Central of the break-in. Not that they can do anything about it now, but at least they¡¯ll know something¡¯s wrong. We need to get this train moving as soon as possible. Andrea can¡¯t hold off Lazarus for very long. Hand me the book, kiddo.¡±


    Echo helped his father sit in the passenger seat on one side and then sat down in the train conductor¡¯s chair. As Vikta gets comfortable in his chair, Echo hands over the book and again is astonished to find it completely clean. The book was untouched by the mud, and not a single crease was to be found on its surface. The mud just fell off the surface and wouldn''t leave behind a single mark. Vikta brushed the cover with his muddy hand. The mud from his hand transferred over to the surface of the book but slipped off with ease and dropped onto the floor.


    Vikta noticed Echo¡¯s reaction and said, ¡°Did you see that? Completely clean. I told you it¡¯s not just an old physics book. This one is special.¡±


    Echo tore his eyes away from the strange book and began to power up the train. Looking up from the dashboard, Echo noticed that the door covering the tracks was still closed. Echo jogged out of the cabin, jumped down from the walkway on the side of the train, and sprinted towards the massive steel door. Going over to one side of the door, Echo found another black box just like the alarm box on the other side. Flipping open a flap on the front, Echo punched in a code, and the huge metal door began sliding open. Sprinting back to the train, Echo hopped up onto its side and opened the cabin door.


    Sitting down in the conductor¡¯s chair once again, Echo pushed forward on the acceleration lever, and the train lurched forward. Echo pushed the lever all the way up to max speed, but the train was slow to respond. With eight shipment containers attached to the back of the train engine, there was literal tons of mass to pull. Once the train fully exited the building, it rapidly gained momentum. Vikta and Echo were finally making their grand escape but left behind a piece of themselves with Andrea. Both of them yearned to turn back and save her, but neither of them spoke about it. Echo began sobbing as the train picked up speed. Vikta drooped his head is disdain and regret. There was nothing more they could do for now. All they could do is escape their worst nightmare.

 Chapter 17: Emergency Alert

    Felix Sutherland steps out of his personal shower onboard ¡®The Zealot¡¯. The steam lifts off of his muscular body in wisps of smoky mist. Grabbing an oversized towel off of the sink counter, he quickly dries off and wraps the towel around his waist. His amber tinted Draegona Crystal swings from side to side on the golden necklace. The thick opaque crystal slaps against his chest as he walks out of the bathroom.


    The door to the bathroom was already wide open, and hot steam had filled up his quarters in the ship. Small and quaint, the room contains a large bed, a television, a desk with a computer workstation, and a small closet. The walls were solid steel with various posters of old sci-fi movies on them. It was large enough to live conveniently but it is cramped, and there isn¡¯t enough room to comfortably walk between the objects.


    Walking around his bed, Felix makes his way over to the closet when he notices a red light blinking near the bottom of his computer monitor. The computer belches out a beeping tone every few seconds. Felix abandons getting dressed and leaves the towel wrapped around his waist. His bulky muscles ripple underneath his skin as he leans over and clicks on the monitor. Jacob¡¯s plump face immediately fills up the entirety of the computer monitor.


    Backing up and sitting down on the bed, Felix flexes his muscles and stretches his huge arms over his head as Jacob asks, ¡°Where have you been? I¡¯ve been pinging your ship with requests for you to come to Launch Control. We have a problem.¡±


    Felix says as he continues to stretch, ¡°I was in the shower. What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Jacob sighs, ¡°We have a security alert.¡±


    Felix stops stretching and scoffs as he points his palm face up at the computer monitor, ¡°So what? It¡¯s not like I can do anything about it. Jacob... Get the guards to take care of it. I¡¯m not sure why you would call a pilot about a security issue.¡±


    Jacob pauses for a moment before responding. He holds his breath for longer than expected. Felix¡¯s expression grows confused as he watches Jacob struggle to say what was on his mind. Jacob was obviously upset and carefully choosing his next words.


    Jacob continues, ¡°It¡¯s your family, Felix. Multiple alarms have notified us of many different security anomalies at the Sullivan Estate. We can¡¯t connect to the internal camera footage for their home, so we can only assume that the house has been destroyed in the storm. Also, the train storage building alarm has gone off, and the train has left the building. We were able to connect to the security footage of that particular building and noticed Vikta and Echo limping over to the train. We never saw Andrea board the train with them before it left traveling at top speed. We¡¯re not sure what happened to her...¡±


    Felix interjects, and his face scrunches up in a furious rage as he points at the computer screen with a massive finger, ¡°What the fuck, Jacob!? I¡¯m coming down there now! I want answers! Not a god damned debrief!¡±


    Jacob pauses and takes in a deep breath before attempting to say something he might regret, ¡°Felix... Please calm down. There¡¯s nothing we can do with the hurricane overhead. We¡¯ll have to wait until the storm passes. It¡¯s too dangerous out there. Come to Launch Control with a clear head and don¡¯t act like a jackass. We need you to be calm in this situation. We¡¯re not sure what to expect next.¡±Stolen story; please report.


    Felix slams his fist through the computer monitor, breaking the screen and punching a hole through the middle of the dense glass. The computer¡¯s speaker that is next to the monitor was still alive with Jacob¡¯s voice, ¡°This is exactly what I was afraid of. If you can¡¯t contain yourself when you get down here, I¡¯ll have security throw you into a cell for the night. Chill the hell out, Felix. I will not tolerate you foolishly getting angry and hurting someone in this facility. I¡¯m worried that we¡¯ll have to arrest you. I don¡¯t want to do that.¡±


    Felix growls as he stands up and stomps over to the closet. He flings the sliding door open and yanks a thick yellow cotton shirt off of the rack. As he dresses, he talks over his shoulder at the broken computer which was thankfully still working, ¡°It¡¯s not me you have to worry about. You should be more worried about who would possibly attack my family on Keto. This planet is protected by the Takeda. This could be a bigger problem than we expect. It could mean war... Or executions.¡±


    Jacob¡¯s voice comes through uncertain, ¡°What the hell are you talking about, Felix? Have you gone mad?¡±


    Felix grabs a white rain jacket and throws it over his shoulder before sitting down again. His head droops down, and he grits his teeth in confusion before continuing, ¡°It just doesn¡¯t make any sense. Why would they leave a perfectly good storm bunker in the middle of the storm? Even if the house was destroyed, they would have been safe in the storm shelter for weeks. They have food, water, and circulated air. Only a madman would travel by train in winds this harsh. Something¡¯s very wrong. Vikta would never leave Andrea behind... Alive or dead.¡±


    Jacob says calmly, ¡°You have a good point. We weren¡¯t sure why they would leave the storm shelter either. Are you sure that they might be under attack? It¡¯s a bit of a stretch if you ask me. We haven¡¯t seen any signs or alerts of possible intruders landing on the planet.¡±


    Felix begins putting on the raincoat before standing and grabbing a pair of cargo pants from the closet. He places the pants down on the bed before turning his head to look at the busted computer monitor. Felix slows down his voice as he speaks, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure... And whoever decided to attack them is bad news for us too if they were able to bypass both planetside and wormhole security. Whoever or whatever Vikta is running from must be more dangerous than the storm. He would never run from a fight. Especially if it meant protecting my sister. He promised me that he would protect her no matter what. We should go on high-alert, especially if they end up being derailed nearby Launch Central. It could end up being a catastrophe if we don¡¯t warn the employees of the incoming train.¡±


    Jacob says, ¡°I don¡¯t like doing this, but you¡¯re right. If they derail next to the facility, we could end up seeing a bigger disaster than this storm could ever cause.¡±


    Jacob goes silent on the computer speakers for a few moments. Felix then heard Jacob¡¯s voice in the distance calling out over the Launch Central loudspeakers, ¡°Attention all security and emergency personnel... The alert level has been increased to red-alert. This is not a drill. I repeat... Alert level raised to red-alert. All security personnel are to be on permanent standby until directed otherwise. Emergency personnel, please report to rail eight as soon as possible. We have an incoming transport train traveling at high speeds on rail eight and a possible train derailment soon.¡±


    Jacob clicks off the loudspeakers and returns to talking to Felix, who has now finished getting dressed. In the distance, a siren begins wailing at a loud volume. The siren was loud enough to pierce the thick hull of Felix¡¯s ship and reach his ears. Jacob¡¯s voice comes through harsh and precise, ¡°You had better be right about this, dammit. We¡¯re paying overtime for those guards to be on standby. If you¡¯re wrong, we¡¯ll have to pull this from your pay for being responsible.¡±


    Felix gets up from the bed and walks over to his bedroom door, which was still bolted shut. As Felix opens the heavy metal door and walks out, he says, ¡°No need to threaten me with pay deductions, Jacob. I¡¯m sure about this. We have bigger problems than a superstorm. Get those security guards ready for a fight.¡±

 Chapter 18: Desperate Answers

    Steel screeched against steel and the wheels of the locomotive sparked against the rails sending out a yellow glow against the crops outside. The transport containers rock violently from side to side threatening to derail the train. The wind brutally slammed against the containers, causing them to teeter precariously at an odd angle before they came smashing back down onto the rails. Traveling as fast as the wind, the locomotive flies down the tracks at an absurd speed, and the interior of the cabin aggressively shakes with the vibrations. Rattling loudly, the sound of the speeding hunk of metal pierces the ears of Vikta and Echo.


    Forced to yell over the sound of everything rattling to its core, Echo shouts, ¡°We need to slow down! The hydraulic fluid is getting too hot! If we don¡¯t get killed by the hydraulics bursting, then we¡¯ll definitely be killed by the train slamming into the blast shield at the end of the tracks!¡±


    Vikta shouts as well, ¡°No! Don¡¯t slow down! We need to make it to Launch Central before they catch us!¡±


    Echo asks in a loud tone, ¡°Who are theyanyways? They were hauling some complicated cutting-edge gear with them and that Skera was damn scary.¡±


    Vikta shakes his head and grits his teeth as he looks down to check on his ankle. Thankfully, the magical ice was still holding strong and protecting his vulnerable muscles and bones. The ice was beginning to sweat and melt but was still thick enough to keep him from bleeding out. Unfortunately, the ice underneath the surface was starting to turn red, and he was internally hemorrhaging blood. It wouldn¡¯t take long until he passed out from blood loss as it was beginning to build up inside his lower leg and wasn¡¯t traveling back to his heart. Vikta returned to talking with Echo after checking his ankle. His time was short, and he felt that his son deserved, to a certain degree, an answer to his question.


    Vikta answers, ¡°They are from the BMT Society. An extremist and militaristic organization that controls all technological and magical progress in the galaxy.¡±


    Echo goes pale as he asks, ¡°The BMT? BioMagiTech!? Aren¡¯t they supposed to be that scientific society full of geniuses?¡±


    Vikta shouts, ¡°Yes, that BMT. Don¡¯t believe the news articles that you read about them on the InfoNet. They are not the benevolent scientists that the news says they are and they have become tremendously adept at hiding their mistakes from the general public. They are the kind of geniuses that are smart enough to get away with murder. Some really fucked up things happen in that organization. Some very questionable ethics are involved too. Some would call it war crimes, and others would call it playing god. They like to call it progress. They control the flow of biological, magical, and technological advancements as they own all the best scientists from around the galaxy on their payroll. If they catch us, we¡¯ll become slaves to their experiments. Especially you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just a farm boy. I have nothing that they could want. We¡¯ve been here on Keto since I was born. To become a plaything for a scientist is unheard of as far as I know. I have never read anything like that about BioMagiTech in the Andromeda Galactic News articles. Why would they want me for experimentation?¡± Echo asks as he shakes his head in confusion and shrugs his shoulders. He was shocked that he had become the target of possibly the most powerful scientific organization in the entirety of the Andromeda galaxy.


    Vikta yells, ¡°Because you¡¯re my son. They don¡¯t need any other reason than that to pull you apart piece by piece. There¡¯s something different about your genetics because of what they did to your mother and me before you were born. Genetically speaking, you¡¯re not even supposed to exist. We were both diagnosed as being sterile, or at least that¡¯s what they had told us while they were prodding us with needles and modifying our genes to their pleasure. It¡¯s possibly the reason you were born with purple eyes. We¡¯re still not sure why though. It¡¯s kind of hard to explain right now with them chasing us down and this damn hunk of metal screeching so god damned loudly. Son of a bitch, this busted ankle keeps throbbing.¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Echo¡¯s face scrunches up in confusion. He turns his head to glare at his father in the passenger seat. Echo turns his head even further to look over his shoulder at the monitor on the back wall. The readout for the power was still in the green, but the hydraulic temperature gauge had just turned from orange to red.


    Echo turns his head back to his father before saying, ¡°We¡¯re okay on power, but if we run the engine this hot for much longer, then the hydraulics are going to blow. We¡¯re still a few kilometers from Launch Central. I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to make it.¡±


    Vikta turns his head, and his eyes widen with fright. He begins babbling to himself in a low undertone, ¡°We have to make it. We have to. I can¡¯t let her down. I promised her that we would save her. We can¡¯t let them...¡±


    Vikta¡¯s eyes roll into the back of his head as he loses consciousness and slumps in his chair. Even with the ice protecting his broken ankle, Vikta had lost too much blood due to internal bleeding. The ice had melted against his warm blood. A trickle of blood droplets seeps out from cracks in the ice and stains the floor around his foot in a deep red. The ice wound on his shoulder that Andrea caused had finally melted as well. The dark red blood tarnished his undershirt and spilled out through the gash in the thick leather jacket in small rivers of red.


    Echo noticed Vikta fall unconscious and began shaking his dad¡¯s arm while yelling, ¡°Hey! No! Don¡¯t leave me to do this alone. I can¡¯t do this without you! WAKE UP! DAD! WAKE UP!¡±


    Echo began punching his father in the arm in a futile attempt to keep him from passing out. It was too late. Vikta had already lost too much blood, but he was still breathing in a light sleep. Passed out but not dead, Vikta had only a few minutes before he would desperately need medical attention. While Echo was paying attention to his father passing out from blood loss, he failed to notice that the crops out the passenger side window were suddenly brightly lit in the midst of the nighttime hurricane.


    A massive arrowhead shaped black tank cruiser pulls up beside the locomotive, matching its speed. Its large spotlight on the top turns to bathe the train in the radiant white light. The tank plows through the crops upon four spherical wheels set into the bottom of the ship which allows the vehicle to travel in all four directions on the ground at top speed. Slick in design, the edges of the vessel were sharp and aerodynamic. It was large enough to fit up to two fully equipped squads of soldiers. Upon the top of the tank cruiser sat an enormous gauss cannon which could be fitted with various ammunition and ordinance. Dual jet engines are attached to the back end of the arrowhead-shaped design, as well as a propeller in the middle. The Valkyrie class stealth tank cruiser is a high-tech and cutting-edge design built for air, sea, and land combat.


    The tank cruiser pulls ahead of the locomotive and without warning, changes direction and jumps over the hill that the trains tracks are on. Landing on the other side of the train with a small bounce, the cruiser makes a sharp spin and begins traveling sideways while still matching the speed of the train. The front tip of the arrowhead design was now pointed at the locomotive with strong intentions of malice and hostility. On the side that the tank cruiser was previously on, another Valkyrie pulls up next to the locomotive. The second tank cruiser also spins to face the train as it continuously plows through the fields of crops. Spotlights from both Valkyries lit up the sides of the train in a harsh luminescent white light that turned day into night. The mammoth-sized gauss cannons of the tank cruisers come to life and begin rotating to acquire their first target for the night.

 Chapter 19: Train Wreck

    The gauss cannons power up, and a blue spark is emitted from the barrels of the Valkyrie tank cruisers. They each launch a grappling hook at the first container behind the train engine with an immense supersonic blast that shakes the air. The sharp bang of the gauss cannons surprises Echo, who was still attempting to wake up his unconscious father. Echo spins away from his dad to look out the conductor¡¯s side window to find a tank cruiser firmly attached to the locomotive.


    The grappling hooks are composed of four titanium carbide claws that latch onto the container and pierce its thick steel. A dense steel cable protrudes from the back of the grappling hooks and leads to the inner barrel of the gauss cannons. Both tanks begin spinning their wheels in the opposite direction in an attempt to slow down the train. The engines of the tanks roar as they throw their transmissions into full reverse. The locomotive begins to slow down and the hydraulic driven wheels under the train engine squeal in protest. Massive sparks of metal are thrown up around the train as it struggles to break away from the grappling hooks.


    In his moment of panic, Echo slams his fist into a large red button on the conductor¡¯s console that read ¡®Emergency Release¡¯. A loud pop shakes the train engine as the pin holding the containers to the locomotive is blasted upwards and over the back of the train. Hissing noises resound from inside the cabin as a tremendous amount of air pressure is released to pop the pin off the connector between the engine and the containers. The train lurches forward, and the locomotive engine begins to outrun the chaos that Echo had just caused.


    The eight shipment containers that were being hauled behind the locomotive engine finally topple over when released from the train. Without the engine to weigh down the empty containers, they are thrown off the tracks by the intense hurricane force winds. All of the containers fall to one side as they bunch up and are tossed about like a ship on the open ocean.


    One of the tank cruisers failed to break away from the shipment containers in time and is instantly crushed under the immense weight and momentum of the wreck. A container lands on top of the tank cruiser, crushing it with devastating force, and the jet fuel inside detonates with a massive shockwave. An enormous jet fuel fire begins to engulf one side of the crops behind the train engine as it leaves the wreckage in its wake. The wind and rain are unable to put out the intensely blazing jet fuel fire, and it spreads quickly across the fields.


    The other tank cruiser had luckily detached its grappling cable just in time to avoid being pulled into the wreckage. The Valkyrie spins and darts forward, quickly gaining speed and catching up to the locomotive engine. The tank rotates its barrel to point at the wheels underneath the train. Another supersonic shockwave breaks the air around the gauss cannon with blue sparks. It fires a colossal titanium slug through the wheels and punctures the hydraulic reservoir located on the bottom of the engine. Low-pressure amber hydraulic fluid flows out of the holes on each side of the reservoir and covers the tracks underneath.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Raising its gauss cannon at a high angle, the Valkyrie lets loose another titanium round into the engine compartment behind the train cabin. The round punches a hole right through the hydraulic powered engine block, shredding pistons and gears like soft tissue paper. High-pressure amber fluid begins spraying out the sides of the engine block, and onto the walkway on each side of the engine. With a loud clank and a bang, the engine throws a piston through the top of the engine block, further causing irreparable damage to the locomotive. The hydraulic pump begins to whistle at a low frequency as it struggles to pump the fluid from the reservoir and into the engine. The engine system is completely drained of liquid in a matter of seconds, and the hydraulic pump begins whistling at a deafening pitch and volume. Echo is forced to cover his ears due to the high-pitch of the struggling pump.


    The wheels on locomotive seize up, and the brakes lock without notice. The Valkyrie fires its gauss cannon for a final time, striking the wheels on both sides. The round pierces through the two steel discs. Various wheels below the engine wobble and the axles shatter in half. One of the shafts gets pinned between the locomotive and the rails. The train engine derails as the back end of the locomotive is vaulted up and off the tracks.


    The Valkyrie tank cruiser slows down to avoid getting caught up in the chaos of the wreckage. The train is thrown to its side and begins careening through the crops. With no signs of stopping, the train engine slams into a wooden house near Launch Central. The impact of the train against the building causes the house to erupt in an explosion of wood that flies in all directions. The derailed locomotive flips end over end, essentially performing a roll as it tumbles through building after building. Debris left in its wake spills out onto the ground, but thankfully no one was in the buildings as the area in front of the train had already been evacuated.


    Grinding to a halt about a half of a kilometer from the Launch Central tower, the locomotive was in shambles. Echo and his father had been tossed about in the cabin but were miraculously still alive. Beaten and bruised, Echo groaned from inside the cabin. Opening his eyes, Echo observed that the train engine was lying on its side. He was currently laying on top of his father¡¯s chest. Vikta¡¯s torso rose and fell slowly to the rhythm of his breathing. Echo sighed in relief that his father was still alive, but there wasn¡¯t much time left. He still had to pull Vikta from the wreckage and get him to a medical facility as soon as possible. There was still a chance to save his father, but their ordeal was far from over.

 Chapter 20.1: Assault On Launch Central

    Detonations shake the air and ground accompanied by intense flashes of light. A phrenzied battle over the locomotive breaks out all around Echo and Vikta as the young man struggles to sit up in the cabin compartment of the train engine. The rumble of a full-scale skirmish between Launch Central Security and BioMagiTech soldiers causes the ground to shake nonstop.


    Echo sits up and looks out the cracked windshield of the demolished locomotive. The darkness outside is revealed not by the lightning, but by an intense explosion. For a brief moment, Echo can see nothing but a wooden wall of a destroyed farmhouse. The train had come tumbling to a standstill inside of a homestead nearby Launch Central. The interior wall of the house is instantaneously blown apart by the concussive air pressure of the blast. Shrapnel from the wall pelts the locomotive and the windshield shatters. Glass is thrown everywhere into the cabin compartment, showering Echo and Vikta in a barrage of sharp debris. Echo throws his arms up in a cross pattern just in time to defend his vulnerable face from the stinging fragments of glass.


    Receiving a few shallow cuts on his thick leather jacket, Echo was relatively unharmed from the shrapnel caused by the blast. The wall of the destroyed house and the locomotive windshield had taken the brunt of the force generated by the explosive munitions. Echo¡¯s ears began to ring, causing intense pain. The concussive blast had nearly blown out his eardrums. His balance was thrown out of whack, and he started feeling sick as the shock from the explosion had finally set in. The sounds around him became muffled, and he forced himself to set his head back down on Vikta¡¯s chest. The interior of the cabin looked as if it was spinning in front of his eyes. He also felt as if he desperately needed to throw up but was unable to. In medical terms, Echo is currently dealing with what is called an acoustic shock, in which the high decibel range coupled with the air pressure from the explosion causes hearing and balance loss.


    While still laying down, Echo turned his head to look out the ruined windshield of the locomotive. The world seemed to tilt upside down as he turned his head and Echo groaned in protest. His vision was a blur to him, and he was barely able to recognize the dark silhouette of a BMT soldier stepping over the remains of the farmhouse wall. The darkened form of the soldier raises his gauss rifle and points it directly at Echo. Moving forward slowly, the soldier steps into the vertical opening of the broken windshield.


    With his weapon still pointed at Echo, the soldier flips on a flashlight to examine the inside of the train cabin. Echo turns his eyes to look into the light of the flashlight. The soldier notices the movement of the young man and pauses in his advance. Reaching up to a spot near his neck with his left hand, the soldier clicks on his comms unit and speaks into the helmet¡¯s microphone. Echo was unable to hear what the soldier was saying, but whatever it was, it couldn¡¯t be good.


    When Echo failed to respond, the soldier poked him in the chest with the barrel of the weapon and repeated his orders, ¡°Are you deaf or something? Don¡¯t move and this will all be over quick.¡±


    Echo lazily slapped away the dangerous end of the gun, which was probably not his best idea. Abruptly, and without any hesitation, the soldier backed up to a safe distance and fired three rounds of shock slugs into Echo¡¯s chest. Two of the slugs struck the thick leather and harmlessly delivered their powerful payload of electricity into the non-conductive surface of the leather. The third round pierced through the leather with its thick needle and barely grazed Echo¡¯s skin, but that was all that was needed to be effective. The cylindrical shock slug distributed its non-lethal electric shock directly into Echo¡¯s chest, causing him to convulse uncontrollably. Echo¡¯s eyelids shut tightly, and his teeth grit together in agony.


    Echo scrambled to yank out the shock slugs as swiftly as possible. Reaching up with one hand, he grabs onto the cylinder part of the slug which houses the battery pack. When his hand touched the metal of the slug, it became frozen in place with pain as electricity surged from the slug that was attached to his jacket. His arm bucked and buckled as his muscles contracted unwillingly with rapid jolts of movement.


    The BioMagiTech soldier pulled out a set of full-body restraints out of his backpack just before his body erupted into a mess of gore. Multiple titanium carbide slugs slammed into the soldier¡¯s body, riddling him full of holes. Some of the rounds managed to be deflected or caught by his armor and ricocheted at odd angles. At the end of it all, the soldier was still nothing more than blood and bone in a bloody heap upon the floor. His soul had left his body long before he ever hit the ground.


    For what seemed like an eternity to the young man, Echo was utterly defenseless against the constant surge of electricity that flowed through his body. With Echo¡¯s eyes still shut tight, he felt a hand brush up against his. The hand pulled Echo¡¯s arm away from the surging shock slug and began removing each of the non-lethal rounds one by one. Opening his eyes, Echo no longer saw the BMT soldier. In the soldier''s place was a tall woman with dark brown eyes and a Launch Central Security uniform. The BMT soldier lay dead at her feet. She was currently holding the three shock slugs in her gloved hands which she promptly threw onto the floor of the wrecked house.


    From what Echo could see, five other security guards are with the woman who had helped him. They remained outside the building to scan the area for hostiles. They were each in a crouching position with their gauss rifles raised and at the ready. It looked as if they were each facing outwards from the demolished wall in a tight semi-circle fire team formation. Their guns slowly swung from side to side as the men and women of the security squad scanned the surrounding crops with their attached night-vision scopes. A green glow emanated from the scoped sights of the gauss rifles.


    The security guard that had saved Echo looked very different from the rest. Her lower face is covered in a cloth bandana. Her silver hair was tied in a neat knot on the back of her head which is barely showing from underneath her bulky helmet. The tall woman is wearing what is akin to a modern-day combat uniform. Cargo shorts, combat boots, and a tactical long sleeve shirt. She was also wearing a ballistic combat vest with the logo ¡®Takeda Inc. Security¡¯ emblazoned in the center of the vest. Ceramic strike plates cover her shoulders, knees, and elbows. She has a gauss rifle slung over one shoulder and a gauss pistol holstered on her hip.


    The Launch Central security guard reached down and offered her left hand to Echo. Echo grasped her hand, and she pulled him up to his feet. Her grip was immensely powerful. The sound of grinding gears resounded from underneath the long sleeve shirt and gloved hand. Echo looked down at her arm as he stood and noticed that the gap between her shirt and glove revealed the metallic sheen of a bionic arm. Once Echo was on his feet, the room seemed to spin in front of his eyes yet again, and he stumbled forward. The security guard caught Echo underneath his arms and stood him up straight.


    The woman asked, ¡°Are you alright? You don¡¯t look so good.¡±


    Echo responded, ¡°I¡¯m fine... But my dad needs help. We need to get him to the hospital as soon as possible, or he¡¯s going to die.¡±


    With only her eyes visible underneath the bandana and helmet, the tall woman¡¯s face was mostly hidden. She gave an immensely worried look to the young man as she said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m here to help. However, we¡¯re in the middle of a firefight with whoever was chasing you guys down. It¡¯s going to be difficult. We have about a half-kilometer of mud and buildings to pass through before we can get you two to safety. I¡¯ll see what I can do to stop the bleeding before we leave.¡±Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°CONTACT!¡± Yells one of the security guards stationed outside of the house.


    A skirmish erupts outside of the demolished home as all of the security guards turn in unison to face the same direction. Two of the guards remain in a crouching position as the other three stand up behind the crouching guards. Altogether the security guards begin opening fire upon the unseen enemy in the midst of the midnight storm and crops. Blue sparks ignite from the end of the gauss rifles as the rounds seek out their hidden targets.


    ¡°Hostiles down. We¡¯re in the clear.¡± Says one of the security guards over his shoulder as the five of them return to their semi-circle fire team positions. One of the security guards takes longer than the rest to return to his position in the fire team formation. He busies himself with refilling his gauss rifle. Pulling out a plastic cylinder, the guard pops off a clear top attached by a thin string.


    Before the guard can remove the cap from his gauss rifle slug reservoir, his head erupts in a mess of blood and explodes, covering all of his squadmates in gore. The titanium carbide rounds contained within the plastic cylinder spill out into the mud and clink against each other as they hit the soggy ground. The guard drops to his knees, and the body leans against the outside wall with a missing head. The shockwave of the supersonic round and rifle bang took a few moments to reach their ears. It was louder than expected as most gauss rifles are relatively silent. The security fire team knew exactly what this meant.


    ¡°SNIPER!¡± Screams one of the security guards as he stands up and dives through the opening of the busted wall. Another guard stands up, and his chest bursts as a round pierces through his ballistic vest with ease. The crack of the rifle sounds once again a few moments after the titanium carbide slugs reaches them.


    The tall woman yells out as she crouches down to avoid the sniper fire, ¡°Get your fucking heads down! We¡¯re not here for their target practice, dammit!¡±


    As the last security guard dives through the opening in the wall another round clips his legs, shearing them off at the knees. Rivers of blood pool around the young security guard as he goes into shock. One of the security guards, while still crouched behind the wall, makes his way over to the young guard and removes the helmet as he cradles the head of the dying man in his arms. Tears drip from his eyes onto the now unconscious guard''s face as he sobs loudly.


    The woman, who seems to be in command runs up to the wall and places her back to it. Echo is left holding himself up in the opening of the broken window of the locomotive but quickly drops to the floor on his knees to avoid being hit by sniper fire. The two security guards that are still alive look up at Echo and then their commander after they crouch down inside the building.


    The one guard continues to cradle the head of the legless dead guard on his lap, and then gripes to the commander, ¡°Are you sure that these civilians are really worth it? We¡¯re gonna fucking die out here, commander. We need to get back to somewhere safe. Like... Right now.¡±


    The woman snaps, ¡°Shut your god damn mouth, Jeremy. We¡¯re getting these civilians to safety one way or another. Where¡¯s that sniper at? See if you can clear the area for us, Kyle.¡±


    Jeremy screams as he lowers the head of his fallen friend to the ground, "Fuck you! Have at least a little respect for the dead, commander. We''ve been trudging through the mud and enemy gunfire to protect some nobodies."


    The commander''s eyes furiously blaze with anger as she stares down the crying guard. It was hard to look at the mess, even for her. Blood was all over the floor and was quickly pooling around her boots already. Shutting her eyes tightly to the sight of the grueling scene, she took a deep breath before responding, "I''m sorry, Jeremy. We will get out of here soon, but what kind of people would we be if we left these civilians to fend for themselves? I can''t let that happen while there are those that still need our help. Pick your rifle back up soldier. We''ll bury the dead when this is over. We''ve got work to do. Kyle, get your ass moving and take out that sniper already. I can''t tend to the wounded civilian while I have to worry about getting shot in the back."


    The guard who had not spoken was crouched down below the demolished portion of the wall. Quickly raising his rifle up to the wall, Kyle set the barrel down on the busted and splintered wood for stability. Looking through his night-vision scope, and with his head barely visible over the wall, he began scanning the area for the sniper. Before too long, he was able to spot the sniper hidden amongst the crops.


    ¡°There you are, you sunnuva bitch.¡± SaidKyle with a smile. Pulling the trigger once, he lets loose a volley of rounds at the sniper. From his perspective, a spray of blood erupts out the back of the head of the sniper which seemed to be over a hundred meters away.


    ¡°Sniper down.¡± SaysKyle as he turns and sits back down with a long sigh.


    The tall woman with silver hair steps past the traumatized young man and over to the side of Vikta¡¯s unmoving body. The only sign that he was still alive was the slow rise and fall of his chest. Crouching down, she tore a long piece of cloth from her left shirt sleeve and exposed her bionic arm. The gears that are making metallic clicks are covered with a thick plate of aluminum that encases the entire arm up to her shoulder. The arm would look almost normal if it were not for the metallic sheen of the surface. She quickly got to work tying a tourniquet on Vikta¡¯s leg, located just above the ankle. After tying a knot with the torn sleeve, the blood loss was nearly contained, and only a small trickle of blood seeped out from under the magical ice still protecting Vikta¡¯s ankle.


    The security guard then immediately grabbed Echo with her bionic arm and pulled him over to her side to help his dying father. Echo was unable to hesitate as the brute strength of the woman¡¯s bionic arm forced him to move.


    The unknown woman who seemed to be in command pointed to Vikta''s chest and spoke loudly to Echo, "Put pressure on that wound to stop the bleeding while I get to work on it."


    Echo hesitates upon seeing the blood trickle out of his father¡¯s chest but takes a deep breath and pushes down hard on each side to stem the bleeding. The woman rapidly grabs Echo¡¯s hands and directs them to a new spot on Vikta¡¯s chest.


    The guard commander says, ¡°Not there... Here. You¡¯re not going to stop any bleeding like that. You have to pinch the veins to keep the blood from flowing out of his circulatory system. Don¡¯t let up on the pressure until I¡¯m done, okay?¡±


    Echo nods his head in response. The silver-haired woman reaches into a small pack attached to her belt. She then pulls out a needle with a white substance contained within. She pulls the plastic cap off of the needle and sprays the substance across the length of the gash on Vikta''s chest. The wound begins bubbling but quickly hardens to stem the bleeding.


    As the security guard reaches down to Vikta''s ankle to apply the substance, Echo asks, "What is that stuff you''re injecting into him? It smells awful."


    She responds with a huff and a sigh, "It''s called isolated medication or IsoMeds. It disinfects the wound and stops the bleeding by filling in the gaps and hardening upon contact with blood. It will hopefully keep him from dying on us before we can get him to the medical facility at Launch Central."


    Together as one, they each slung one of Vikta¡¯s bulky arms over their shoulders. Lifting up with their legs, they began dragging Vikta in an upright position with his feet dragging against the ground. With just a few steps forward, they exited the destroyed locomotive.


    Echo turned his head to say to the silver-haired woman, ¡°Thank you for saving us. Who are you anyways?¡±


    The eyes of the woman scrunch up in discomfort at having to answer such a ridiculous question in the middle of a battle, but she gives it her best, ¡°My name is Captain Evaria Ward. Call me Eva. This is Sergeant Jeremy and Lance Corporal Kyle. We¡¯re not out of danger yet, kid. We need to get moving. Jeremy... Kyle... Watch our backs as we carry the injured civilian. I don¡¯t want another sniper taking us out when we¡¯ve already been through so much. Keep your heads on a swivel. Got that?¡±


    The guards say in unison, ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am.¡±


    Echo and Eva begin dragging the unconscious body of Vikta out of the house with the help of Jeremy and Kyle. As Echo and Eva attempt to clamber over the wall with Vikta still draped over their shoulders, the two other security guards help by climbing up over the wall and heft Vikta¡¯s legs through the opening. Echo may have escaped unscathed from the train wreck, but now he has stepped out into the eye of the true storm.

 Chapter 21: Return of the Draegonas

    A few moments ago...


    ¡°The rain and wind stopped? Are we in the eye of the storm already?¡± Felix asked Jacob inquisitively as he turns away from the window and walks into the launch control room, standing in the doorway. The room was mostly empty with only Jacob monitoring the weather and security cameras. Felix reached up to his head and yanked off the white raincoat with a swift pull. He draped the raincoat over a countertop nearby the doorway to let it dry.


    Jacob breaks his focus from the security monitors to glance at the weather monitor. A massive blotch of red covered the screen indicating a mass of rain all around them. In the direct center was a spot of green, where no rain was currently falling.


    Jacob turns in his desk chair to address Felix but remains seated, ¡°It appears to be right overhead. Not that it matters very much though. The rain and wind will pick back up soon enough.¡±


    Jacob returns to checking the security monitors for any signs of the incoming train. The screen was in black and white, currently showing the train tracks through a night-vision security camera. The train had not arrived yet, but Jacob was clearly anxious to see how this was going to turn out. Felix fully walks in and lets the door shut behind him. Electronic locks click into place behind Felix, shutting them in with a snap. Walking over to a spot beside Jacob, Felix begins to nervously watch the monitors alongside him. Crossing his arms, Felix begins to tap his fingers on his bulky forearms with an anxious tempo.


    Jacob glances over at Felix saying, ¡°Please sit down Felix. You¡¯re making me uncomfortable just standing there.¡±


    Felix acts surprised and stops tapping his fingers, ¡°Oh... Sorry.¡±


    Pulling up another desk chair, Felix takes a seat beside Jacob and they sit in silence together for some time. The emergency alert had gone out long ago and the sirens no longer screeched. However, on another monitor could be seen dozens upon dozens of security and emergency personnel on standby. They were all stationed safely inside the launch central tower behind the blast doors and waiting patiently for the incoming train. Whilst waiting, a bright flash illuminated the security monitor watching the train tracks.


    Felix spotted it instantly and yelled out, ¡°Shit! Did they crash already? That looked like it was a few miles out.¡±


    Jacob shook his head, ¡°That¡¯s not possible. There aren¡¯t any explosive materials in those train engines. That was something else...¡±


    Another flash illuminated the screen, followed by a second, and then a third. The security monitor displayed the train vaulting up and off the tracks and began tumbling through the farm buildings in the distance before smashing into the pole housing the security camera. Just before the camera went offline Jacob had noticed a small black arrow shaped tank slowing down in the distance. It was barely noticeable, but with the high-powered night-vision cameras, almost nothing could remain hidden for long.


    Jacob¡¯s eyes widened in horror as he scrambled for the loudspeaker microphone, ¡°All security go on high-alert! This is not a drill! We have incoming hostiles inbound at top speed and they have derailed the train with civilians on board. Emergency personnel are to remain inside the launch tower until further notice. All non-essential personnel evacuate to the nearest underground shelter immediately. This is a code black situation. I repeat. Code black. We are under siege by unknown hostiles.¡±


    Jacob turned to look at Felix who was awestruck at the sight. Jacob asked, ¡°Are you alright, Felix?¡±


    Felix simply shook his head. It took him a few moments of heavy breathing before he finally blinked and said, ¡°I can¡¯t believe it¡¯s happening already. I just needed a little more time. I was so close to finding the...¡±


    Felix broke off his sentence before he said too much. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was the right time to talk about his ventures just yet. Felix broke his gaze from the monitor and turned in his chair to stare at the doors.


    Jacob grabbed Felix¡¯s arm with a swift motion and said sharply, ¡°Don¡¯t do it, Felix. Let the guards handle this.¡±


    Felix looked over his shoulder while he remained seated, ¡°I¡¯m not sure that they can handle what¡¯s coming.¡±


    Jacob tightened his grip on Felix¡¯s arm before stating, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what you think. Protocol is protocol. You go out there and you¡¯ll never fly another ship in this galaxy again. We¡¯ll have to strip you of your license.¡±


    Felix tightened his jaw in anger but forced himself to calm down. Felix turned in his chair to watch the other monitors but remained silent.


    Jacob said with a small sigh, ¡°I know it¡¯s hard, but everyone has their position in life. You¡¯re a pilot. Not a guard. Please don¡¯t do something rash that you¡¯ll regret. Please. I know you¡¯re worried, but we can handle it. I¡¯m sure of it.¡±


    Felix said nothing as he watched the monitors. His jaw twitched, his muscles ached, and his fists clenched. The anger began welling up inside him. He wanted so badly just to burst out those doors and save his only family. The ones that he loved were in danger and it was his responsibility to keep them safe. He had made a promise long ago and fully intended to keep that promise.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Explosions ripped through the night as well as gunfire as the battle broke out around the train. Another camera monitor began to search for the train as another security camera turned to search for the train in the night. Spotting the position of the train, the camera zoomed in on the broken building in which the train had come to a full stop on its side. Various soldiers from both sides fought and died alongside the building, but it looked as if the security guards were taking more casualties than the currently unknown enemy. A soldier clad in black entered the building followed by several security guards. For a long time, nothing was visible except for the rear end of the train engine which was currently poking out from the side of the house. From their angle, they could not see what was happening at the other end of the building where the guards had entered.


    Felix¡¯s heart fluttered in excitement when he finally saw Echo and one of the guards carrying Vikta out around the side of the building and making their way towards the launch tower. His heart sank when he realized that Vikta might be dead when he saw his limp body being carried between the two. Grief, anger, and excitement welled up inside him and he could not figure out which to focus on.


    The security camera started to turn without notice and Felix scoffed, ¡°What the hell? Turn the camera back! I want to see my family make it to safety dammit!¡±


    Jacob shook his head, ¡°No. We have a mass of movement off the screen and I need to see what¡¯s going on further down the tracks, so I can properly inform the security teams of any incoming danger. The movement tracker has detected several anomalies in the distance. Don¡¯t worry though. I¡¯ll direct one of the other cameras to monitor your family... Wait... What in the fuck is that thing!?¡±


    As the camera panned over to look down the tracks, dozens of soldiers clad in black were moving from building to building and making their way towards launch central followed by several tanks. But that wasn¡¯t what caught Jacob off guard. Sparks of lightning constantly flowed from a singular point. Every moment was filled with a constant surge of lightning flowing from above and into a small spot on the tracks. It was hard to tell what it was through the night-vision, so Jacob pressed a few buttons on the panel in front of him and the camera zoomed in on the point where the lightning was constantly striking. The tendrils of electricity illuminated a large blue Skera walking down the center of the train tracks with a sword drawn and pointed upwards. The Skera was wholly unharmed by the constant flow of lightning striking the sword, flowing through his body and into the ground.


    Felix gasped and growled, ¡°Lazarus!? That sunnuva bitch is supposed to be dead!¡±


    Jacob asks, ¡°Who and what the hell is Lazarus?¡±


    Felix sharply inhaled before saying, ¡°Only the worst possible Skera to show up at our front door. These aren¡¯t just any soldiers. They are from BioMagiTech and he¡¯s one of the various commanders on their payroll. I¡¯m sorry Jacob. I have to go, NOW. Take my pilot license if you want to, but it¡¯s going to be a slaughter out there if I don¡¯t step in.¡±


    Jacob scoffs, ¡°The hell you are! I told you to let the guards handle it dammit!¡±


    Felix yells as he stands up and kicks the chair out from under him, ¡°Fuck the protocol. It¡¯s time to do something or we¡¯ll all die. Dusty! It¡¯s time to fight. You ready?¡±


    Jacob¡¯s brows furrow up in confusion, ¡°Who the hell is... HOLY SHIT!¡±


    Jacob was interrupted by a golden spark of light the flew forth from Felix¡¯s chest and soared directly to the ground to land next to Felix. The form of the drake spirit eyed Felix with a bit of an attitude, ¡°Are you sure this is wise, Felix? We¡¯ll be exposing ourselves to the galaxy and could very well be hunted down by those we call our allies.¡±


    Felix nods his head as he stares at the doorway, fully ignoring Jacob¡¯s surprise. Felix says, ¡°I¡¯m sure of it this time. If Lazarus is here with Yethica, then we¡¯re in trouble. We don¡¯t have much of a choice. I need wings Dusty. We gotta get down there as soon as possible.¡±


    Dusty nods its fanged skull as it replies, ¡°So be it. This is going to hurt tremendously without armor to clasp the wings to.¡±


    Felix pulls his crystal out of his shirt before saying, ¡°I know. The pain is the least of my worries at this point.¡±


    With the Draegona Crystal still attached to the golden chain, Felix turned it around on his neck and let it lay against his back on the thick yellow cotton shirt. Dusty shot back into the crystal and a golden glow sparked to life inside of the crystal illuminating the control center in a warm radiance of light. Ten curled spikes grew out of the crystal and pierced into Felix¡¯s back. Felix dropped to his knees in intense pain as the spikes pierced his muscles and wrapped around his spine. Moments later, a blast of golden light blinded Jacob as ethereal wings popped into existence behind Felix. The semi-opaque wings stretched outwards and reached up to the ceiling, brushing against the solid surface and bending downwards. The brilliance lit the room in warm golden light as power spewed out from the crystal and a flow of energy moving towards the tips of the wings. The wings looked almost solid with large feathers of ethereal light. Large bones made of pure golden light held the feathers in placed and spanned the entirety of the wing. With a wingspan of about ten meters, they were massive in comparison to Felix¡¯s body.


    Standing upwards and still wincing from the pain of the wings firmly attaching to his back, Felix let the wings fold behind him as the energy continued to flow through them in a current of light. Turning towards Jacob, Felix noticed that the plump man was dumbstruck and completely speechless.


    Felix said with a frown, ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I didn¡¯t tell you sooner old friend.¡±


    Jacob shook his head in astonishment, ¡°You... You¡¯re a Draegona?¡±


    Felix nodded his head as he walked towards Jacob with the wings dragging behind him on the floor. Without notice, Felix reached outward, pulled Jacob to his feet and gave him a strong hug. Jacob just stood there in shock as the man with golden wings gave him a hug with tears in his eyes.


    As Felix pulled away with a smile, he said, ¡°Thank you for keeping my family safe for so long. It was peaceful while it lasted. Oh, and sorry about the window.¡±


    Jacob¡¯s eyebrows scrunched up in confusion as he watched the winged man walk away and out the security door. Just before the door shut behind him, Jacob saw Felix lash out with a hefty kick to the reinforced plexiglass window in the hallway, shattering it with little effort and then jumping out into the dark night sky.


    The short plump man slunk back into his chair with his mouth agape. Reaching over to a spot under his desk, he pulled out a lighter and a cigar. He usually saved these for a special occasion but the time seemed right. There was nothing else he could do now. He thought he had seen it all, but now he was about to witness possibly one of the rarest sights in the entire galaxy and he had front row seats to the action.