by Aeon Solo
“V are you sure he’s here?” he asked his AI system upon entering the craft.
“Yes, all evidence pins him to this city on this planet,” she answered.
“Fine,” he said, “Big city though,” he muttered under his breath. He exited the craft and glanced toward the city once more. Suddenly to his astonishment, a blade was placed by his throat.
“Your ship, where did you get it?” a man snarled with great aggression. Viden pushed him back and unholstered his blaster, aiming it at the hooded man.
“It’s none of your concern,” he answered derisively.
The man smirked at Viden, “What are you grinning about, from what I can see you are about to die,” he said.
Somewhat unnerved by the man’s confidence. The grin radiated further and Viden was blasted back multiple feet to the tough land.
The man walked over and grabbed the blaster which had fallen to the ground, he examined it. Firing a bolt at Viden on the ground.
“Draconite,” he remarked after the bolt deflected off Viden’s armour. He manipulated the configurations on the weapon and held it out to Viden to retrieve. Viden struggled to get to his feet and stared intently at the man. He glanced to the outstretched hand with the blaster and took it.
“Thanks for that,” he remarked sarcastically.
“Now you can kill the Draco,” he said as he walked away. Viden examined the blaster in his palm once more, it appeared unchanged in his eyes.
“Wait!” he yelled. The man stopped in his tracks. “Are you him?” he said.
“I used to be,” the man answered, he continued to walk away. Viden told Viola he’ll be back shortly and for her to ensure no one stole the ship. He jogged after the man.
“Everyone thinks you’re dead,” he said, walking beside the man who was visibly displeased to see him.
“I am,” the man answered with a cold tone, “Where did you find that blaster?” he enquired, wondering how Viden got his weapon.
“Found it, in some building on my world,” he responded. He was unsure on how it got there, it unsettled him.
“The Draco are back!” Viden exclaimed. “We need your help!” he added, hoping the legend would return to fight them.
“Who’s we? Are you with the Alliance?” he asked, stern-faced.
“Not exactly,” Viden answered. “Come with me,” he added alluringly.
“Look kid, I’m done with that war. I’ve paid my dues and suffered for it greatly, go away!” he grunted, greatly agitated by his inquisition. Viden stopped and the man continued to walk toward the city.
“They are serving the Demiurge,” he shouted to him. The man froze upon hearing the words. He inhaled a heavy breath with closed eyes; he knew of what Viden spoke of. He passed a firm glare to Viden who looked to him with anticipation. The man’s face twisted; he turned his head slightly as if to say something but didn’t. He continued to enter the city to travel to a bar. Viden returned to converse with Viola.
“V, it may be some time before I can persuade him to help,” he said to the AI system. He unveiled a holographic tracking device showing the man’s location.
An hour passed by and the man was drinking an alcoholic beverage in a bar like the one Viden was in the day previous. Four human men entered the bar, standing threateningly over him.
“Where’s the credits?” one asked. The man supped his drink further. One of the group smacked the beverage out of his hand. He clasped a blade to the throat of the assailant.
“You’ll get it, when I have it, alright!” he roared at them. They glanced at one another. The assailant brushed himself off.
“You have 72 hours,” one stated menacingly. The men exited the bar and barged past Viden as he entered.
“Watch it,” one snarled at him, Viden offered a similar stare whilst they departed.
“What’s their problem?” Viden asked.
“You again,” he grunted.
“Where are you going?” Viden asked, as the man exited the bar.
“To work,” he answered firmly.
“Ragnos!” he exclaimed, the man again halted in his tracks.
“Don’t call me that!” he screamed, looking around ensuring no one heard.
“What happened, why are you hiding from it, you can help me save the universe!” he said, begging Ragnos to join him in his quest to end the Draco.
“You know nothing kid,” he snarled, “I will not continue to fight for a rotten Alliance!”
“This is more than the Alliance, this is about the universe!” he shouted, the two stared one another down as the tension rose.
“Try living for thousands of years without the ones you love, because you were too busy protecting a government than them,” he stormed off.
“But they are serving the Demiurge,” Viden added. The statement ran deep, it was but a fleeting memory, the last time he heard that word. He looked back sadly, he saw an old friend in Viden.
“Anu is back too,” Viden continued deflated.
“That’s impossible, he was killed,” Ragnos replied quickly.
“Well, he’s back now.”
“I can’t,” Ragnos murmured, he left Viden.
Viden arrived at his ship.
“V, what happened to him? To his family,” he enquired, hoping his AI assistant had useful information in her server.
“Ragnos had family on Bamphia, the world was ravaged by Anu’s forces during the Great Battle, apparently none survived,” she responded. Viden shook his head with sympathy for the broken man.
Ragnos was scouting out a facility run by smugglers on the outskirts of the city. Viden checked his tracker and noticed how far away he was.
“V, what do you reckon he’s doing out there?” he asked.
“The tracker is located by a smuggling ring, he is either a part of it or about to steal from it, I presume,” she replied.
“Take me near to him,” he said. She obeyed the command and the ship landed close to the facility, unnoticed.
Meanwhile Ragnos entered the facility and approached a couple of mercenary guards.
“Stop!” they yelled. He acted dumb and, in their confusion, he blasted them both. His blaster in the stun configuration. He continued to travel deeper into the facility. A group of men were talking about their next heist nearby. He threw a stun grenade at them, knocking them all unconscious. He travelled up a flight of stairs. A room at the end of the corridor held his target, only one guard protected the area. He came up from behind and choked the guard unconscious. The room was clear, he entered and a large crate containing 150,000 galactic credits sat, ready for the taking. He grinned at the site, he grabbed the crate and exited the facility.
As he got to the exit a guard, with his blaster primed, halted his escape.
“That crate, drop it now!” the guard screamed. Ragnos placed the crate beside him, his right hand poised to equip his blaster.
“Your weapon; place it on the ground slowly!” he roared. Ragnos hesitated for a moment, but raised his blaster outward, his hands in the air. Viden poked his head into the facility and saw the man primed to fire at Ragnos. He fired a bolt of his blaster, incinerating the man, to the surprise of Ragnos.
“What are you doing!” Ragnos roared.
“What? He was about to kill you,” Viden responded, raising his shoulder slightly with a rising, cocky smile.
“I had the situation under control, you dick! Now they will think I killed their man!” he shouted again at Viden.
“My apologies,” he responded, insincerely. A bellowing noise sounded deep in the atmosphere, they looked at one another surprised, the sound disrupting their confrontation. They rushed outside to find the source of the mayhem. A large Draco ship with a squadron of fighters entered the atmosphere of the planet, they glanced solemnly at the site.
“Now will you help me,” Viden said, his eyes fixed completely on the carnage ahead.
“We need to get out of here,” Ragnos said. They rushed to Viden’s ship,
the crate of credits in hand.
“Take me to home quickly,” Ragnos said as they became airborne.
“What! We don’t have time.”
“If you want my help, you will do I say. I will not be long,” he responded firmly. Viden succumbed to his demands and took him to his home.
The Draco fighters began to attack nearby settlements. Viden observed with great anxiety mounting within.
“Come on,” he said, waiting for Ragnos to return to his ship.
“Kid!” a voice said from the com link, whilst a triangular craft, similar to his own, rose from a large hidden partition from the ground behind Ragnos’ home. It was a deep-red.
“Is that you? How did you get access to my com frequency?” he said.
“Too many questions kid, that isn’t charismatic, let’s go! Now!” the ship raced through the atmosphere and Viden followed.
“The Draco will be gaining control of this system, we’ll visit Borrelia for now,” Ragnos said.
Meanwhile, Admiral Tomkins persistently put forth the notion to use the black hole generator to defeat the Draco again. It was rejected by the other Admirals and Commanders of the Alliance. A meeting of military leaders was adjourned, and he was infuriated by the failures of the Alliance in losing countless systems over the previous year to the Draco. The weapon was housed in a secret facility in the Sirius star system, on Sirius B. It was a small world used solely as a military station. He was currently stationed on the civilian inhabited core world Sirius A.
“Admiral, we cannot continue to lose systems to the Draco,” a soldier said to him.
“I know son, will you help me stop the Draco?” he asked the young soldier.
“Of course, yes sir!” he said, saluting his superior.
“Good, I have a plan to stop them,” Admiral Tomkins said. He exited the room and conversed with loyal soldiers in his squadron. 128 men pledged their allegiance to him, including the soldier he had just conversed with. He organised for them to travel to Sirius B with him and take the weapon by force if they had to.
They arrived at the planet and bypassed the space security measures, landing beside the facility in a large vessel. Over a hundred men left the craft with the Admiral. They approached the entrance of the facility.
“Admiral Tomkins, I don’t believe Commander Gulliet is expecting you at this time,” a security personnel said confused.
“I must speak with him immediately,” the Admiral responded firmly. The man became unsettled by the Admirals tone and the 200+ eyes that stared at him intently. He flustered for a moment, but let them through begrudgingly. He watched the massive group of men enter the facility.
“Commander Gulliet,” the Admiral remarked.
“Ah Admiral Tomkins, I’m not expecting you or the entourage,” he said, examining the countless soldiers who followed him into the control room.
“The weapon,” he stated firmly.
“You know we can’t use it,” he said.
“I’m not asking,” he said coldly.
Commander Gulliet became unnerved by his response.
“And what do you mean by that?” he retorted in kind. A group of Admiral Tomkins soldiers raised their weapons toward the Commander and his technicians in the control room. The Commander grunted, disgusted by their actions.
“You would have to kill me before you get that weapon,” he snarled at Admiral Tomkins.
“So be it,” he answered, firing his sidearm at the head of the Commander, who fell lifeless on the ground.
“Anyone else?” he remarked mockingly to the technicians who quivered with fear.
“Excellent, take it,” he said to his men. They aimed their weapons at the hostages, further belittling them. The weapon was housed in a super-cooled chamber. The weapon itself was within a small box which could be manipulated by a single person. Inside, matter was crushed by advanced technologies at such a high pressure it mimicked the collapse of a large star. The pressure resulted in the creation of a microscopic black hole which was fed by matter to increase and maintain its form. Within minutes the black hole grows and envelopes its surroundings, in this case the planets or systems that are targeted. This technology was extremely dangerous as the movement of the black hole cannot be predicted, it could in theory, wreak havoc across the whole galaxy.
“Sir we have it,” one of the men said.
“Good, we will crush them once and for all,” he replied. They exited the facility and entered the craft. Preparing to attack the Draco’s home base.
Meanwhile Ragnos and Viden were conversing outside of their ships in the spaceport where they had landed.
“It’s like mine that, it’s a nice ship,” Viden commented, ogling Ragnos’s craft.
“Let me guess, the Draco took over your world, took you as a child, manipulated you to serve their will and in the process rewarded your loyalties with technology,” he said observing Viden’s ship and armour. Viden was shocked at how he just pinpointed his entire life in a sentence.
“Yes,” he said with confusion. “How do you know that?” he said.
Ragnos opened his craft door allowing Viden to see a set of armour with a mask piled up deep within the craft. “Because that was me,” he said, recalling his distant past. “I see it in your eyes, the emptiness that I had but there’s a glint of hope in you kid, and I don’t know how.”
“What are we going to do?” Viden asked, hoping the legend had a plan because he didn’t.
“I don’t know, but what I do know is that they mustn’t re-take this galaxy,” Ragnos said.
“But how can we stop them?” he said.
“I need to modify my blaster as I did with that one,” he said, gesturing to the blaster in Viden’s holster. “There is a unique element that can be used to penetrate Draconite, and the Black Sun have all of the known stocks currently.”
“What’s a Black sun?” Viden enquired.
“It’s not a what kid, it’s a they, and they are one of the most dangerous cartels in the entire galaxy, making our cookie cutter friends from earlier look like beginners.”
Chapter 8
“The Alliance will soon learn the nature of their reality, if they find him, they will destroy you again!” an ominous voice commented.
“Master, we have taken significant systems from their grasp,” an almost equally demanding voice answered.
“Anu!” the Demiurge roared, “Our approach must change, regain control of this simulation, if you wish to exist!” it demanded. Anu and the Archon shared a stern look, Anu exited.
“Enki,” the Archon looked up at the domineering holographic projection of the Demiurge. “I’ve been watching your human servant; he’s found the human Ragnos.”
Something akin to warmth filled the Archon’s inorganic heart.
“So, he lives,” he responded with a minor smile raising across his face beneath his mask.
“There’s something more, an Alliance Admiral has stolen the weapon that destroyed Draconis. I do not want a repeat of the last time so heave this warning, I cannot continue to intervene in this simulation when I have my own battles here!” it roared, and the transmission ended. The Archon returned to his feet, determined to fulfil his masters wishes.
“Anu, we must evacuate our military assets to another system,” the Archon said in the hangar.
“Why?” Anu demanded.
“Intelligence suggests they will use the weapon again, this system will be there primary target,” he responded.
“Fine, we will take Patsule, the fleets and the Planet Protectors to Reticula, we cannot afford to lose them,” Anu responded.
“Leave a couple of fleets to guard Agarta,” the Archon demanded.
“Why, are you getting soft on me Enki?” Anu mocked.
“No, if the planet is abandoned, they will not attack. I believe we can use this to our advantage. If they destroy Agarta and the humans with it, people will lose faith in the Alliance,” the Lord Archon said.
Anu evalua
ted his hypothesis and agreed, the two part-ways and began the evacuation to the Zeta Reticulan star system.
A few hours later the evacuation was complete.
Meanwhile, Admiral Tomkins was demanding for a fleet to be sent to Agarta for a last attack, led by him.
“Admiral Tomkins, we cannot waste a fleet in attacking an impenetrable Draco stronghold,” Admiral Sarin stated firmly.
“Everyone in this room is a coward! I will attack it myself,” he roared furiously, exiting the meeting.
“Admiral Tomkins!” she shouted, he had already left the room and the transmission ended on his end.
“He should be relieved of duty,” she demanded, to the rest of the council.
“Where is Commander Gulliet, he always checks in when he cannot make a meeting?” Admiral Seymour commented. The group were unsettled by his absence.
“Initiate contact with Sirius B immediately!” another Admiral demanded. Admiral Tomkins arrived at the ship bay with his men.
“We depart for their system now!” he demanded. Everyone entered the large vessel command shuttle which they travelled in earlier, rocketing through hyperspace to Agarta.
“Sir! We are about to emerge from hyperspace above the target!” a pilot shouted.
“Prepare the weapon!” the Admiral roared. Two men configured the weapon activating it ready for deployment.
“Ready!” he roared, as the ship exited hyperspace, “Aim!” he added.
The Draco command ship attempted an attack on the Alliance ship as it exited the hyperspace lane to Agarta.
“Fire!” he screamed. The weapon was released into space close to Agarta.
“Fire on the ships!” he commanded. The ship engaged in combat with the Draco capitol ship that remained.
“Sir! The system seems to be evacuated!” a technician shouted.
“What!” he bellowed ferociously.
“Sir! I’m picking up biosignatures on the planet, there are humanoids there,” the technician said gravely. The Admiral grunted with rage.
“Retrieve the weapon,” he demanded.
“We can’t, the sequence has begun,” a technician who activated the weapon squealed.
