I sighed and looked through the artificial window in my cabin. What in the name of Earth did any of this mean? So it was a Templar who sent me to the Hargaa Mountains, but why? Why would they want us to find their hiding spot, and why us in the first place? Why communicate with humans? We were one of the youngest races in the Galaxy and one of the weakest when it came to either physical or mental capabilities. Only the Parashan was discovered after humankind and we still had no idea whether they truly were conscious beings.
I checked my INAS for Tesla III, and to my discomfort there were no records of the science vessel. I checked the date of Uro’Zas’ departure from Detera to see if the transport arc noted the science vessel within its cargo bay but those records were picked clean too. Finally, I checked for Dr. Alexander Mayevski and, you guessed it, nothing. It became very obvious that HQ didn’t want any of these findings to go public, to put it mildly, but to put it truthfully, the Federation censored scientific research into the Aloi on every occasion.
How all of this connected to my own destiny was beyond me. I decided to return to Tailor’s office despite the fact we couldn’t openly discuss any of these things. I ripped the label off the bottle and burned it, took another sip, and readied myself to leave. Just as I was about to do so, I heard a thump from the other side of the door, then laughter, then knocking. I opened to my drunken teammates who were barely managing to stand. Leo and Layla, both drunk as lords, grinned at me as if I was Santa Claus. They straightened up as much as the booze would allow them and Leo finally spoke.
“Sarge, it’s time we had a serious confirm…convrsh about…”
Layla slapped Leo affectionately and hissed under her breath before she turned to me.
“What our wasted Commando wants to say is: let’s have a drink, Boss!” I sighed.
I didn’t want to just send them away, but neither was I inclined to drink with them.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m pretty busy right now.”
“Sarge!” Layla pleaded and then spotted something inside my room. “Look!” she laughed as her eyes landed on the bottle of whiskey. “The boss started without us!”
My mind wasn’t in the right place for drunken chitchat, so I made sure to tell them directly.
“Guys, not now, all right? I have work to do.”
“Oh, the busy sergeant always has to stay super busy,” Layla rambled as she pushed herself beside me and entered my cabin.
“Layla—” I started to say but she stopped.
“No, no, it’s fine. You’re the boss. Can’t have a drink with us boring assholes from the underbelly of the Federation military, right?”
I sighed and finally stepped aside, letting the two in.
“One drink,” I said closing the door behind them. “Just one drink and I’m back to what I need to be doing.”
“That’s all it takes!” Leo said cheerfully and threw himself on my bed.
Of course, one drink turned into two, two into four, and before I knew it, the bottle was empty and we were laughing our asses off about Leo’s early failures during the training sessions.
Just like that the gravity of life went into the background while the only reality I had was laughter and friendship. Just like that Tailor and the whole damn conspiracy were all a backdrop to what truly mattered. For a moment, I even considered dropping the whole issue so I could continue with my life as an obedient, unquestioning soldier of the Federation.
I woke with a serious headache unaware of what time or place I was in. The idea of ignoring my predicament had vanished behind another séance of nightmarish visions. Reality had come back, and it tasted as rough as ever. I cleaned myself up and checked the time. It was morning, 6:00 a.m. SST. Good, I thought. Tailor would probably already be in his office.
I stepped out of my quarters and walked down the hallway when my INAS flared up with the most unexpected message: Winters had summoned me to his office to congratulate me for my newly acquired title.
I stared at the message for several seconds as I leaned against the wall. It was too early for Winters, no matter how jovial the topic of his invitation was. Still, I couldn’t turn down a brigadier general, especially not one with such a fragile ego.
Captain Tailor would have to wait once again along with my questions. I made my way to Winters’ office, and when I entered I found him sitting at his desk, staring at me with the fakest smile I’d ever seen. And when I said fake, I meant it. The whole damn thing looked like a sticker.
“You wanted to see me, sir?”
“Sit down, Lieutenant,” he said, pouring me a glass of whiskey. At the very sight of it, my stomach churned and Winters noticed.
“Not a fan of whiskey, Stavos? I get it, it’s an acquired taste. Still, we have to toast to your promotion, and mine as well while we’re at it.”
“Of course, sir,” I said, trying to avoid any provocation. The glasses clinked and I took a sip. I fought grimacing harder than that damned Templar at Sardok Mine as the burning liquid slid down my throat and into my belly.
“That’s Garnish whiskey, Lieutenant. I bet you never had any in your life.”
“No, sir, I sure hadn’t.”
Winters stroked his white beard and leaned back into his chair with a satisfied grin. “You know, Stavos, at first I didn’t really like you.”
“Can’t imagine why, sir.”
Winters face turned serious. “You’re arrogant.” Then he smiled. “But you’re not the first soldier to aim above your station.”
“I’ve never aimed above my station, sir. I’m fine where I am. In the field.”
“Don’t bullshit me, I can see it in your eyes. You want to be above me, give me orders. Even now as we talk, I can hear it in the way you speak to me.”
The longer he spoke the more he made me sick. Winters was talking about himself rather than of me. He just picked me to project his own fucking shortcomings on.
“I don’t see how this is relevant to our celebration, sir. If you feel like it, you can take my promotion back. I really don’t care about it.”
“No, Stavos. See, there’s a time when soldiers like you have to make a decision. You can either follow orders and be a true soldier of the Federation, or you disappear in the mountains of nameless dead. I’ve seen tougher men than you break, Stavos. Trust me, you don’t want to walk that path. Not while holding my hand.” He poured me another glass and waited for me to sip on it before he spoke again. “But alas, young man, let’s leave it behind us. After all, if it wasn’t for your foolishness, I wouldn’t be brigadier general now. I feel like despite everything that I owe you one.”
“You don’t owe me anything, sir. Nothing but another win out in the field.”
“Bullshit, Stavos, I do. Now drink your damn whiskey.”
I knocked down another glass and I already felt tipsy again.
“This sure... is strong,” I muttered through my clenched teeth.
“How is it?”
“Good, I guess,” I replied barely audibly.
“Have another one.”
It’s as if he knew how much I had to drink last night and wanted to get me wasted for some twisted reason.
“Come on, enjoy yourself. You earned it.”
Everything about Winters seemed out of place. His joviality, his approach, everything. And yet I couldn’t turn down the drinks no matter how discomforted I felt. After the third one, I didn’t feel tipsy anymore. I felt flat out drunk. I knew I wasn’t too fresh, but three drinks could never knock me out this hard, especially not with nanites running through my blood.
“Can’t hold your booze too well, eh, Stavos? Too bad, I thought you were tougher than that. You Technomancers truly are a fragile sort, and yet you’re ready to disobey direct orders in the field whenever you feel like it.”
I said nothing. I knew I was now too drunk and that I would be ready to say all kinds of incriminating and offensive things if my tongue got loose. Winters rested his elbows on his desk an
d stared at me with a sense of evil glee that promised nothing good.
“You know, I do enjoy my new title and the fact the Ka think I’m responsible for the victory at Sardok Mine. That’s why I decided not to shoot you out of the airlock and instead give you a chance, one you didn’t give me.”
“What—no, wait!”
I was now at a point beyond mere drunkenness. My arms and legs became heavy and my sight blurry. It was then that I knew he put something in the drink when I saw his glass only half empty.
“I can close my eye to your disobedience here and there, especially if I can get something from it. But what I absolutely won’t stand for is the fact that a little shit like you commands more respect in my own regiments than I do!” he snapped, his real voice and tone now showing. “That’s just bad for overall morale, Stavos, don’t you agree?”
I tried to get up but a heavy hand on my shoulder pushed me down. It wasn’t a human-sized hand, no way. It was much bigger.
“Meet my friends, Stavos. These are Pier Farlang, also known as the Enforcer, and his bulky colleague Targat Qin, the notorious Takkari slave handler.”
“What the fuck... is this, Winters? What the fuck do... you want?”
Winters just smiled through his white beard and leaned back into his chair with his hands behind his head.
“You see, I don’t want to kill you, Stavos. I’m not that type of man, but I do need to keep you away from my troops. With the accent on the word my in my troops, Stavos. The men you tried to turn against me.”
“You paranoid fuck! I never di—anything like it!”
“Paranoid? I would have to be blind to ignore what you were doing behind my back. There isn’t a single soldier in this army who doesn’t think Richard Stavos is the hero of Sardok Mine and Winters is the asshole who sent them into death. Do you know what that did to my reputation? I’ve been in the military for sixty years, Stavos. I have seen it all. I have seen better men than you die in the mud, and I have seen men just like you stepping on their faces to save their butts. I know you. I know what kind of man you are since we are the same.”
“I will kill you... Winters.”
I was barely able to talk and the few words I managed to say came from my very guts. Farlang and Qin stood to both my sides. I knew who these two were as I’d heard from them a long time ago. They were rogue traders, slavers, and the scum of the universe. Just how did he get his hands on them?
“You will kill shit, Stavos,” he said and all three of them burst out in laughter. “I’ll have you sent to a very special place where you’ll never cause me any more trouble. See, they like winners there. You might even make a killing at life if you have the will to survive.”
“What the hell... do you... mean?” I mouthed, now barely able to speak and think.
“I’ve sold you, Stavos. I’ll be getting a nice little check from these gentlemen right here. It’s not often they get their hands on a Technomancer, especially one as famous as you and revered by Qualt and his people.”
I tried to focus all my strength, but I could feel the nanites in my body sleeping. Or had they been disabled by something inside the drink?
“That won’t work,” Pier Farlang said. “Your blood is full of nanite-blockers, so none of your technomancy skills are working.”
Using the last bit of my willpower, I jumped up and tried to get my hands on Winters. I wanted to choke every bit of life out of the piece of shit, but all I managed was to spill the bottle in front of me and then collapse to the floor.
“Easy there, Stavos. Don’t get yourself hurt or they’ll take it out of my check,” Winters jabbed. “Now say goodbye, Stavos. This is the last time you’ll see the outside world. And before you even say anything about your friends, no one will ever find a trace of you. I’ll make sure of that.”
He got up and leaned into my face as the two slavers pulled me to my feet and said something I couldn’t understand.
“I’ll kill you,” I muttered. “Kill me now or... I’ll make you... sorry.”
“Look at me, Stavos,” he said while pushing his fingers against my chin. I was already barely hanging on and couldn’t even look him in the eyes. “I want you to look at my face. You don’t fuck with me, boy. Remember that in the last days of your miserable life. You don’t fuck with Brigadier General Winters. No one does.”
Epilogue
First, there was darkness. Beyond the darkness, there were cheers and screams from thousands of voices. Yet even closer, there were the violent clashes and clanking of steel on steel. A battle raged around me, I knew it, yet I had no idea where I was and who was doing the fighting. Before I opened my eyes, a face materialized before me; Winters' ugly mouth circled by his white beard. It disappeared with the orange light that seeped into my eyes as I opened them.
A Takkari ran right at me, its face a grimace of terror. Something was chasing the reptilian, that much I knew but I couldn’t make out who or what it was. I wasn't conscious enough to react, and it was all I could do to lay there as the Takkari banged his foot into my stomach and fell over me. The kick was a wake-up call that told me this wasn’t a game. At least not one that I wanted to play.
I rolled out of the way, dragging myself several yards from the downed Takkari who was now on the floor, looking up and pleading for its life. Its nemesis and the thing I hadn’t been able to make out, was an Orros with a massive two-handed sword that was speckled with rust.
The weapon looked ancient but ever so deadly, especially in the hand of a damn Orros who had the strength and endurance to swing the thing. The Orros came to a skidding halt and loomed over the Takkari before it slammed the tip of the blade deep into the Takkari’s chest and the voices in the background grew louder with joy.
The Orros picked up the dying Takkari and beheaded it with one swift swipe of his barbaric weapon. He held the head up high to even more cheers and then turned around and threw the reptilian’s head at me as if telling me I was next.
I didn’t need my INAS to tell me I was in danger, but it blinked with warning notices anyway. As my vision cleared, I looked around me. I was in a sort of wide and open pit, not unlike a gladiator arena of ancient times. Thousands of creatures of all races cheered their hearts out, screaming a single damn word: Kill, kill, and kill!
Several Takkari bodies were strewn about the ground, or rather pieces of Takkari, Orros, some unknown species, and one very much known to me: humans. They littered the white sand and stained it with blue, green, and red blood; a head here, an arm there, intestines, blood, and pus drying on the walls and sands below. It was a slaughterhouse more than anything else. My heart sunk as I read the text on the holographic image hovering in the center of the giant arena: Preliminary Fights Round 1. Xan Maximum Security Prison.
Xan, the place of horror stories. Winters was right, he didn’t have to kill me. Xan was endlessly worse than any death. A million thoughts rushed through my mind: Leo, Layla, Tailor, Skull Company, Detera, the skald, dying stars… All of these things pushed themselves into my mind at once but none of them would help me at the moment.
A loud voice echoed through the entire place, drawing everyone’s attention, even the Orro’s.
“One more to go for Kungen the Beast! Will the last of his enemies provide any resistance? You have thirty seconds to place your bets!”
The crowd roared and so did the Orros called Kungen, but he didn’t charge me. Not yet at least. I slowly got back up on my legs and realized I was completely naked except for a piece of cloth around my hips. My Fyre Armor was gone, my O-Nan cells with it. I had no bots, no weapons, no nothing. Just an angry Orros staring at me with a brutal grin plastered to his face. The Orros licked the rusty sword in a show of terror that would paralyze a lesser man, but I was no lesser man. I was Stavos and I’d stared death in the eye a hundred times!
New thoughts rushed through my mind as everything cleared and I had control over my body. I remembered what had happened: Winters, the whiskey, the slave trade
rs, it all crystallized completely. I felt fear, I felt confusion, I felt worse than the day I woke up from my death, but all these feelings gave way to one notion that eclipsed all others. In the ancient books of Dante, in the last circle of hell, there sat the betrayers with Lucifer himself, and no other sin caused more harm to god and man alike than that of betrayal. Those betrayed had but one course of action that echoed from time immemorial to today: revenge.
I had lost it all again but this time my path was clearer than ever. The Orros finally stepped toward me as the announcer roared again.
“Here we go! One last kill for Kungen the Beast before he gets a chance at the big prize! Good luck, Kungen, and good luck to the poor human who is about to get slaughtered!”
The crowd laughed and applauded as he finished, but my mind barely registered them. Fuck them all! I’d show them what humanity was really about.
The Orros was big, all Orros were. He was strong, partially armored like a barbarian of old, and he was armed. I scanned Kungen the Beast with my INAS and took a deep breath just as he swung his sword, wanting to split me in half.
I raised my hand and my Ro Sword materialized, blocking the overhead attack with ease. The Orros eyes lit up with surprise as I laid my hand on his chest. I could feel the heat of nanites rushing through my blood and out of the pores in my skin. I felt them puncturing his skin, flesh, organs, and bone.
The audience turned completely silent and so did the Orros as I stood there, glaring up into his eyes. He dropped to a knee as I swung my Ro Sword at his neck, slicing through the thick neck with little effort. The lifeless body dropped to the white sand to neither cheer nor applause.
Was this it, I thought. The Orros was weak and both slow and dumb. I could have killed a dozen of his kind with as little effort, but it only ignited the fire within me even more. Yes, I would fight here, I would bleed, and I would kill. If I had to walk over a mountain of bodies to reach Winters, I would do so with a grin on my face. Winters was a name I’d never forget and he wouldn’t be safe no matter where he went. He wouldn’t be safe as long as I lived, and I would find him one day.
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