by Greg Dragon
Yuth was a mystery to his fellow Phasers. As a Lyrian from Louine, his looks were exotic. Lyrians were the color of the Vestalian Sea at its shallowest point, a beautiful aquamarine. Their blue canvas was broken by white-lined tattoos that were mostly random at birth but held patterns that revealed his lineage. Lyrians were a handsome race, all cheekbones, shapely skulls, and tiny blunted spikes that grew in the places where hair would grow for a Vestalian.
The average Lyrian height was six feet and they had three strong fingers on each hand and foot. From a distance—color aside—it would be hard to distinguish a Lyrian from a human, but the two races could not be any more different, especially when it came to their customs
Throughout his career Yuth had been approached by many men and women from different agencies, and he’d indulged them whenever he could. But he found them odd even as he played along to learn more about them. It was one of these women that he had allowed to convince him to join the Phaser Agency. Her name was Tayden Lark. The Phaser agency was everything that Yuth could dream of as a career soldier, and he believed they had the tools and abilities to truly affect change.
Once a Phaser recruit, Yuth had quickly passed the tests and excelled to the point where he joined the elite Phaser Aces. This gave him a position of leadership and though he enjoyed being out in the field, he was extremely happy with his rank and wanted to help make the agency even better.
When Yuth Varience received the call from his commander, it was at a very late hour. But to have Rafian VCA call him personally for a mission meant it was something that required his personal touch. What Rafian wanted him to do seemed impossible and insane, but he knew this was a test to see if he was worthy. A challenge from the top Phaser was the greatest of honors and who better to do it than Louine’s own Vyther Ret (Bringer of Death)?
It was a week later when Yuth uncloaked his Whyte after flying through the steamy atmosphere of Geral. The Whyte was one of the newer stealth ships that used reflective technology to appear invisible to the naked eye. For the radars, a skilled pilot would cloak for the ten minutes that it was up and then utilize low altitude to allow the cloaking to recharge. He knew how to remain unseen and he was able to do it with older ships that had no technology outside of a fast thruster engine.
After several hours of invisible flight—to make it to the bustling city of Rudshe—Yuth armed his guns, bit into a Softex pill and prepped for the beginning of his lengthy mission. He banked the Whyte around a high-rise, then climbed and landed on its rooftop. He unlocked his seatbelt and then secured his mask and weapons before saying a few silent prayers and hopping out onto the roof.
A light rain fell and the sky was a gray soup of mist, clouds and occasional lightning. There were some patrols flying around the buildings but Yuth was certain they would not see the ship due to its unique surface.
He wore a COREX mask attached to his 3B suit; it was a Louine invention and one that most Phasers had not adapted yet. The mask was one that stuck close to the skin, and its entire front panel was transparent so that the wearer looked as if he wore a tight hood with a piece of glass covering the face. The advantage of the COREX in comparison to a 3B mask was that it increased visibility. It could also track heat and cold signatures just by translating the wearer’s thoughts. This alien technology demanded that the mask could only have one user in its lifetime, as it could confuse owners and hurt its wearer. One other advantage the COREX had was its ability to stop the Geralos from invading the wearer’s mind. It was for this reason that Yuth wore it. It was also why he encouraged Rafian to make it a mandatory part of the battle uniform.
As he moved to the rear of the Whyte and made to descend the building, he triggered the cloak on his 3B suit and leapt off the side before the drones could see him. He had five minutes of invisibility before the suit would have to recharge and he knew it would take a lot longer to reach the streets below. The building was a skyscraper so he triggered the wings of his suit, jumped, and began a slow glide towards the streets below. As he descended, he pulled a pistol from the small of his back and held it at the ready in case he was spotted. He reached into a pouch that was at his waist and took out a small clip filled with crystal bullets. He fired a shot into the ground near a dark alley, then retracted the 3B suit’s wings and jumped through the beckoning crystal portal (tear) to teleport to the area that he had shot.
Phaser Aces used crystal guns to instantly teleport during firefights, but Yuth used it in just about every mission to perform maneuvers that gave him an edge over the enemy. He blinked out and appeared in the area where he had shot the crystal, then leaned down to retrieve it and placed it carefully back inside the pouch. He turned off the cloak and pulled out his las-sword as he walked out towards the main area of the city, keeping to the shadows as best he could to avoid detection.
When he emerged from the alley to the dirty side street of the slums, he looked up and off to the distance and saw the large command center for the Geralos Navy. He felt his two hearts skip with joy at how close he had managed to land without detection. He then slunk back into the alley, where he touched the side of his mask and called Rafian VCA to update him on his status.
“Commander, I’m at the heart.”
“You’re one hell of a Phaser, Yuth! Stay dark down there until you hear from us. We will send supplies through the tear to hold you and if you need company, just let me or Tayden know. We can join or switch places with you.”
“These type of operations get busted whenever there are multiple agents, Commander,” Yuth said. “I can hold out for as long as you need me to. Once I get the go-ahead I will move on the city and take the command center out. They will be clueless as to what caused it to happen, and I will be back in space to assist with the assault on that destroyer.”
“Call me if you need anything. I will move fast so that you are not stuck down there for too long.”
“Thanks, Commander.” Yuth hung up.
Rafian looked back to see if Marian was still waiting in the doorway, but she was gone and the lights had been powered down. He wanted to jump for joy at the quick success that Yuth had had on the enemy’s planet but he resisted the urge. Phasers were good, but an Ace like Yuth was in another class. He pumped his fist into the air and then ducked back into the cave to see if he could catch Marian before she went to sleep.
~*~*~*~
“How do you become a Phaser?” Maes asked Aurora SYN as she walked ahead of him, up the ramp to the ship’s bridge. He was carrying her boxes of files, and she was scolding him about annoying her fellow officers.
“That’s an odd question to be asking me, cadet,” she responded. “Having high aspirations, I see.”
“Yes, ma’am. I would like to be in the Special Forces one day an—“
“Well, you don’t become a Phaser, cadet,” Aurora said. “They choose you. Where did you say you were from again? I didn’t realize that Messio-Tral even had cadets. Were you on a field trip there or something?”
Maes smiled. “Yes, a field trip! I was there from the destroyer Rendron, with—“
“You mean, battleship? The Rendron is a battleship.” When she said this, Aurora spun on her heels to face him and looked him over with curiosity. She touched her fluffy afro and knitted her brow, then raised her voice a bit when she spoke to him. “You aren’t being honest with me, Sako – if that is even your real name. Who are you, really, and why are you on my ship?”
Maes wondered how quickly he could throw the boxes at her, draw his hidden las-sword and cut her head off before escaping. But this was a finesse job, and he had been chosen because of his skills as a spy, not because of his sword arm. Killing Aurora would grant him the greatest pleasure but she was not a Phaser; she was his key to finding the Phasers, so he would have to play the game.
“I am sorry Captain, it was foolish to lie,” he said, his tone apologetic. “See, the truth is… I do not really know who I am. The ship got attacked and I must have blacked out.”
> He watched her expressions to see if she was buying it. If she so much as suggested that she knew what he was, he would have no choice but to snatch her life from her body.
Her expression softened so he continued. “My only recollection of anything was waking up on this ship to strangers and questions that were both hostile and foreign to me.”
Aurora smiled at him and pinched his cheek. She led him to her station where he placed the boxes down neatly at her feet. He made to excuse himself from her presence.
She stopped him. “Hold up, Sako. I am sorry. I have met many Phasers—some have come from the ranks of this very ship and it is a testament to our training and dedication to the cause that it has worked out like that.”
“How come you aren’t a Phaser, Captain SYN?” he asked as she plopped down into her chair and crossed her legs in the most graceful way.
She looked up at him with her large brown eyes and shook her head as if he was hopeless. “I am a navigator, not a field warrior, Sako. The Phasers are shock troops. They are in firefights, sword fights and constant violence. For this, they only recruit the top warriors that excel at combat. There is no place for map pushers and number crunchers. Once you become a Phaser, they take you away from your loved ones – even your family. You belong to their order and for that sacrifice you get all sorts of magical powers and immortality.”
“Immortality!”
“Was that a hiss?” Her eyes grew wide as she looked around. “What in the maker’s name… that was an interesting sound you made just now.” She laughed at him, then covered her mouth. “Wherever are you from?”
“I’m sorry,” Mae said quickly. “It wasn’t a hiss—I was just very surprised. So Phasers cannot die?”
“No, they can’t and this is why they are not allowed to have families, or come to see their sweet baby sister once in a thyping while.” Aurora looked down with some frustration. She shouldn’t have sworn.
She seemed annoyed and Maes surmised that a past lover or family member of hers had become a Phaser. “Do you have someone there?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about that, Sako,” Aurora said. “This was a good talk, but I have work to do. We have files on the Phasers in the ship’s library. Go do some reading – maybe they will sate your curiosity. Do not get your hopes up about joining them, though. It can become obsession and it will lead you to a very uneventful career. Trust me, I have seen it several times before with cadets. It isn’t a pretty picture.”
He thanked Aurora and walked from the bridge to the light-train, where he rode it to the library and pulled up the Phaser archives. However, the information there was either sparse or exaggerated, so they were no help. The Phasers were a mystery, but with Aurora knowing so much and having a loved one within their ranks, he knew he would have to stick close to her. The exchange they’d had earlier revealed to him just how easy she would be to break. All he would have to do was play her until she trusted him. Eventually she would crack and tell him everything he needed to know.
Phasers of Anstractor is available on Amazon.com