 
### jOvian veiL - Sentient

Published by Kurtis A. Rinas at Smashwords in 2018

Copyright Kurtis A. Rinas 2018

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

For information regarding permission, email jovianveil@gmail.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Ver. 2018-10-18

### Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Pulse of the Eclipse

Chapter 2 - Transience

Chapter 3 - Blessed are the Cursed

Chapter 4 - Journey into the belly of the Sun

Chapter 5 - Prey for the Surge

Chapter 6 - Sentient

About jOvian veiL

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Pulse of the Eclipse

Scene I

The biggest of seven suns dominated the landscape as it breached the horizon and set in the distance. The warmth of its life-giving light was slowly dissipating as it appeared to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss of an enormous body of water that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Llaus took a deep breath of the cooling dusk air then slowly exhaled as if he was releasing all of the stress and worries of the day. His mind was blank as he absorbed the serene and peaceful surroundings, but before he could wallow in the tranquility of the moment he felt something gently grab his hand.

He was confused and slightly disoriented as he attempted to look down to see what it was. His reaction was delayed almost as if he wasn't in control of his own motions. The suddenness of the touch and his delayed reaction startled him to the point where he felt a surge of fictitious intoxication. It was an odd sensation. Standing beside him and looking up with a mischievous grin was a little girl dressed in a beautiful summer dress. She couldn't be any older than 4 or 5 he thought as he tried to steady himself.

' _Who is she?_ '

' _Do I know her?_ '

The surge of questions triggered something within Llaus and he instantly remembered what had happened in the moments prior to meeting this young girl.

His awakening...

Outer space...

The descent and crash...

Absorbing the life force...

The Lt. Commander and his goon Doctor...

The torture...

And now this...

' _Am I dead?_ '

' _Is this what happens after you die?_ '

Llaus searched and scanned within himself to see if he could feel the life force, Rryl, that attached itself to him, but there was a void within him now. The space that was occupied before was empty, he was empty... and yet, once again he wasn't alone, only it was different than before. He didn't know how or why, but a part of him felt like he'd already been here before, that he knew where this was and who she is.... or was?.... He tried to speak but the words wouldn't come out. He tried to turn towards her but once again he felt like he wasn't able to control his own actions; he just stood there looking down at her... in admiration?

' _Are those my feelings?_ '

An uncontrollable sense of swelling pride and love washed over him but, in his mind, he wanted it to stop. He wanted to let go of the little girl's hand and look around and see where he was, but he wasn't in control. He felt like he was captured in the mind of another, witnessing first person what they were doing. The sensation was awkward and clumsy, like watching a TV show in first person from the perspective of one of the characters. Llaus wondered if his mind had been transposed into some form of virtual reality that lets you witness and experience the world through the eyes of another. Only you can feel and taste and smell and hear everything as if you were there. But the reality felt too genuine and too authentic to be a fabricated reality, he could sense it. Not from within himself but through the other that he was part of. It was an odd and disorienting sensation of being... a passenger?... but before he could fully rationalize his immediate circumstances the little girl spoke.

"Are we going to the beach tomorrow?" she said in a squeaky little mouse voice, full of excitement and enthusiasm as if she was already anticipating a favorable answer.

"Yes, we are sweetheart" he replied; only Llaus didn't intend to say anything.

Just a moment ago he tried to speak but couldn't say anything at all and yet just like that he had responded to her request without any thought of his own. Llaus was still struggling with his inability to control the situation he was in. It was like he was forced onto a roller coaster ride, just strapped in and going through the motions. Though he was seemingly unable to control his movements, when he spoke or where he looked, he quickly realized that he was able to control his attention and focus. As long as something was within the peripheral vision of the other then he could look at it.

Llaus continued to observe all of the surroundings as the other continued to look in admiration at the little girl standing beside him. He hadn't noticed this before, but everything appeared to have a faded blue hue that sort of sucked the life and energy out of everything other than the little girl that held his hand. She was vibrant and bright and lit up the world around her. She was emitting an energy that pulsated and emanated from her core and radiated to her surroundings. Also, everything had a slight blur to their contours, almost out of focus, almost mystical but it didn't seem abnormal. It felt real, but it didn't feel present. Llaus felt as though he might be reliving a moment from his life that he had forgotten, or was it just a dream? Perhaps he was dead and this is what the afterlife was really like. Some sort of sick and twisted version of reincarnation that lets you live vicariously through the eyes of another, as a passenger.

Llaus turned his attention back to the beautiful little girl beside him and studied her features as they continued to walk hand in hand. She had long black wavy hair that went past her shoulders by several inches and her eyes were jet blue with tiny little purple specks, they were absolutely stunning. They made her look much older and more mature than she probably was. Her smile was mischievous and playful yet naïve and innocent. She was still holding his hand and walking beside him, but her steps were more like bounces, like a kangaroo hopping and skipping along. She was humming something to herself as she bounced, obviously very happy and comfortable with whoever's hand she was holding. Even though Llaus was only a passenger in this odd scenario, he could feel and sense the love and admiration this person had for the little girl because ever since she grabbed his hand, the gaze hadn't shifted away from her.

"Can we get ice cream?" she asked without looking up or skipping a beat. "My favorite is mint chocolate, it's so yummy!" she declared as if stating her favorite type would assure a favorable answer.

"Of course we can my dear. Today is your special day" he replied with a slight chuckle.

As the sun continued to set he could feel the temperature starting to drop a little. Whatever planet this was had multiple suns and judging from their position in the sky it didn't appear as though it was going to get completely dark despite the fact that the largest sun was rapidly setting on the horizon. Time was funny in space but time was also funny wherever he was and he wondered if this planet ever had complete darkness.

"Look at the butterfly!" the little girl proclaimed joyfully as she let go of his hand and went chasing it into a park area ahead. Her hair flowed in the wind as she lifted her hands to the sky to try and catch the floating insect. Llaus, within the other, stopped walking and just stood there watching and admiring her as she ran across the path in front of him, smiling and laughing. Once again, he could feel a sense of love and admiration from within the other but this time he felt it from within himself as well. Although he had only seen this little girl for a few moments he knew he loved her as well. He tried to reason with himself that this was likely an artificial sensation that he was experiencing through the other but the more he watched her, the more he knew that his emotion was real. Her childlike innocence was such a contrast to who he felt like he was and her ability to marvel at something as simple as a butterfly was foreign to his cold and calculated way. Her beauty and purity resonated deep within and touched a part of him that he didn't even know existed. The other took a shallow breath and tried to hold it in, as if trying to fight off the urge to cry. Then as he exhaled, everything began to disintegrate in front of him. It was like he was blowing away reality and dissolving the landscape in front of him with his pent-up emotion. He looked down at his hands and watched them transform into nothing more than a pixelated blur, and then to nothing at all.

Scene II

Just as everything had disintegrated in front of him, the void of blackness started to change and morph into a new shape. The black shifted in contrast and started to revolve; taking on the shape of a circle with swirling colours that gravitated towards the centre. Llaus was fixated on the circle as it rotated around and around. It was hypnotizing and warm; he could feel heat radiating from the colour transformation swirl, then just like that, he found himself staring up into a sky directly at a sun.

He squinted and instinctively lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, then shifted his gaze out to the horizon. He could see several suns setting in the distance, only this wasn't the same horizon that he was looking at moments ago; it was dead and desolate. A smoky haze hung onto the desert-like landscape, billowing across the plains as the wind swirled, but like a morning fog, it lingered and clung to the ground.

The smell of dust was mixed with an indistinguishable chemical smell, like Sulphur only sweeter and less potent; it was definitely a non-organic smell that irritated the senses. Despite the haze, Llaus was still able to see for miles into the distance. The rugged terrain stretched as far as the eye could see, reminding him a great deal of where he was prior to entering the Fortress.

' _Prior to dying?_ ' he wondered.

He still wasn't sure where he was, if he was dead, where he was going or what kind of journey his consciousness was on but once again he could sense that he was just a passenger, though he seemed to be more in sync with the other this time, or perhaps he was just acclimating to his new role. There was something serene about this setting and once again it seemed to be very familiar, though he didn't know why.

' _What happened to the girl?_ '

' _Where am I now?_ '

Llaus continued to survey the horizon when something beneath him caught his attention. Looking down at his feet he gasped in horror as he realized that he was standing on a huge pile of dead bodies. His black boots that were covered in dust and blood were firmly planted on the backs of several dead corpses. Somewhere from within the pile, a hand slowly reached up and grabbed his ankle. Apparently, they weren't all dead but Llaus was certain that death wasn't that far off. The bodies were tossed on top of one another with little regard for how they were placed. If the bodies on the bottom were alive when they began stacking, then they would certainly be dead by now under the enormity of the weight. The hand continued to reach out at him, but he didn't move, nor did he make any attempt to help. His attention shifted out to the horizon again and he noticed that the haze was slowly beginning to fade. What he thought was just the lay of the land was actually a multitude of dead bodies scattered and strewn across the vast landscape for as far as he could see. Some were so badly deformed that they were barely recognizable while others were grasping onto young children as their charred backs were turned to him like they were running away from something they couldn't escape. They all lay so silently yet the sound of silence was deafening.

Then the smell hit his nostrils. How could he have missed the overpowering smell of burnt and decaying flesh? All the dead and decomposing carcasses that lay across the expansive plains were disintegrating quickly as if some type of accelerant was used to increase the rate at which the carbon from their bodies returned to its original state.

Birds similar to ravens scattered across the ground in numbers impossible to comprehend. They chirped and clawed at each other in territorial battles as they laid claim to the corpses they intended to tear the flesh from and swallow in giant chunks. There was no need to fight since the bodies clearly outnumbered the amount of birds, yet their greedy animalistic instincts were too strong.

The hand continued to grasp at his ankle, but he still didn't move or acknowledge it. Instead, he reached into his upper pocket and retrieved a pack of cigarettes that was nearly empty and devoid of any type of brand or marking.

' _Military issue_ ' Llaus thought as he opened the package, retrieved one of the remaining cigarettes and placed it in his mouth. Through the peripheral vision he also noticed that the jacket he was wearing was military issue. It was dark blue leather with several white stripes that extended around the collar, near identical to the one that the Lt. Commander was wearing when they met, in another time.

He withdrew a pack of matches from his pocket, struck it on the side of the pack while cupping his hands around the cigarette. The flame flickered and sputtered for a moment then took off and engulfed the end of the match. He lifted the flame to the end of the cigarette and drew in several short puffs, the flame danced and bent sideways into the cigarette, igniting the mixture of dry tobacco and Ponzille leaves.

He inhaled deeply, drawing the smoke down to the bottom of his lungs where he held it for several moments. The sensation was relaxing and slightly euphoric as the chemicals passed through his lungs and into his bloodstream. He casually threw the match on the pile of dead bodies beneath him then exhaled just as deeply as he inhaled, projecting a giant cloud of smoke into the air.

He shifted his gaze from the horrific scene on the horizon to the hand that continued to grasp at his stained black boot. It was coming from underneath several bodies, so he couldn't see anything other than the blood soaked and battered hand. He gently took a step to his left, reached over and dragged a body aside so he could expose the owner of the hand. The body he grabbed was bloated and slightly gelatinous; pulling too quickly seemed like it could easily tear off a limb or smear the flesh. The texture and sounds were repulsive, yet he didn't react adversely, almost as if this was an everyday ordinary occurrence.

After re-positioning the body, he looked down to see a half-naked man reaching up to him, his lower jaw had been torn off (or shot off), leaving his tongue dangling to the side. He couldn't speak and could hardly make any noise at all, though he tried over and over again to communicate. His eyes were full of pain and questions, but they flickered with hope and optimism. His body was frail and weak; he was obviously malnourished and severely dehydrated. His wrinkled skin hung off his bones like a suit that was 4 sizes too big and it drooped like melted cheese.

Llaus slowly took a knee and leaned in to look at him directly in the eyes. The old man reached out with both of his hand now, desperately trying to grasp onto whatever life he could. He grunted some indistinguishable words, most likely pleading for help or thanking the stranger for finding him. But Llaus could feel the hate and disdain growing in the body of the other, whatever emotion of uncertainty and confusion the old man had was certainly not reciprocated in this exchange and Llaus could sense it.

They continued to stare at one another for a period of time that would make most people uncomfortable, but the old man just continued to reach out for help. The longer they remained in an undeclared staring contest, the more the optimistic look in the old man's eyes started to fade. The initial exhilaration of being found was morphing into a fearful suspicion of possibly meeting the very person responsible for putting him in this situation, though that didn't stop him from trying to wriggle out of the pile of bodies.

Then, the other leaned in towards the man and whispered softly.

"It amazes me, the will of instinct..."

He let the words hang and drift in the air for several moments before casually inhaling another drag from the cigarette. He let the smoke roll around in his lungs, just as had before then gently blew it in the direction of the old man's face. He stood up rather quickly and proceeded to step on the old man's face forcefully to push him back down into the crevasse of mangled bodies that he was trying to wriggle out of. The old man howled in horror and pain as his face became a stepping stone as the realization that he wasn't going to be saved became evident. The other repositioned his foot onto his throat and continued to push down with all of his weight, the old man writhed and gurgled as he struggled for air but could do nothing to stop or prevent it. His eyes bulged under the weight as if to symbolically project their horror from his body.

The other bent over once again, took the half-smoked cigarette from his dry and cracked lips and proceeded to extinguish it on the old man's bulging left eye. The cherry-red end of the cigarette seared and burned the already sensitive and dying flesh. The gurgles turned into howls of agony as the cigarette passed through the outer skin layer and extinguished somewhere deep within the eyeball. Llaus could sense a tidal wave of ecstasy wash over and throughout the other's body. It came on like a powerful orgasm but lasted longer and was more intense than anything he remembered experiencing before. The other obviously got some sort of sick and twisted satisfaction from inflicting pain and watching another suffer. The overall effect was dizzying and caused him to lose his balance ever so slightly. While trying to regain his footing the old man reached up one last time and was able get a hand on his boot. The result caused the other to completely lose his balance and roll down the giant pile of dead bodies, smashing and smearing everything he came into contact with until he hit the ground.

The whole ordeal left Llaus slightly disoriented and confused as he came to a crashing halt on the dusty ground far below. He turned his head to the left and noticed that he had landed nearly face to face with another dead body, though that wasn't entirely accurate since the face had been completely smashed to the point where it wasn't recognizable. It almost looked like someone had scooped out the facial features with a dull spoon except it had charred remnants on the side like it had endured an explosion. Interestingly enough the hole didn't pass through the entire skull, just the face was missing. Llaus, still in a daze, continued to study the missing face, there was something unique and odd about this body. Then before his very eyes, the flesh from within the gaping wound started to shift as the face started to re-assemble itself. Llaus looked on in disbelief, shaking his head several times as if he were trying to reset his vision. But the flesh continued to shift and change shape until the entire hole was completely filled in. The facial features were still vague and indistinguishable, but it continued to re-assemble until it took full form. Llaus squinted and wiped his eyes, still unsure that what he was seeing was real but when he looked again, he was looking at the face of a very old man. Not the same old man that he had just condemned to a certain death but another that he was certain he recognized. Llaus searched deep within his memory but he still had nothing, so he then searched within the memory of the other as best he could until he realized that it was his face! He was looking at himself, only a version that was much older than he remembered. The other screamed and tried to get up but his body remained motionless, temporarily paralyzed by the fall but more likely paralyzed by fear. Then the older version of Llaus opened its mouth and spoke in a deliberate and monotone voice.

"You will know the one when that is what you become

"You will become the one when another has a son.

"To forget is not to have forgotten,

"But the light of the night will cast a shadow into the darkness of eternity".

Then just as quickly as the face morphed into existence, it melted away until the hole completely returned to what it was before, a gaping mortal wound. Llaus stared at the empty face, questioning whether he had really just seen was real or not. A fly crawled out of the neck area and flew away before the face started to morph and stretch again. The hole started to grow bigger as the outer cavity of the skull was stretched to allow for incoming teeth.

' _Teeth?!_ ' Llaus thought to himself. He tried to move to get away but was still paralyzed.

Multiple rows of sharp and crooked teeth pushed their way into the expanding skull. By now the opening orifice where the gap had been expanded many times in size and elongated until it actually looked like the mouth of a sand shark. Then the corpse started to move, it rose clumsily from the ground and lumbered its way into a standing position in front of Llaus. A deep and dark voice spoke from within.

"Tomorrow has already revealed its truth but the vision from yesterday is still unknown"

The voice continued to repeat the same line over and over again as it slowly made its way over to Llaus, waddling like a constipated penguin. He was still paralyzed by fear and couldn't break the trance of what was happening.

"Now you will be set free from the burden of your destiny" the voice said flatly before it placed Llaus' head inside its mouth and bit down. Llaus closed his eyes and winced in anticipation.

But before the end came...

Scene III

He sat up in bed and let out a scream that curdled even his own blood. His back and forehead were dripping with sweat and he was swinging his arms wildly over his head as if he was trying to push something away from above. Frantically he looked around the room, but it was mostly dark other than the window to his left that let in a small amount of light.

"What's wrong?" a female voice asked in a delicate and sleepy tone.

Her voice startled him, and he gasped as he quickly turned his head to see the outline of a figure lying in bed next to him. He nearly threw a punch at her in self defense but resisted after he had a moment to process her voice and his immediate surroundings. He was no longer about to be chewed up by some freak 'sand shark' version of himself. This place was different, and he felt safe.

"Are you having that nightmare again?" she asked in a soft petite voice as she began to sit up. The words seemed to float across the air like a graceful butterfly in flight; smooth, gentle and seductive. Llaus turned to get a better look at who was lying beside him, but it was too dark to distinguish her facial features.

He was out of breath and his heart pounded so hard that it made his ears ring. The woman with the seductive voice placed her hand on his arm and slid it slowly towards his chest. The sensation of her skin was soothing and erotic; her touch was delicate and soft like silk. She continued to run her hand up his arm until she got to his chest, then she shifted her body and wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled her head close to his.

"Ohh... you're all wet..." she said somewhat surprised as she nudged the nape of his neck.

"It must have been bad this time because you don't usually wake up this sweaty. Let me go open a window and let in some fresh air. But just for a few moments, it's really cold out there tonight"

Llaus sat silently, listening to every word that she spoke, almost watching the words dance across the room to the rhythm of her intonation. Once again, in this moment, Llaus knew he was only watching as a passenger. He could not control his actions, nor could he control the other to speak, he was quite simply, present.

"You never tell me what your dream is about, you just tell me that it's the same one, over and over. When are you going to tell me?" she asked with a little more authority as she walked across the room to the window.

Llaus was mesmerized by the shape of her silhouette as she seemed to float across the room. She was average height and very curvaceous. The outline of her body formed the shape of an hourglass, but he couldn't see anything other than the black outline of her body until she reached the window. Then he could see that she was completely naked. Her skin was lightly tanned and flowed across her ample curves, her breasts were perky and slightly pointed. She reached for the window latch but had to bend over slightly to get a firm grip, Llaus sat in awe as he studied her body. His heart continued to race, only this time it wasn't because of a bad dream. She was absolutely stunning and any of the thoughts he had from the past few dreams, or episodes, or whatever they were, were clearly unimportant now. Llaus had an insatiable animalistic urge to stand up and go to the woman but he could only watch the scene unfold before him.

She managed to open the window with little difficulty, and a cool breeze flooded the room. Llaus could feel the depth of the cold air penetrate the body of the other. The cool air caressed the perspiration on his body and sent shivers down his back.

"What time is it?" The other asked flatly as he continued to look in the direction of the woman. His voice was deep and raspy like he was battling a cold.

"I don't know but I know we'll be tired tomorrow" she replied without giving much in the way of expression.

"Close the window and come back to bed, I miss you already.... I always miss you" the other said with a trailing voice.

She closed the window and made her way back to bed but instead of going to her side, she walked around in front of him and pulled back the sheets playfully. Then she seductively climbed onto the bed and straddled his outstretched legs. Instinctively he reached out for her, wrapped his right arm around her waist and pulled her in close, squeezing her soft and delicate skin against his. With her body pressed against his, he laid back as her skin caressed his body and her curves hugged him like a glove. She gently threw her hair to the side then firmly planted her lips on his. It was exhilarating; she might possibly be the most beautiful woman Llaus had ever seen and in this moment, he was drunk on her beauty and completely consumed. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours as their lips and tongues teased each other while the rest of their bodies responded in turn to the arousing sensations.

They continued in their pleasure until she pulled away and rolled over slightly, keeping her leg wrapped over his and her head on his chest. The previous moment of passion left him out of breath and his heart pounding.

"Your heart is racing... is that because of me or is it still from the bad dream?" she said in a flirtatious tone.

"I think you already know the answer to that..." the other responded with a slightly exasperated tone.

"The bad dream of course..." he added several moments later in a playful tone. She laughed and tapped his chest with her hand because she knew he was teasing.

"Why don't you ever tell me what you dream about? Is it too scary to say?" she paused wanting to ask more but knowing that it was seemingly futile because this had happened numerous times before with the same result.

"If you tell me, maybe I'll continue what we started..." she said as she slowly began to slide her hand down his chest.

"Oh yeah?" he laughed as he gently grabbed her hand and put it back on his chest.

"Sometimes I feel like time stands still when I'm with you, like we can lay here together, and the morning will never come. We can just be with each other and the world and the stars stop as if time doesn't exist" he said.

"But just as I drift off in that happy thought, the vision of that nightmare drags me back to reality. Trust me, you don't want to know what I dream about. I would never wish that on you in a thousand years..." he said in a calm yet flustered voice, his words trailing off at the end as if his mind had wandered back into the dream world.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad?" she responded.

"I've had bad dreams before but that's all they are, just dreams. Sometimes I even realize that I'm dreaming in my dream, and I come to the realization that whatever I'm dreaming about couldn't possibly be hap-"

Before she could finish her trailing thought, the other quickly grabbed her arm, pushed it aside, pivoted his body in one quick motion and launched himself on top of her. It happened so fast that she didn't even know what had happened until she tried to move and realized that her extremities were all constrained.

"What are you doing?" she asked while trying not to let her actual concern waiver in her voice. The other didn't respond as he tightened his grip ever so slightly.

"Please let go of my arms, you're hurting me! she pleaded as she looked into his eyes that were only a few inches from hers. But still there was no response.

"LET GO OF ME!!!!" she screamed as she began to thrash with all her might. But despite all of her efforts to break out of the submissive position, the other didn't move an inch. He just continued to stare deep into her eyes like a wolf stalking its prey.

"Now you listen to me" he said in a cold and monotonous tone.

"I have seen things that you could never even fathom. My eyes have feasted on chaos that would unsettle your soul. It would unravel your humanity and set your animalistic instincts into a euphoric rush of endorphins.

"I have witnessed life at its very finest and its absolute worst, and I don't need you questioning why I can't seem to shake these DAMN thoughts in my head" he said with an intensity that she had never seen before. His jaw muscles flexed tightly almost as if he was trying to restrain himself from screaming each and every word.

"I'm sorry! I won't ask again... I didn't know..." She said while holding back tears.

"But please, let me go. I'm sorry..." she pleaded as she looked up into his fierce eyes, blazing with rage.

She had never seen this side of him before. Of course, she knew that his occupation put him in difficult situations, but this was the first time that he had ever brought it home and snapped on her like this. He continued to squeeze her wrists so hard that her fingertips were starting to tingle. She winced in pain but tried not to do or say anything that would incite another fit of rage. Then he leaned in even closer, the look on his face exuding an intensity that was tough to describe, like he was fighting to hold an inner demon within that wanted to be released. She almost thought he was going to open his mouth and devour her whole but instead he began to kiss her. Their lips connected as he simultaneously let go of her wrists and the submissive hold he had her in. At first, she resisted with an instinctive flinch but he placed his right arm under her and pulled her close. As their naked bodies pressed up against one another, whatever feelings of resistance and apprehension she had before washed away as they kissed deeply. She could sense a release of sorrow and resentment in his touch and kiss. Then just as quickly as he had mounted on top of her, he jumped off and sat on the edge of the bed.

He buried his face in his hands and began to weep. The emotions were overwhelming; confusion, anger, sadness, hatred, disdain & temptation were all mashed together into one giant emotion that was indistinguishable and impossible to comprehend. She sat up in bed behind him, rubbing her wrists where he had restrained her. She was scared, confused and aroused but unsure what to do next. Part of her wanted to run, but another part of her empathized and felt bad for this man that she loved so dearly and had given so much of her life to; a man that for a brief moment she felt like she may not know anything about.

"I'm sorry... " he sobbed with his face still between his hands.

"I'm so sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. I promised myself that no matter what I felt inside, I would never do anything to hurt you. But I did.... I'm sorry...". She could sense that the sorrow and shame were genuine and her instinct was to reach out and put her hands on his back. Of course, she still loved him; she would always love him. He obviously needed help for whatever issues he was having so now certainly was not the time to walk away.

Slowly he turned around and looked at her sheepishly; his face was still moist from the tears he tried to wipe away.

"I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that don't you? I'm sorry...." He paused then leaned forward to kiss her.

It was more of an apologetic kiss, not like the passionate one that they had just shared moments before. She hesitated and may have even flinched a little, but she allowed him to enter her personal space. Just before his lips touched hers she melted away like her body was some sort of suspended fluid that all of a sudden experienced gravity for the first time and the room began to spin in a swirling vortex of light and darkness. The frequency and speed of the swirling surroundings was dizzying, like what had happened before. Llaus knew this episode was coming to an end though he wasn't sure what it all meant.

Scene IV

"BACK IN LINE, YOU MAGGOT!!" a loud and booming voice echoed. Llaus opened his eyes to see a very large and intimidating man leaning towards him and looking straight into his face.

"Do you understand English?? I said GET IN LINE!!!" the voice boomed again. It was so loud that it felt like it shook everything around him.

Llaus was getting used to the onset of confusion as he tried to absorb and comprehend the new surroundings that he seemingly found himself in. As before, he tried to move or speak but found that he was incapable of both; he was but a passenger yet again looking through the eyes of some other. Only this this time though, the other was much smaller than he was used to. The world around him looked big, almost exaggerated and the man dominating his immediate field of view was large. His head was enormous, and his breath stank like a combination of fish and cough syrup. Llaus wondered if he was in some sort of 'Alice in Wonderland' type world where everything was awkwardly disproportionate. But before he could finish his thought, a giant hand came swooping down and smacked him across the face, knocking him to the ground.

The suddenness and magnitude of the impact caught him by surprise and in the blink of an eye he went from looking straight into the eyes of some large man to looking at the floor. He turned his head to look up and everything was even more distorted, the large man was even more enormous from this vantage point and the surroundings were even more distorted and angular.

To his left, was a lineup of what appeared to be kids, though they too looked monster sized. They were all standing there in uniform and in a row. None of them were looking directly at him; they just stood there with their arms folded behind their backs like little robotic military generals. Their collective gaze was facing forward, but they didn't appear to be looking at anything in particular. There must have been 20-25 of them standing in line, all with the same rigid and stoic demeanour. Both the boys and girls wore the same navy-blue uniforms; long straight leg pants with white shirts and a dress jacket. The boy's haircuts were equally uniform and standard, short around the sides and slightly longer on the top. The girls sported hair that was slicked back in the front and tied up neatly in a tight bun at the back. None of them were wearing make-up, or at least nothing that Llaus could distinguish.

"STOP looking to 'yer comrades for help! They aren't going to help get you out of this one! You made your choices and now you're going to answer to me, YA HEAR?!" the large man said as he bent over and lifted the other to his feet.

The large man's head was enormous, but his body was even bigger. He wore a uniform very similar in style to what the kids wore; only there were some additional markings on the sleeve, to distinguish his rank. The upper left pocket of his jacket was embroidered with a logo that looked like some type of angular sun or half-moon with 5 distinct peaks. His face was wrought with wrinkles and there was a giant scar that stretched from the lower left side of his jaw up across both of his eyes.

"You have been given an opportunity here to become something that in my opinion, you ought not to be, and yet, you continue to neglect this chance with your disobedience and insubordinate ways" the large man continued. His voice was deep and hollow. It was more of a grumble; something that you might expect to hear from a man that smoked his entire life. His eyes were dark brown, but they seemed to flicker with a speck of orange every time he raised voice.

"I have given you every opportunity to excel and yet you continue to disappoint with your lackluster effort and childish musings. I have been very patient with you... BUT YOU HAVE EXHAUSTED MY PATIENCE!!" his loud voice boomed again.

Before he could continue, a door across the hall swung open and let in an organic light that contrasted the sterile room. The large man ceased his diatribe of a rant and looked on as a human shape stood as a silhouette in the entrance of the door. No one could make out who it was other than the fact that it must have been a woman based on the curvature of the silhouette. She stood in the doorway for an exaggerated amount of time, almost as if she was looking around to see if she had the wrong room.

Then she stepped forward and allowed the door to close behind her; the soothing light that flooded into the room retreated just as quickly as it had entered. Each step echoed throughout the mostly hollow chamber, getting louder and heightening the anxiety of what she might do or say once she got close enough. Llaus was mesmerized by the lady as she seemed to float across the floor towards him. It seemed like he wasn't the only one as he could hear the other children shuffling their feet and murmuring under their breath. She continued to walk towards everyone but when she got closer she came over and placed her hand underneath the other's lower chin and lifted his head so she could study his face. She turned it from side to side to evaluate the severity of any markings.

Her eyes were big and sparkled with femininity. Her hair was auburn and wavy but unlike the other girls in the room, it wasn't tied up in a bun. It was radiant, almost like it had captured some of the sun and emitted its shine from within. She looked at him with a mother's concern; he could see it in the way her eyebrows moved as she turned his head side to side. Llaus was sure that this wasn't his actual mother, but she wasn't a stranger either; there was too much care in her touch.

Her demeanour instantly changed from a caring mother to some type of military general as she stood up and walked over to the large man that had just been lecturing them all. She whispered something in his ear, something that he obviously didn't agree with based on his facial expression. He seemed to shrink as she continued to talk inaudibly in his ear, similar to a cowering dog being scolded by his master for doing something wrong. Then it was his turn to talk and he was obviously less interested in keeping their conversation private or didn't know the magnitude of his voice since everyone could hear what he was saying.

"I was ordered to make a man of him and that's what I intend to do!" he barked but his sentence was cut short by the lady who now also seemed to not care that what she was saying was audible or not as her voice and intensity elevated.

"You know who HE is! You know HIS importance!! Yes, your job is to make a man of him but not to beat his self-esteem to a pulp!!!'

The large man offered no rebuttal; he just stood there obediently listening to what appeared to be a senior officer. A momentary flash of rage shot across his face as he shifted his gaze towards Llaus.

"Get back in line..." the lady spoke softly but firmly as she continued to look at the large man, but obviously speaking to the other. The other slowly turned and found a hole amongst the row of kids.

"Thank you" the girl immediately to his left whispered from the side of her mouth as she cautiously unfolded her arm from behind her back and reached out to squeeze his hand. It was an affectionate squeeze that made Llaus wonder what had happened prior to him coming into this reality.

As she released his hand he started to deflate. His body started to invert on itself, twisting and contorting, imploding and fading all at the same time. And while he was 'deflating', the lady with the long beautiful hair came over and stood over top of him, looking at him as he faded and twisted away into the floor below. She was speaking to him, but he couldn't hear anything she was saying.

' _Those eyes_ ' Llaus thought.

' _Where have I seen those eyes before?_ ' And as he diminished into nothingness it occurred to him.

'The little girl! The one from another reality that held my hand and asked for ice cream, those look like the same eyes as her'

Llaus remain transfixed on those eyes as they stretched infinitely further away while he continued to sink into the floor.

Scene V

The floor dropped away and Llaus was but a consciousness; a whisper of an idea or a fragment of a thought. He felt like a misshapen nothing that extended across the infinite and occupied everything; a singularity that spread across time but dwelled within the finite space of the rationale.

Then the world around him started to appear; light and colours assembled into shapes and took on complex forms. Sight became taste, smell and touch while the nothingness became reality. Llaus was present, only this time, he was still nothing. He didn't assume the body of a host nor was he witnessing something through the eyes of another.

He was just present.

He found himself at the centre of another large room, only this time his vantage point was from up high like he was a fly on the ceiling. The floors below were finished with some large grey rock slabs that lay out across the great room. The ceiling was set up very high and was convex in shape and was decorated in its entirety with artistic drawings like one would have seen in ancient Roman culture. The floors below were finished with some large grey rock slabs that lay out across the great room.

At the centre of the room was a large oval table covered with maps, pictures and drawings. In the middle of the table was something that looked like a computer monitor with its screen recessed into the table and pointed upward. Although the room was circular, there was a distinct layout. One side had a giant double door while the opposite side had an enormous desk on a raised floor, like a concert stage. Llaus only had to think about investigating further and he automatically began to float down. His consciousness didn't appear to abide by normal gravitational rules. The wall behind the desk was completely covered in computer monitors, each screen showing different images and videos and changing frequently. The videos would cycle through odd clips, from grotesque animals eating, soldiers marching in unison to torturous acts of inhumanity. All of which cycled through endlessly without any audio, and although the videos were silent, the noise they displayed was deafening and ghastly.

On either side of the wall of monitors were large windows that extended from the floor to the ceiling. The window on the left had a small control in front of it, like a joystick and outside there was a very large gun that was mounted to the wall. The window on the right had several large telescopes. The one with the largest diameter was pointed to the sky while the other was pointed out across the horizon.

Through the windows, Llaus could see that this room was up very high in the sky, perhaps miles above the surface below. The landscape was barren and desolate, and the sky above was covered in some type of purple orange dust like cloud cover that stretched as far as the eye could see.

' _I've seen this planet before_ ' Llaus thought to himself.

' _It looks exactly like the planet that I crash landed onto... in another life?_ ' but Llaus still wasn't sure what he was and why he continued to cycle through these alternate realities. But before he could contemplate that question any longer, the large doors swung open and Llaus instinctively ducked and positioned himself close to the floor and behind the large desk.

Several large Beings with masks and guns, exactly the same as he had encountered in the cave, entered the room and walked briskly towards where he was hiding.

' _They know I'm here and they're coming to get me again!_ ' Llaus panicked, he was sure that being caught in this room wouldn't be a good thing.

' _How did they discover me? Am I not dead already? How did I get here in the first place?_ ' he thought. All the while the large Beings continued to get closer. Llaus continued to lay low behind the desk but his mind was racing and thinking of ways to get out of this situation.

' _I need to attack one, get his weapon and hope for the best_ ' was all that he could muster in such a short period of time. He listened to their footsteps as they got closer and anticipated when he would have to make his move.

5.....4......3..... The cadence of their footsteps was predictable and easy to pick up. There was no time to hesitate, the element of surprise was crucial.

2....1... And without delay, he was up and charging. He timed it just right. They were almost on top of him but not quite to the point where they were prepared. They didn't even flinch at the sight of him. He lunged upwards at one of the imposing Beings knowing that he would need to knock it off balance and gain control of its weapon in a split second to have any chance of taking them both out. Time stood still as he propelled himself across the desk towards his potential captor. He put all of his effort and energy into being as quick as possible but something odd happened at the moment if impact. Rather than some sort of collision, he passed right through. It was an odd sensation and left him feeling cold and slightly disoriented. The momentum kept him moving further and further up towards the ceiling until he was almost at the top again. The Beings didn't even flinch as they walked to either side of the desk. They turned, positioned their weapons and stood on guard. Llaus watched from his elevated vantage point, still trying to figure out what had just happened.

' _Maybe they just didn't see me?_ ' he thought.

' _But... how did I get up to the ceiling? And how am I still floating up here?_ '

While he contemplated the oddity of his immediate situation the doors swung open again and another large Being entered the room. This Being was not wearing a mask nor was he holding a weapon, he was however wearing a military helmet decorated with multiple markings that undoubtedly described his superior rank. It was tough to get a full visual of the face from his vantage point but Llaus did not dare move. The Being walked across the room with the demeanour of an apex predator, each step seemed to have purpose.

Instead of going to the desk, he immediately walked over to the window with the joystick. He pushed one of the buttons and watched as some type of tracer round shot out into the sky. It shot out several hundred meters then just floated, rather than fall to the planet's surface.

' _What was the point of that?_ ' Llaus thought but before he could finish his thought, a giant dragon-like being swooped down out of the murky sky above and inhaled the floating tracer round. The Being at the controls launched several more out into the distance, and just like before, more dragon-like beings came swooping out of the cover from above to devour the rounds.

"NOW the fun begins!" the large Being shouted excitedly as he grabbed the joystick controller. The gun positioned on the wall outside moved and shifted in unison with his every command and the window transformed into something that looked like a video game screen with a crosshair sight. He pushed the toggle button and set the giant gun into action, unloading a flurry of rounds into the sky. One by one he mowed down the dragon-like creatures, chopping their bodies in half and sending them tumbling to the surface below.

"Yessssss!!" he screamed with each kill, escalating and getting louder until there were no more creatures left to shoot.

"Well..... now I feel better" he proclaimed, obviously speaking to himself even though there were several Beings positioned at the ends of the desk. They didn't move nor did they even turn around to watch the entire time he was shooting, they just stood there like motionless robot guards waiting for their next command.

Without knowing or consciously thinking about it, Llaus' inquisitiveness had caused him to gravitate towards the desk and away from the ceiling. He didn't know how he was moving but he found himself nearly face to face with one of the large Beings that he had just struck at moments ago. But they continued to stare off across the room, seemingly undisturbed, or more likely unaware, of his presence.

' _How can't they see me?_ ' Llaus pondered as his focus shifted back to the large Being that had just sent a bunch of dragon-like creatures plummeting to their deaths. Almost as if he could sense the attention, the large Being turned from the window and looked directly in his direction. Llaus recognized him immediately. It was Lt. Commander that had sent him to the dungeon of the Fortress to be tortured and executed. The Lt. Commander didn't shift his gaze for several moments but just when Llaus was feeling exposed and vulnerable, the Lt. Commander looked away and took a seat at his desk.

"Let him in" he said in a flat and somewhat disinterested tone after pushing a button on his desk.

As he waited, he opened one of the drawers, withdrew several boxes and placed them on top of the desk. He opened one box and retrieved what appeared to be a cigar, only it was blue and thinner than a traditional cigar. With a quick strike of a match, he lit it then inhaled, allowing the smoke to penetrate deep into his lungs. With a look of satisfaction, he exhaled a strange purple coloured smoke. Llaus thought this was interesting since the smoke from the end of the cigar was blue. Before he could draw another drag from his cigar the door creaked open slowly and a bashful young Indigenous shyly entered the room.

"LOTHIAN !!!" the Lt. Commander exclaimed in a near holler.

"Get over here. I don't have all day!"

Lothian hastened his pace and nearly bumped into the large oval desk as he made his way across the room. Llaus could sense how nervous this young Indigenous was. He wondered what sort of meeting he would have the privilege of bearing witness to as a pseudo 'fly on the wall'.

"Lothian, do you know why you're here?" the Lt. Commander barked out as if he didn't expect an answer. He took the opportunity to take another drag from the cigar as he waited for a response.

"Nn No.. No sir, I do not...." Lothian fumbled through his words, as he grabbed a seat across the desk.

The Lt. Commander exhaled the purple smoke across the desk in the direction of his young guest and appeared to wait for it to reach him before continuing with his series of questions. Lothian gasped and coughed a little, obviously not accustomed to the harshness of the cigar.

"Lothian, how long have I known you?" the Lt. Commander asked in a way that seemed like he already knew the answer.

"My whole life, sir" Lothian replied quickly.

"Yyy... you rescued my mother when she was pregnant"

"That's RIGHT!" the Lt. Commander interrupted, satisfied with the accuracy and promptness of the response.

"Your whole life I've taken care of you and given you the privilege of living within the confines of this impenetrable Fortress! I've clothed you, fed you, educated you, and why? Did I have to?" The Lt. Commander queried as he took on the tone of someone who obviously felt like they deserved praise and recognition.

"No sir" Lothian responded.

"Let me ask you this, my dear Lothian, do you like living here?"

"Yes sir, I do very much"

"WELL I DON'T!!" the Lt. Commander exploded with rage.

"I HATE it here!!! It's a shithole and I want to leave as soon as I bloody well can!!!" the Lt. Commander stood up and shook his fist to the sky as he answered. The intensity and explosiveness of his answer caught Lothian by surprise and he shrunk into his seat.

"Lothian.... " The Lt. Commander resumed with a subdued tone.

"Do you know why I'm here? What my mission is??"

"Umm, I think so... sir" Lothian responded timidly, this time expecting another outburst.

"Yes, of course you think so but let me tell you the real reason because I don't think you fully understand" The Lt. Commander spoke casually.

"Does the name Rryl mean anything to you?"

"Yes, of course" Lothian responded cautiously.

"And just exactly who is Rryl?" the Lt. Commander pressed on.

"He's our God!" Lothian spoke confidently but with certain trepidation. He could sense that his answer, though technically correct, wasn't enough so he continued to add detail.

"He provides for the poor, blesses the crops of our elders. He saves us from our enem-"

"YES, He is your God!" the Lt. Commander interrupted as he turned his back to Lothian and looked at the multitude of screens directly behind his desk.

"Now let me ask you, do you believe that there is any greater than Rryl?" the Lt. Commander continued.

"No sir! Rryl is the only God, he is the Almighty" Lothian answered instantly and without hesitation.

"And you see, this is where you're wrong" the Lt. Commander said sympathetically as he walked around to the front of the desk.

"I think this is too much for you to understand all at once, but our time is limited. Yes, Rryl is great and he is powerful, but he is but one of many in this vast expanse of the universe. Probably difficult for someone like to you to understand since you've never seen anything beyond the atmosphere of your own planet, but there is something greater at work here.

"You see, ever since we arrived on your planet we've been searching for Rryl....

"Perhaps searching isn't the correct word... more like hunting him. And for years he has eluded us, but lately we made tremendous progress and were actually very close to not only making first contact but most likely capturing him.

"However, our plans deviated ever so slightly after some random human crash landed onto the planet. You see, he stumbled onto Rryl after merely a few moments after touching down. We've been searching for years and he makes contact within a few moments of crash landing! That's too much of a coincidence for my liking"

The fictitious hairs on the back of Llaus' neck stood up on end as he listened to the conversation.

"Rryl attached himself to this human as a last-ditch effort to elude us but He is just delaying the inevitable at this point since the human has been captured and is on his way to the Fortress as we speak. I'm sure there's more to his story than just being in the right place at the wrong time, or the wrong place at the right time" the Lt. Commander said dryly.

Lothian gasped at the revelation. Llaus suddenly felt nauseous and disoriented as he realized that he was witnessing the past from a different perspective, though he wasn't sure what that meant to his body in the present.

"Our technology has evolved to the point that Rryl cannot escape without some divine miracle and even if he did, we could quickly track and capture him again. But I'm thinking that we can use this to our advantage because if there's one thing that I despise more than Rryl and it's YOUR KIND!!" the Lt. Commander shouted as he did a quick pivot and turned back towards Lothian.

"YOUR KIND has been a nuisance to me since the day I arrived on this godforsaken planet and because of YOUR KIND I have spent way too much of my time here!!" The Lt. Commander said as he leaned in to intimidate Lothian.

"Later today, I will have you assist the Chief Doctor extract Rryl from this human, but then I want you to kill that insane Doctor of ours after he's done. He too has been a pain in my side for too many years and his testy and insubordinate ways have grown old, particularly more so now that he's finished developing the technology to track and capture Rryl.

"But Lothian... BE SURE not to let him kill our prized patient! We all know that he has a short fuse and a propensity to get dirty every now and then. If he does kill him then you might as well join him because then you too will no longer have any purpose here. Do you understand?" The Lt. Commander said as he placed his giant hand on Lothian's shoulder. Lothian shook his head in agreement though he had the look of a deer caught in the headlights.

"After you dispose of the Doctor I want you to convince the human that you are there to help him escape. I figure that a rescue would seem more authentic coming from the likes of you, an authentic Indigenous.

"And lastly, you also need to inject the human with this .." the Lt. Commander opened the other box he placed on his desk and produced a syringe.

"This syringe contains a trillion tracking robots called Jitbots. Each one is able to monitor every facet of his body. They strategically position themselves at various locations within his body and synchronously send feedback to our mainframe. We can track every step, every breath, his heart rate, what he eats, how often he shits and even how many times he strokes it when he jerks off. Nothing about him will be hidden... "

Lothian reluctantly reached forward and grabbed the syringe from the Lt. Commander. It was small in comparison to the Lt. Commander's hand but was nearly the entire length of his.

"Inject him before he awakens from the torture session, so you don't have to answer what it's for." The Lt. Commander said in a phony concerned fatherly tone.

"This technology is still in its infancy, but one day it will be used for many things. Scientists are developing a way to use these Jitbots to tap into inner thoughts, long term memory and suppressed memories. Soon we'll not only be able to monitor the present but we'll be able to access the past... "

Lothian continued to study the syringe as he listened to the Lt. Commander. His body language suggested that he wasn't enthused about the assigned task, but he was an obedient study, and would do as he was told. The Lt. Commander was as close to a father figure as he had so he would be obedient.

Lothian closed his grip around the syringe, stood up and started walking out of the room. He passed right through Llaus who had been creeping closer and closer to the conversation. Unlike before with the large guard beings, this quasi-collision sent Llaus spiraling out of control and the world around him started to dissolve in an all too familiar method.

Scene VI

Just as quickly as everything spun out of control, the world paused and Llaus found himself back hand in hand with the beautiful little girl, his consciousness had done a full circle and become flesh again, even though he knew he was still just a passenger. Her beautiful eyes beamed and looked up at him, full of wonderment and naivety. She embodied everything that was right in the universe, he thought.

They walked hand in hand along the boardwalk, passing by an abundance of shops all vying for their attention. Llaus felt a sense of relief in this setting even though he had no clue why he continued to cycle through these odd scenarios. He had no clue what their relevance was but, in this moment, it didn't matter. In this moment, he was at peace, even if he was just a passenger.

"Oh wow, look how beautiful those dresses are!! When I get older, do you think I can wear one of them?" she asked with awe and enthusiasm as she pulled him over to a dress shop.

"Of course you can sweetheart. You'll look like a princess" he answered. Then his gaze shifted from looking at the dress to his reflection in the window, it was like looking at a younger version of himself. This time the hairs literally stood up on the back of his neck as he continued to scan the reflection. Llaus could sense that the other could see him as well, not just the physical reflection but the conscious version that was a passenger. He lost himself in a trance as he locked eyes with the younger version of himself. No words were spoken but Llaus knew that his presence was no longer anonymous, maybe it never was.

Suddenly, a blackness consumed the reflection in the window and a woman screamed in the distance. Llaus didn't want to break eye contact but the other turned his head to look at what was causing the darkness. A giant cloud had quickly formed behind them and appeared to be moving rapidly downwards toward the ground. Another woman screamed, obviously terrified by the same thing.

Llaus continued to study the cloud for a moment but his survival instincts were beginning to tell him that they needed to get moving as far from this place as possible. When suddenly, his fear was realized as a giant meteor breached the forefront of the cloud and revealed itself. It was absolutely enormous; easily the size of small city. The darkness and meteor had appeared out of nowhere with incredible speed but its decent to the ground was relatively slow by comparison. Almost as if atmosphere's viscosity was preventing it from travelling at full speed, otherwise it would have already smashed into the planet. Either that or the meteor was playing a cruel trick and taunting the inhabitants by reducing its speed, so they could manifest in the terror of their inevitable demise.

Llaus looked down to the little girl beside him and she looked back at him with fear in her eyes.

' _How could something like this arrive without anyone even knowing about it?_ '

' _Where could they run or hide to escape?_ '

Instinct kicked in and the other scooped up the little girl and started running in the direction of the meteor, they were up against the sea and he knew he couldn't outswim it. The only thing he could think of doing was to run towards it to try to escape the impact zone. Estimating its speed and trajectory, it would be a nearly impossible task but there was no alternative. With the little girl firmly secured in his arms, he started sprinting. By now many people had emerged from their shops to look up at the sky. Many were so paralyzed by fear and the improbability of the situation that they didn't even move or scream. They just stood there, watching their last moments as the impending doom descended upon them.

Running while holding the little girl proved to be difficult, not that she was heavy, but the awkwardness of having her body impede his legs from fully moving was slowing their progress. He stopped just long enough to sling her around to his back.

"HOLD ON and DON'T EVER LET GO!!! I Love you !!!" he shouted.

"I love you too" the little girl replied with dread resonating in every word.

Llaus and the other briefly thought about trying to steal one of the vehicles parked along the boulevard but their anti-theft devices were increasingly difficult to overcome, even more so now since everyone was micro-chipped. Only the older models were susceptible to being hijacked but their numbers were in rapid decline.

' _No time_ ' he thought as he continued to run in the direction of the meteor.

By now, many others had snapped out of their temporary hypnosis and had started running as well. People were screaming in horror or to find their loved ones; it was absolute chaos. Others seemed to accept their ill-timed fate and just sat there, crying while hugging friends and family.

' _Not us_ ' Llaus thought to himself.

' _Not us, not now..._ ' he pushed on, increasing his speed until he was in an all-out sprint.

The meteor continued to get ever closer and he felt as though he could smell its rocky texture and feel the coldness of space emanating from its surface. Through all the screams and chaos, Llaus could hear tiny sobs from the little girl as she clung to his neck for dear life.

"We're going to make it!!" he shouted out loud, trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her.

"We're going to make it. Hang on!!!"

Suddenly, the building beside them exploded as if it had been hit with a bomb. Less than a second later, several trees less than a block away were split in half and tumbled to the ground. Fire trails lined the sky as smaller meteors came crashing down, for some reason they weren't constrained like the big meteor so they came in at incredible speeds.

' _We've got to find some shelter before one of these stray rocks ends things real quick!!_ ' Llaus thought.

' _The subway!! I need to get to the subway, this is as far as I can get on ground before impact. If it's not far enough then so be it but we can't continue to be exposed out in the open like this, it's just a matter of time before we're obliterated_ '

The leading edge of the meter was completely engulfed in flames as it passed overhead, which was in complete contrast to the intense coldness emanating from the surface that continued to get closer. It consumed nearly the entire sky above him now and Llaus felt as though he could almost reach up and touch it. Small off shooting meteors continued to pelt away at his surroundings, shooting up debris and knocking over buildings and trees.

Then he heard a sound unlike any sound he had heard before as the leading edge of the meteor crashed into the sea several miles away. A grinding and crushing sound louder than any bomb that he had heard before filled every square inch of space. It shook the ground and caused him to lose his balance as the surface he was running on buckled and shifted due to the intense shock wave. He fell to the ground but made sure that his body took the brunt of the impact. The contact knocked the wind out of his lungs but without missing a beat he quickly got up, re-adjusted the little girl on his back and continued running towards the subway.

The meteor continued its exaggeratedly slow descent but appeared as though it was starting to pivot at the point of contact, essentially rolling over on itself after the initial load was absorbed by the planet. The enormous collision sent large chunks of debris crashing down all around them.

Llaus wasn't sure how far the meteor would pivot before it came crashing down again but he was certain that the subway was still the best option. There were miles of underground tunnels that stretched out all across the city. A recent construction endeavor even had another line being installed several miles underground to avoid the current spider web of the legacy lines.

Llaus felt a small amount of relief when he turned the corner and spotted an entrance to the subway. It was within sight and less than a block away when he heard something amidst the chaos that frightened him to his very core. He slowed only for a second to look behind him and just as he feared, a giant tidal wave was bearing down on them at an incredible pace. The meteor had displaced a tremendous amount of water at the impact zone and it was rushing towards them way faster than he could run.

The little girl started to scream as the rushing water snaked its way across the darkened horizon. The water was gaining on them at an incredible pace to the point where he didn't think he could make it to the entrance, but he pushed on as hard as he could. And then it was on them and around them. His feet were swept up in the initial current, slowing his ability to run yet he kept churning.

' _Only 10 feet to go_ ' he urged himself and kept running.

' _RUUNNNNN!!!_ " the little girl screamed as loud as she could.

Then the big wave hit, and he was launched forward. In that moment of desperation all he could think to do was somehow grab the little girl from his back and throw her down the subway tunnel in a last-ditch effort to save her from the onslaught. He pivoted his body and somehow managed to look at her one last time. He tried to force a smile even though he was certain that this would be the last time he would ever see her. The look of terror on her face was heartbreaking but the thought of never seeing her again was even more devastating.

Then, with all his might he thrust her towards the stairs of the subway entrance, and like going from slow motion to hitting the fast-forward button, everything was a blur.

Chapter 2: Transience

Lothian sat slouched and dejected in the corner with his head between his knees. Across the room, the body of the Doctor lay motionless and lifeless. Fastened securely over where his head once was, was a red box. In actuality, the box was transparent, but the interior was smeared with the Doctor's blood and brains. He was killed by his very own invention.

Lothian didn't know how long he had been sitting there; it may have been a few minutes or a few hours. He wasn't sure. One thing he did know was that it couldn't have been a couple of days because they certainly would have come to get him by now.

In the background, a machine faintly sounded an alarm that the heart rate of the host had flat lined and every few minutes, the sound of an actuator pumping raw oxygen into the medical dome would occur. It still performed its duty even though Lothian was sure that the host was dead, as well as the Deity.

' _And soon enough I will be too...'_ he thought.

He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Rryl, the almighty Deity was mortal.

' _How could the Deity and God of this planet be mortal?_ '

' _How did things escalate so quickly?_ "

He sullenly lifted his head for a moment and looked over at the host inside the medical dome; he knew that it was only a matter of time before they would come to take him away. He was too late, he had hesitated for too long and by the time he built up the courage to assassinate the Doctor, the host was already dead.

' _This wasn't my fault!!'_ he thought to himself.

' _How was I supposed to know that the Doctor would take things that far and that fast? How was I supposed to know that I'd have to act so quickly?'_

Scenario after scenario played out in his head about what he could say to the Lt. Commander. How he could plead for his life, plead for forgiveness and mercy, but he knew the Lt. Commander too well. He knew there was no room for mercy or forgiveness, especially for something as big as this. As he was told, capturing Rryl was the entire reason the Regime had occupied his planet in the first place. It's the reason why they had come and slaughtered so many of his kind. Rryl was the reason why they scorched the sky and changed this planet from a lush and dense forest to the desolate and nearly uninhabitable place it is now.

' _Why couldn't they have just extracted the Deity and be done with it?!!!_ ' Lothian thought as he wrestled with the reason why they needed to concoct some elaborate plan to set the human free.

' _Because they got greedy!!!'_

The dead corpse that lay in front of him had sparked their bloodlust for revenge and now both the host and Rryl were dead.

' _How foolish they were! No...... the Lt. Commander was the fool!!'_

But he knew that it didn't matter what he thought. All that mattered was that he had failed to follow the orders from his superior and eventually he would pay for it with his life. He contemplated ending his own life before they could.

' _Maybe I'll use the same device I used to murder the Doctor?'_ Lothian thought. As grotesque as it seemed, it certainly would be less painful and less intrusive than what he anticipated the Lt. Commander would have in store for him.

The thought of what they'd likely do to him was terrifying. He couldn't remember how many times he'd seen trespassers, informants or suspected snitches crucified. Their bodies would be skewered with poles like a shish kabob and hung out to endure a slow and painful death. The Regime would make sure to skewer their bodies in such a way that it wouldn't kill them; in fact, they would feed them intravenously to keep them alive and suffering for weeks on end. If they were lucky, a stray animal would come and feed off their live body, ending their torment, but most would just waste away, day and night, becoming weaker and weaker in the dry and desolate environment until they perished. And that's what they did to petty criminals; he could only imagine what kind of spectacle they'd make of him.

Another thought that crossed his mind was that maybe he'd go out in a blaze of glory. Grab as many makeshift weapons from the laboratory as possible and take out as many as he could before they could kill him. His fate would be the same but if he was lucky it would end quicker and hopefully be less painful.

Lothian stood up slowly, his gaze still firmly fixed on the floor beneath him but his thoughts were thousands of miles removed. He still wasn't sure what he was going to do when suddenly he heard a different noise other than the repetitive beeps of the monitoring equipment. He snapped back to reality as if a bolt of lightning passed through his body.

' _They're coming! This is it'_ he thought as his heart started to pound faster.

His vision shifted from the floor to the many counters and shelves in the laboratory room around him. He scanned as quickly as he could, looking for something like a knife or a scalpel that he could use as a weapon to fight back, or to end his own life if need be.

He heard the rustling noise again and quickly scampered across the room, feverishly he dug through some drawers but all he could find were bandages, scissors and some topical salves. Hastily he snatched the largest pair of scissors and placed them in his side pocket.

Lothian strained his ears for the sound of his impending doom but all he could hear was the dull drone of the heart rate monitor, its steady and monotonous tone had become part of the ambient noise, like the sound of a ceiling fan or the hum of a refrigerator compressor.

' _Worst case scenario, I can jam this into my neck repeatedly to sever my jugular'_ he thought, and for a second the absurdity of how rational a solution that was almost caused him to smile. Everything had happened so fast and now he was legitimately devising a plan to end his own life. Then a louder more audible banging noise snapped him back to the immediate situation.

' _Time's up!'_ he thought.

' _I need to act now if I want a chance to do this on my own terms'_

Lothian knew that the guards outside would have neural shock guns, capable of temporarily paralyzing an animal the size of a large whale for more than half an hour. And from what he had seen, the experience wasn't very pleasant. Often times, subjects that were restrained by this method would lose control of all of their bodily functions as well as their ability to control their sensory inputs. Light for example would become very painful since the pupils would lose their ability to contract and control excess exposure. Pulmonary response would speed up as the body sensed a deficiency in oxygen, resulting in hyperventilation and intense muscles spasms. In the rarest of cases, some subjects would actually spontaneously combust due to the excess of oxygen, though the term "spontaneous" was still being debated by the medical community.

Lothian scampered across the room into the corner furthest away from the entrance then reached into his pocket and retrieved the scissors. He held them firmly in both hands, positioned the blades towards his throat and watched the door with an intensity that he never knew he had. His eyes were glued on the door handle, waiting for it to turn ever so slightly, and then he would plunge the makeshift knife into his throat.

In the background, the heart rate monitor had begun to assume a normal rhythm again but Lothian didn't notice. The initial beep didn't register with him, nor did the second or third. He was too focused on watching the door and psyching himself up for what was next. His hands were shaking and his entire body was on edge; he was poised and ready to take immediate action once the door handle started to turn.

' _Why not just do it now and save myself the suspense?'_ he thought.

' _Just do it and take any chance of failure out of the equation'_

But he couldn't.

Without the absolute certainty, he couldn't bring himself to do it, at least not yet. His hands began to shake and his legs began to tremble as the adrenaline coursing through his veins ran its course. His stomach screamed at him to allow its contents to project out on the floor but he held on, poised and ready to strike.

Then from the corner of his eye, he thought he saw some movement. Not the door handle but from inside the medical dome that housed the host. For a brief moment his attention shifted and his eyes wandered but then just as quickly he re-focused back on the door handle.

' _My mind is playing tricks on me'_

Lothian knew that this was no time to be weak-minded and distracted; every fraction of a second could be the difference between deciding his own fate or the potential of enduring immeasurable pain. But then he heard another bang, and even with his gaze firmly fixed on the door handle, he was sure it had come from the medical dome. A war within his mind raged as he so desperately wanted to look in that direction again, but he remained fully focused and fixated on the door handle. He was sure they were coming. His body was still fully poised and ready to react at the instant he heard the doors open but his mind had wandered in the direction of the medical dome. The rhythmic sound of the heart rate monitor still hadn't registered with Lothian; moments ago it changed from its monotonous flat line tone to a normal heartbeat. Llaus and Rryl were still alive but he was oblivious.

Lothian stood up and started to walk over to the medical dome, occasionally turning his head back to look at the door, but he was mesmerized with the thought of host still being alive. Then to his disbelief, he saw Llaus move his hand. He lifted it up and drunkenly swung it around until it hit the transparent outer shell of the medical dome, making an audible thud noise as it hit the outside. Lothian couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing.

' _Did I really just see the host move?? or am I hallucinating?'_ he pondered with a hint of optimism.

The steady beat of the heart monitor finally registered with him as he looked over to the vital sign display panel; everything appeared normal.

' _Am I losing my mind?'_ he thought as he looked down at the scissors that he held in his hands, which were shaking and ghost white from gripping the handle so tightly.

A renewed sense of optimism overwhelmed Lothian like a jolt of electricity. He dropped the scissors, closed his eyes and exhaled a sigh of relief. In that moment the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders and he wiped away a slight tear from his right eye. The plan that had been carefully orchestrated still had a chance to succeed and Lothian was overjoyed with his new lease on life.

But in a near instant the overwhelming sense of joy shifted to extreme panic and he knew that he needed to shift gears and act quickly. He didn't know how long he had been sitting on the floor, wallowing in self-pity and contemplating taking his own life. Eventually the Elite guards would come in to check on the progress and they would find the Doctor murdered on the floor with Lothian trying to free the highly regarded prisoner. And on the surface, that is exactly what it was. Only these Elite guards weren't privy to the real plan that the Lt. Commander had instructed him to set Llaus free after injecting him with thousands of tiny tracking robots called Jitbots. He started to scramble, his mind was in hyper drive and his thoughts wandered all over the place as he tried to focus on the task at hand.

' _Where did I place the syringe?'_ he thought as he scoured his memory. He had to keep it concealed from the Doctor otherwise it would have raised suspicion and then he remembered that he had strapped it to the calf of his left leg.

With that worry set aside, Lothian began the task of properly reviving the host. He quickly made his way over to the main control station and started typing away on the central computer terminal. He needed to access the main page to disengage the medical device but he remembered that he didn't have the authorization to override all of the commands and would require some assistance from the Doctor to continue the process. The system was set up with positive affirmation, meaning that he would need the Doctor's hand to help validate the request. He walked over to lifeless carcass and dragged it over to the main console. It was still warm and much lighter than he anticipated. The Doctor wasn't a very big man to start with but he was much more frail and thin than Lothian had anticipated, making this part of his job much easier. In fact, the heaviest and most awkward part was the box that was firmly fastened to where his head once was. After dragging the corpse over to the main console, Lothian lifted the right hand up on to the console for authentication.

"Rejected!" the computer barked with a hint of arrogance, almost as if it delighted in saying it.

"What?? That's impossible!" Lothian said out loud as he pulled the hand back, wiped it down and tried again.

"Rejected! Second attempt of non-compliance, you have one more attempt before the system goes into lockdown mode" the computer barked again in a more serious and threatening tone.

' _What is going on?'_ Lothian thought to himself.

' _This is exactly how the doctor does it, exactly the same!! What am I doing wrong?'_

Then to his horror, he remembered that the system not only measured the handprint but also its internal temperature, probably for instances just like this.

The way the plan was supposed to unfold was that the Deity would be extracted and stored away before Lothian killed the Doctor. Immediately after the assassination he could use the hand scan to override the system, before the body temperature began to drop. But nothing went according to plan and now he only had one more attempt to scan the hand before the system would lock him out and completely end his chances of survival. He needed to somehow raise the internal temperature of the Doctor's hand enough so that he could gain access to the main control board. Failing to do that would put an end to the escape plan and put him right back in the same predicament he was in several minutes ago. His mind raced but the only thing he could think of doing was placing the hand on his body to absorb his heat.

In what might be one of the most awkward situations of his life, Lothian placed the dead Doctor's hand under his arm pit. The hand wasn't completely cold yet but it certainly was below average body temperature.

' _What a sight this would be for someone to walk into... '_ he thought as he was somehow able to find the humor in the situation.

' _Me holding a headless guy's hand under my shirt almost as if I'm trying to force him to fondle my nipple'_

He continued to press the hand up against his body; he could feel the heat being drawn from his core and passed into the Doctor's hand. He shifted the position several times, trying to evenly distribute the heat as best he could. He pressed his own hand up against his face then removed the doctor's hand from under his shirt and did the same, in an effort to determine how close in temperature they were.

' _That's as good as it's going to get I guess'_ he thought as he wondered what kind of tolerance the computer would allow. Time was of the essence and his internal clock was telling him that he needed to get moving as soon as possible.

With a slight hesitation he positioned the dead Doctor's hand over the scanner and took a deep breath. His heart was racing and his ears were ringing. This was it; if it failed he was surely doomed. Lothian placed the hand down on the scanner and waited for his fate to be determined. It was like being on trial and waiting for the jury to read their verdict. The computer hesitated for a moment as it calculated its response, adding to the angst of the situation.

"Access granted" the computer stated rather flatly considering what was at stake. The locked screen changed from its dull screen saver display to the main page which showed all of the body scanning information in detail. Lothian exhaled a sigh of relief as he let go of the Doctor's hand and let it fall to the floor with a lifeless thump. He didn't know exactly what he was looking for on the main screen but he had a renewed sense of optimism after making it past that obstacle.

He knew there was a menu that allowed the user to deactivate the medical dome that surrounded the patient but he had only seen it done a couple of times. After several moments of navigating the complicated display screen, he was able to find a subpanel titled 'Encapsulation environment'. He advanced that menu and began to scrutinize the entire screen line by line. He wasn't even sure what he was looking for but he was hoping something would pop out that would indicate a way to open the dome.

Bang!

Llaus's hand banged against the window again and startled Lothian's concentration. The host was regaining consciousness and strength. Lothian knew he needed to get him out of there as soon as possible so he could inject him with the Jitbots before he awakened.

Line by line he continued to review the screen in front of him. Each line seemed to have more ambiguous terms than the previous until he came across a button near the bottom that caught his attention, 'Medical Dome Disengage Sequence'.

Lothian was pretty sure the host and Deity were still as one but even the Doctor wasn't sure what he was doing during the extraction, so Lothian wasn't going to attempt anything; it was too risky. Besides, the Lt. Commander sounded very confident that they could track down and retrieve the Deity if he managed to escape, so if this was the only hiccup in the plan, then so be it.

He entered the correct sequence of buttons and after pushing the last button there was a loud click followed by some hissing as the medical dome began to open. The dome pivoted on one end and lifted at the other, the vapour that filled the chamber oozed and rolled out the bottom as the glass slowly rotated up and out of the way. It continued to pivot upwards until it was completely vertical, and then it shifted backwards away from the table. All the while the vapour continued to pour out onto the floor.

Then, like an apparition through the clouds, Llaus' body was slowly unveiled. He lay there motionless and seemingly unconscious with all of the restraints removed. Lothian sat behind the controls just as motionless in awe of the scene unfolding before him.

' _What now?'_ he thought even though he had a fairly detailed plan for the release and escape. The range of emotions felt in such a short period of time had left him temporarily paralyzed but after taking a couple moments to regain his composure Lothian eventually moved forward towards the table. Almost on cue as if something was triggered, Llaus shot up into a sitting position. He wobbled back and forth as if he was slightly inebriated or was being propped up by invisible strings, like a string puppet.

His eyes were still closed and his body moved like he was in a deep trancelike state. He opened his eyelids but his eyes were completely rolled back in his head. He opened his mouth as if he was going to speak but without warning he began to projectile vomit a fluorescent purple-coloured liquid onto the floor. It shot out of him like a firehose straight across the room and continued for an unnatural period of time. Then, just as quickly as it started, it was done and he fell back on the table, his limp body dangling and contorting under the impact like a dead corpse.

' _What was that?'_ Lothian panicked as he began to run over to where the seemingly lifeless body lay. He was more than halfway to the medical table when the large amount of fluid that had been projected onto the floor started to shift and pool together. The liquid continued to form and coil like a snake, building itself up while the colour changed from purple to fluorescent pink.

' _Is that....??'_ Lothian thought to himself as he stopped in his tracks to marvel at what was unfolding before him. But a sound at the door quenched his excitement and snapped him back to the seriousness of the immediate situation. Elite guards were inserting a key into the lock and were about to enter the room as they were instructed to do after a certain amount of time. If the Doctor wasn't finished they would lock the door, report his progress to the Lt. Commander and return out into the hall, as instructed. It was a standard way of checking in to see how things were progressing.

Lothian cursed his bad luck. He figured that he was only a few moments away from reviving the host but now he was caught red handed.

' _This is it! I'm done!'_ he thought.

' _I dropped the scissors and now I can't even kill myself!'_ as he had planned to do in what seemed to be an eternity ago.

The tumbling of the lock made a rather loud and audible click before his worst fear came true. Standing in the doorway was one of the two large Elite guards that had been placed to monitor their progress. He was huge and imposing, his shoulders were nearly as wide as the door. Lothian was sure that he would have to duck slightly to get inside the lab room.

A mask shielded his face and any visible reaction but after a very brief survey of the room his body language was near instant and lethal. He readied the weapon at his side, ran into the room and ducked behind the master control. He shouted some type of command but it wasn't English, rather it was some unique dialect the guards used at times that Lothian had heard before but still didn't understand. He never bothered to learn their language, but in this instance, it didn't matter because he could sense the urgency in the commands. Within a moment, a second Elite guard entered through the doorway, ran to the opposite side of the room and ducked behind some medical equipment. Lothian sat there and watched all this unfold before his eyes. Part of him still didn't believe this was happening while another part of him marveled at the speed and efficiency of the guards.

The first guard shouted something again and this time Lothian was sure it was directed at him to get down or something along those lines. But he couldn't; he was paralyzed with fear. He just sat there, unable to move. When the Elite guards realized that Lothian was unarmed, they both stood up and started to advance towards him with their weapons raised. They must have been instructed to take him alive otherwise he certainly would have been dead by now.

What Lothian hadn't noticed while he was contemplating his fate was the puddle of liquid had continued to grow and was moving along the floor inconspicuously behind the guards. It slithered and poured itself along the floor until it was underneath the Doctors body. It pooled mostly underneath where the head would have been and began to change colour. It puddled upwards until it made contact with the body then it started to wrap itself around the torture mechanism that ended the Doctor's life. It oozed and gushed while it coiled itself around the carcass, then suddenly and without any apparent effort, the torture device detached itself from the body. It floated away and was set on the ground several feet away, without making a sound. The liquid changed color once again to that of an orange flame right before it poured itself into the empty hollow void of the corpse where the head used to be.

Meanwhile, Lothian had snapped out of his semi-trance and lifted his hands. He motioned to the guards that he was willingly giving up and tried to reason with them.

"ok ok ok... ok... I don't know what you're saying but I'm getting on the ground... " he said in a calm and reassuring voice.

Slowly he placed his hands behind his head and was about to kneel down when something behind the guards caught his attention. The Doctors body was starting to stand up! And the torture device that had been fixed in place on his head had been removed and was now in his hands. Lothian couldn't believe what he was seeing. He wasn't sure if the stress of the situation was causing him to hallucinate but what he was seeing certainly couldn't be real. He looked down at his feet with slow, deliberate and submissive body movements to re-assure the guards that he was complying with their orders, by now he was sure that they were ordered to take him alive.

' _Of course they want me alive...'_ he thought to himself.

' _The Lt. Commander wants to see me die slowly; he wants to make an example of me'._

But before completely kneeling to the ground, Lothian dared to look up once again. He was certain that what he had seen before would be gone but he lifted his eyes just in time to see a headless Doctor's body dash across the room and slam the torture mechanism over the head of the first guard. The device was activated just as quickly and it began pulsating through its torturous intent. The sight of a headless corpse stunned the second guard, but only for a moment.

The first guard dropped his weapon and immediately started thrashing around, desperately trying to remove the device. He howled in pain while the machine indiscriminately progressed through its vicious cycle. The second guard finally snapped out of his momentary daze, lifted his weapon and pointed it at the Doctor's body. But before he could pull the trigger, Lothian felt a rush of air breeze past his body. The suddenness and magnitude of the jolt was enough to knock him to the ground but he caught a brief glimpse of the host propelling through the air. He had awoken from the medical table and without hesitation had launched his body toward the second guard. His movements were precise, meaningful and deadly as he flew through the air and latched onto the neck of the second guard with his right forearm and bicep. In a single fluid motion, he twisted the head completely around, while flipping the body upside down so his feet were pointed straight up in the air. Lothian heard a sickening crunch as the head was driven into the cold floor. For a brief moment it appeared as though the guard was standing on his head.

Then there was silence.

Nobody moved or said a word.

The torture device had already run its course and the first guard now lay motionless on the ground just as the Doctor had. Lothian was stunned. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him.

' _Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? Or did the guards shoot me with some sort of drug and this is all a figment of my imagination?'_ he thought as he stared in disbelief at the two characters that were in front of him, the headless Doctor and the host, Llaus.

Llaus released his hold on the guard and allowed the body to crumple to the ground like a rag doll. He shifted his gaze slowly and deliberately to look directly at Lothian. His eyes were fiery and strong but his gaze was cold and calculated. Lothian felt like the temperature dropped 10 degrees the very same instant the host looked at him.

"... I.... I....I....tried..... to..." Lothian stammered, not even sure what he was trying to say, he just needed to do something to try and break the intense gaze that was directed at him, and he felt like speaking was the only way he could do that.

" You... You.. but..." he continued to stutter as he looked across the room from the host to the headless Doctor that stood a few feet away.

The perspiration on Llaus' near naked body glistened under the sterile white lights and even though several moments before he was being tortured and punished to the very limits of his physical human capacity, in this moment he looked strong and refreshed.

Llaus broke off his ice-cold stare with Lothian and looked over at the headless Doctor but he didn't seem fazed by it at all, like it wasn't out of the ordinary to see a headless body resurrect from the dead and take out one of the Regime's Elite guards. It was almost as if he was looking at a sports teammate after a successful play. Like this was a coordinated attack, something that had been discussed and planned well beforehand and executed with extreme precision and coordination.

These two bodies, these two entities were somehow one even though they were obviously separated. And that's when Lothian clued in and it all made sense to him.

' _Rryl !!'_ he thought excitedly in his mind.

' _It was Rryl, the Deity! He had separated from the initial host, attached himself to the dead Doctor's corpse and now was helping Llaus escape!'_

Lothian was both very excited and nervous; he could feel a cold sweat starting to take over his body because although he had survived up until this point he didn't know what Llaus and Rryl had in store for him. Then almost as if on cue, Llaus spoke.

"Get 'yer ASS off the ground and let's get going".

"Uh....uh.... ye... yes !! of course!" Lothian stammered as he awkwardly got up off the ground.

"I know you're not one of them" Llaus grunted as he motioned towards the Elite guards.

"And I know you're trying to help us get out of here.... the only question I have for you is... WHY?" Llaus said as he turned to look back at the terrified assistant. Lothian could feel his gaze pierce his mind and soul, he felt like at any moment he would just spew all of his secrets and true intentions. He knew his eyes would betray him so he looked to the ground timidly but before he could answer, several shots rang out around him.

More guards had been summoned and were entering the room. Their shots were premature and didn't hit their mark. They splattered across the wall behind Lothian but he just stood there, still frozen by the gaze that Llaus had cast his way.

Llaus on the other hand sprang into action. With the same speed and precision he exhibited when he shot up from the medical bed a few moments before, he reached down to the guard beneath him, collected his weapon, fell back and fired several shots toward the door's entrance. Two bodies slumped and fell forward at the edge of the door, dead before they even hit the ground. Llaus ran ahead and positioned himself just inside the door beside the headless Doctor, or perhaps more accurately, Rryl.

Llaus looked back at Lothian with marked skepticism in his eyes but their time to talk had run out, they needed to move quickly before the rest of the infantry descended on them.

"Let's GO!!" Llaus shouted. The sense of urgency in his voice was real and his command thundered Lothian into action. The impossibility of a body without a head didn't even seem odd to Lothian anymore, though he wasn't sure how it could maneuver without eyesight. Then in an unintentional comic fashion, the headless Doctor tried to peek around the corner only to realize that there was nothing there to see with. Without being able to speak, it motioned with hand gestures and dashed out of the lab and down the dimly lit hallway. Llaus followed and Lothian found himself running through the motions as well, his mind racing and thinking of how he could still manage to get out of this alive. After everything that had happened, the plan was still not completely ruined and he played over the possible scenarios as he chased the prisoners down the hall.

' _Rryl was still alive but not captured.... But the Lt. Commander said they were close to tracking him anyway... So I may be able to get away with that'_ he thought to himself, not paying attention to where he was running or where they were going.

' _Llaus is alive but I still haven't implanted the Jitobots yet! I need to find the right time to do that then slip away.'_

Lothian had planned to disappear during an inevitable skirmish with the Elite guards but for now he would have to stay close and wait until the right time presented itself. He patted his leg to make sure the syringe was still with him then he quickened his pace and ran up to get closer to Llaus.

The hallway was lined with a multitude of doors with signs on them that read 'Information Acquisition Room', and each had a unique number that increased the further along the hallway they went. Lothian knew they would be more aptly named 'Torture Room' since the Regime never employed ethical investigation techniques.

By now the loud sound of shouting and alarms were all that could be heard as hordes of Elite Guards approached from the adjacent and adjoining corridors. Lothian didn't really know the labyrinth of hallways that was in the basement of the Fortress; he only knew the essentials of where he had to go and that was it. He didn't have the proper authorization to go into the majority of the top secret areas anyway so he had never really made a point of committing their location to memory.

As the small group of escapees continued to run down the hallway, led by their headless leader, Lothian wondered what the escape plan would actually be. This was a gamble that the Lt. Commander had taken, gambling that Llaus would somehow find a way to escape, as if he was on some pre-destined path to lead the Regime to the remaining rogue Indigenous. But at this moment in time, Lothian couldn't help but think that the Lt. Commander's gamble would fail. He didn't think there was any possible way that this type of jail break escape could ever get past the trained Elite guards. Sure they managed to get past a small first wave of unsuspecting guards but they were ambushed and now the element of surprise was gone and they were sorely outgunned. It would only be a matter of time before they were captured or killed so Lothian remained close to Llaus; he wanted to make sure that he could inject him with the Jitbots before the Lt. Commander found out what really happened during the extraction. He wanted to make sure that it looked like he had done his part.

They ran down hallway after hallway with the headless Doctor always leading the way, never running into anything, just charging ahead with reckless abandon until they entered a giant dome-shaped room that was considerably brighter than the hallways. It had oversized chains dangling from the upper portions of the walls and connecting to several older style cranes. There was a giant opening in the centre of the ceiling that extended up for miles; the cut of the rock looked too perfect to be a natural occurrence.

' _It probably leads up to the surface'_ Lothian thought. He had never seen this room before nor did he have any idea what its purpose was. Across the dome-shaped room were several large warehouse-type doors big enough to pass enormous machinery or weapons through. The more Lothian investigated the room the more it appeared to be some sort of staging facility or transportation area.

' _But why would it be so deep in the bowels of the Fortress?'_ Lothian pondered.

Suddenly an explosion resonated throughout the room and sent him sprawling to the ground. Llaus and Rryl were only slightly further ahead but they weren't impacted by the explosion and they forged ahead towards several man doors directly beside the large warehouse doors.

' _This would have been an excellent time to slip away but I still need to get that damn injection into him!'_ Lothian thought to himself.

Llaus was halfway through before he paused and looked back to see where Lothian was. With the same speed and agility that he demonstrated earlier, he quickly turned and raised his weapon.

' _He's going to kill me!'_ Lothian thought and instinctively lifted his arm over his face as if that would shield him. Shots whizzed past his head and all around but nothing struck him.

"COME ON !!!!" Llaus' voice echoed from across the room.

"MOVE YOUR ASS!!!!!"

Lothian dared to lift his head and he could see that Llaus was yelling and motioning at him to get up. He turned his head quickly back towards the hallway that they had just been in moments before and saw several bodies piled on top of each other. Llaus wasn't trying to kill him; he was just trying to save him. Lothian scurried to his feet and ran across the room half hunched over. Now he could feel the painful effects of the explosion that had knocked him down. He ran through the door with Llaus and into another giant room & saw what appeared to be a large river and a huge platform that ran alongside it. The water was rushing at an incredible speed and sounded like a freight train.

The headless Doctor didn't hesitate for a moment as he ran directly towards the turbulent flow and dove straight in. It sucked him down into its swirling vortex and swept him away in an instant.

"We've got to jump in, it's our only chance!" Llaus said as he motioned to Lothian.

"Let's go before the rest of the troops arrive!"

"No wait!!!... that will kill us!!" Lothian protested.

"We've got to trust Rryl!! He's gotten us this far, he won't let us down now" Llaus replied then turned his back to Lothian to scan the waters.

' _This is my last chance!'_ Lothian thought as he hastily reached down to retrieve the syringe. Lothian was thankful that it was still intact after all that had happened. Without hesitating he lunged forward and plunged the syringe tip into Llaus' back and discharged the fluid in one quick motion. Llaus turned quickly and grabbed Lothian's arm with tremendous force.

"What did you just do?!!!" he said as he reached around with his other hand and pulled the syringe from his back.

"What is this? What did you just do to me?!" Llaus tightened his grip and pulled Lothian closer.

Just then the giant warehouse door started to open; they could hear sirens and yelling as shots ricocheted across the enormous room. Llaus didn't move though; he only tightened his grasp on Lothian's arm and focused on his eyes.

"What did you inject me with??" Llaus' intensity and grip were overpowering and Lothian couldn't think, meanwhile the door continued to rise and guards stormed in.

Llaus lifted his weapon and without breaking eye contact, sprayed a barrage of shots across the room, finding his mark every time as he eradicated the numerous threats, buying him some more time to interrogate Lothian.

"I'll ask you one more time... what was in the syringe?" the tone of his voice was sharp and threatening.

"Uggh.... It... it.... was... medicine, to help you... after the extraction... you need it otherwise your body will go into... shock..." Lothian fumbled through his words as he tried to sound as convincing as possible.

Llaus seemed to ease his grip a little and Lothian let out a little sigh of relief.

' _He believed me'_ Lothian thought.

' _Now I just need to let him jump in the water and I can escape. Everything is going to work out after all'_ Lothian finally started to believe that he could actually come out of this alive.

Llaus completely relaxed his grip and then eventually let go but before he turned to jump in the water he looked straight into Lothian's eyes and asked a piercing question that Lothian wasn't prepared for.

"Did the Lt. Commander get you to inject me with tiny robots so he could track my movements?"

Lothian's jaw dropped and his eyes opened wide.

' _How did he know?'_

He tried to respond but couldn't speak, and in that moment of hesitation his fate was sealed. With lightning fast reflexes, Llaus positioned his weapon under Lothian's jaw and fired a single shot. Lothian instantly toppled over and smashed his face on the ground. He couldn't move or feel anything anymore....

Death was just a few moments away; it was only a matter of seconds now.

The last thing Lothian ever saw was Llaus running across the room and diving into the rushing water of the underground river system.

Chapter 3: Blessed are the Cursed

Llaus was shocked by the sudden and drastic change in the temperature of the water; it felt like every square inch of his body was being punched at the same time while being churned in the turbulent rapids of the underground river. He unwillingly dropped the weapon he used to dispose of Lothian and it was carried away by the current. He opened his eyes to try and locate it but couldn't make out any decipherable shapes as he was carried into the darkness of the underground aquafer.

' _His reaction was absolutely genuine when I asked him about the tiny robots so does that mean that the other visions I witnessed were also true?'_ Llaus contemplated as he was being tossed around in the frigid water.

Now, thousands of tiny little robots circulated throughout his body. He couldn't feel them but he could sense they were there. Now the Regime could track him and find again, and he couldn't prevent it. He could only try and evade them for as long as possible.

' _If only I'd known that those visions were true, I would have let that scumbag die a long time ago'_ Llaus thought as in his lungs started to burn; his body was beginning to demand oxygen. The cold and tumultuous rapids required extra energy and he was beginning to wonder if his blind faith and trust in Rryl was naïve and foolish. The escape was never something they had discussed or even agreed on, it was just something that he felt from within. It was almost like they could communicate on another level, a subconscious level that he still didn't quite understand. Of course, the alternative of trying to fight off all of the Elite guards wasn't much better but, in this moment, he wondered if he would drown in this underwater labyrinth, surrounded by darkness and swallowed up in a watery grave.

And almost as if someone had read his thoughts, a light appeared through the dark and turbulent flow. It was small and distant, but it pierced through the darkness. Llaus couldn't focus on it since his body continued to swirl around like he was inside a washing machine, but the light grew in intensity and size until it was nearly everywhere and everything. The darkness that once was, was replaced by a soothing light that seemed to follow him in the rapid water, while his lungs screamed for air. Llaus tried to swim against the current towards the light but the water was moving too fast and he could only go with the flow.

Now at his limit, Llaus exhaled the remaining air in his lungs and instinctively inhaled. Knowing that he was still in a circulating vortex of frigid water, he fully anticipated the next breath to be devoid of the proper form of oxygen that his body required. He expected his consciousness to start to fade as his muscles and brain continued to be deprived of the life-giving oxygen they required, but it never happened. Even though he inhaled deeply and was obviously ingesting liquid, its temperature and texture were odd and he felt as if he had completely filled his lungs with air. Llaus was too focused on his impending demise that he hadn't even noticed that the thundering sound of the rushing water had ceased and his body was relatively motionless and suspended in a glowing liquid. The bright light was all around him like a bubble; it surrounded him and protected him all the while letting him breathe some sort of oxygenated liquid.

A face appeared on the outside of the luminescent bubble, a face that Llaus recognized; it was Rryl. He had come through at the last possible second and saved him just as they had planned. Llaus recalled when Rryl claimed they needed to stick together to make it, and he was right. Here they were, both of them alive and relatively well. They had both escaped the clutches of the Regime, for now, only Llaus knew that he wasn't truly liberated. Everything about him, including his whereabouts, was being tracked; it was only a matter of time before they found him again. Then the deity spoke to him, not vocally since they were underwater but rather through some form of internal voice.

"I sense good and evil within you, like with most" Rryl said.

"But I'm unable to distinguish which is greater, and the fact that I cannot is unnerving. My instinct is to destroy you, but you saved me and now I am returning the favor. I don't know how you survived their torture devices, but somehow I knew you would... "

Rryl continued to study the half-naked human that was suspended in the luminescent light that enveloped him.

"One thing I can sense though is a great anger and an insatiable urge for revenge against the Lt. Commander. I cannot help you with this, for the power of the Regime is too great and they possess the technology to enslave even the likes of me.

"But your blood is tainted... I know this, you know this and the Regime knows this. I can assure you that they are closely monitoring your movements as we speak. They are tracking your hormone levels, heart rate, thought waves, energy output and pretty much any other measurable that you can think of.

"They are even able to subconsciously tweak your thoughts so that you follow orders, just like the Elite guards that attacked us in the fortress. It takes several days of being penetrated before the effects are fully functional, but I guarantee you that as we speak, thousands of tiny robots are burrowing themselves into the fabric of your flesh."

Llaus lifted his hands to study them; he knew the Jitbots were inside him but for whatever reason he felt uncomfortable in his own skin after Rryl had told him that they were burrowing into his body like a tick.

"The aquafer is the lifeblood of the planet; it connects and sustains everything. Hidden deep within its many labyrinths and caves is a group of rogue Indigenous that I plan on taking you to. They are wise and noble and unlike the filth that is the Regime, they know how to live in harmony with their surroundings. They did it for millennia before the Regime came to hunt for me.

"But after many years of evading them you led them directly to me, as if you were programmed to do so..... Chance does not define predestination.... Only they don't know who you are, just as you don't know much about anything... it is all very strange and beyond coincidence to me....

"Nevertheless, the Indigenous will help clear your blood before the Jitbots take hold. Even though they are primitive in their ways and technology, they've seen this tactic employed before and can help. In turn they might ask for your assistance, and considering your solitary status, I highly recommend that you comply. They are not above using strangers as bait to hunt for food..."

Llaus acknowledged the deity with a mere grunt.

Rryl's face morphed and migrated to the outside of the bubble as a portion of the lighting that wrapped around him now pointed forward like a couple of headlights. They began to move with the flow of the water, slowly at first but gradually picking up speed as the current took hold of the bubble.

The rushing water around them was violent and made visibility poor at the very best, yet they continued to accelerate through the underwater labyrinth of tunnels. Llaus had no idea where they were going or how long it would take to get there, he could only watch the outcropping of rocks pass by at an accelerated rate. After several moments the effects of watching the sides pass by became too hypnotizing so he closed his.

Long straightaways were often followed by nauseating turns in seemingly every direction. It was like taking a rollercoaster ride with a blindfold on, not knowing when you were going to turn or for how long. Llaus was completely disoriented and his head was spinning; he had no idea which way was up or down; all he knew was that he was hoping the ride would end soon. Then it felt like they were slowing down, the turns were becoming more gradual and their speed was decreasing. He opened his eyes again and could see that they were about to enter some type of crevasse in the wall. The recess in the wall was narrow and it actually required swimming back against the current to get into it, almost like a hidden passageway behind an eddy current.

They travelled for a while down this passage with the tunnel getting narrow in some areas and larger in others. Suddenly a giant squid-like creature lunged itself away from underneath a rock crevasse that they were passing, shooting its ink-like substance into the water. They must have gotten too close to its dwelling and it decided to flee. Though looking at the size of the creature, Llaus was thankful that it had decided to turn and run, it was easily 10 to 15 times larger than he was and he wasn't sure how safe he was inside the bubble. It seemed like it protected him from the rocky outcroppings in the labyrinth of tunnels, but they never really hit the edge, so he wasn't sure if it was actually impenetrable.

They continued down the narrowing corridor undisturbed until the lights that were shinning forward began to dim until they were almost completely dark. It was an eerie feeling forging ahead in near complete darkness. Llaus looked ahead and thought he could see a small light in the distance. He squinted and strained his eyes to look forward when out of nowhere giant tentacles smashed into the side of the bubble dome and almost completely engulfed it. Then directly in front of his face a giant mouth with a set of gnarly teeth appeared, the mouth biting at the bubble dome as it tried to ingest him.

The suddenness of the attack startled Llaus and he let out a giant scream as he shielded his face and floated backwards inside the bubble. The giant squid-like creature continued to gnaw at the bubble without any success as Rryl continued ahead slowly, seemingly unfazed by the attack. The inside of the mouth was lined with razor sharp teeth, and with each chomp it tried to pierce the seemingly impenetrable bubble. The squid-like creature continued its aggressive attack for a while longer until it either grew bored with its futile attempt or was scared away because it suddenly released its powerful grip and disappeared back into the black of the abyss.

Llaus eventually let his guard down when he sensed that the attack had ceased. He looked forward and could see a faint light ahead in the distance. The light penetrated the darkness with a piercing contrast that made it almost impossible not to look at and as they approached. The opening was narrow and only wide enough for a single body to pass through. He assumed that his journey with Rryl would continue but wasn't sure they could pass through together. Then almost as if the deity was reading his mind, their forward momentum stopped and Rryl's face turned inwards again to face Llaus.

"Stranger, this is where our journey together ends. I cannot escort you any further, but I have brought you to one of the secret hiding places of the Indigenous where the core of their resistance is gathered. I have chosen to remain hidden from their sight; a mystery, a known entity that helps and dwells everywhere and through everything.

"I'm afraid that showing my face to them at this time might destroy their resolve. You see, to them, I am the almighty, the overseer of their fates. And although that is true to a certain extent, circumstances have changed. Time has slipped ahead into the foray of a brave new future that I don't think any of us could have predicted. I'm afraid that if I show my true self they will question why I haven't driven the Regime from their planet. Or why I allowed the Regime to cast a shadow on the lands that destroyed all the vegetation. And why I continue to hide in the shadows instead of rising up against this oppression.

"And as you know, the Regime now possesses the power to enslave the likes of me. All of my power, all of the prestige and all of my supernatural abilities can be negated by this new technology. It's a brave new chapter in the history of the universe and to be honest I have no idea how it will play out.

But you... you are different. There is something about you that I can't figure out... I hope that you are here for a purpose bigger than anything we can envision...

And so, stranger, this is goodbye for now. Or perhaps until our paths cross again, as fate would have it. A forceful fate that pushes back against the surging tide of evil and oppression".

Before Llaus could say anything, he was forced out of the bubble like a baby being pushed out of the womb. It happened so fast that he didn't have time to react. He was expecting to have some sort of dialogue with the deity, but it was like he was being birthed into a new environment, one where he had no idea what to expect.

Within a split second he was pushed out of the warmth of the bubble and back into the freezing cold waters of the underground river. Llaus wasn't prepared for the quick exit and he struggled to swim towards the light at the end of the tunnel. He clawed, thrashed and squirmed through the hole that was decreasing in size. Faster and faster he forced himself to get to the opening until he broke the surface, gasping for air.

Breathing heavily and exasperated, he looked around and saw that he had popped up right in the middle of a large room, which appeared to be completely chiseled out of the rock substrate. It was sparsely lit and on the far side were several tables with Indigenous sitting around them. Their reaction was somewhat delayed as they appeared to be caught off-guard with the emergence of a strange body through the hole.

"REGIME !!!!" one of them finally shouted and they set off the alarm.

Several of them came rushing towards Llaus with weapons in hand, though they were much different from the ones that the Elite guards had been using. These looked more like glorified spears with a dim light on the end, similar to a taser stick.

Shouts and screams quickly filled the room as the Indigenous jumped out of their seats and either ran towards the hole, or ran away, trying to escape as if this was some sort of invasion. The scene was chaotic as bodies, echoes and screams filled the entire chamber. Llaus was still gasping for air and didn't know what to do other than lift up his arms.

"I'm safe!! I'm safe!!" was all that he could think of saying as he tried to assure them of his peaceful intentions.

Then to add to an already chaotic scene, the squid-like creature re-emerged from the deep. Either all of the commotion had engaged its predatory instinct or it wasn't satisfied with the last round it had with Llaus. The opening in the side of the wall wasn't large enough for its body but its long tentacles were just long enough to reach his ankles.

"It's got me!!! It's got me!! Get me out of here!!" Llaus frantically screamed as the Indigenous that once surrounded him began to watch as Llaus was being pulled back down the hole. They quickly realized that he wasn't part of the Regime and was actually being pulled back into the hole by one of the many creatures that dwelled within the darkness.

Llaus thrashed and continued to fight against the pull of the squid-like creature. One of its slimy tentacles was firmly wrapped around his ankle and it continued to pull at him. Its gnarly teeth and devastating bite were anxiously waiting for him at the other end of the long tunnel.

"HELP ME!!! It's got my leg!! Help Help!! I can't hang on!!" Llaus shouted at the Indigenous who now just stood there watching him with their weapons dropped to their side as they tried to decide what to do next. He thrashed and desperately hung on to the edge while his head submerged periodically as he played tug of war for his body with the squid-like creature. He pushed against the tentacle with his other foot and tried to wiggle out of its grip, but nothing was working, and he was losing strength.

Then from across the room, a giant being much bigger than the rest, emerged. He was either not in the room during the initial chaos or had remained seated to assess the situation. The large being didn't hustle or panic; he just casually walked over to the hole, grabbed Llaus by the arms and lifted him to safety with relative ease.

"Cleanse this man of the filthy cyborgs that undoubtedly taint his body and DO IT QUICKLY!!" the large being barked at the others who stood around somewhat dumbfounded and dazed. They quickly jumped into action at the sound of his orders.

"Then get him some food and clothes when he's ready" he grunted with a hint of resentment as he turned to walk away. The others weren't sure how to treat Llaus; they didn't know if they should treat him as a prisoner or as a friend, so they went about their business without looking at him too much or making any small talk.

Llaus was quickly ushered over to the side of the room where there was a circular shallow pool cut into the rock. It was only waist deep and maybe 10 feet in diameter, just enough for a human to lie in, which is what they instructed him to do. They gave him an odd-looking snorkel apparatus that covered his mouth and nose plus a makeshift pair of goggles. He followed the orders as instructed and tentatively stepped into the water; it was cool but not nearly as cold as the river. They told him to float on his back and to stretch out his legs and arms as far as possible.

Suddenly a surge of energy rocketed through his body. It was quick, painless and over before he even realized what happened. Then his body began to sink like it was being pulled down by some extra gravitational force. It was an odd sensation like there were thousands of tiny metal pins just under the surface of his skin that were trying to be pulled out of his body by a magnet. The force pulled his body all the way to the bottom where he remained for several moments. Then the odd sensation started to dissipate, and he could feel his body start to float up again. Llaus assumed that the process was over and tried to sit up, but several hands pushed him back down to keep him submerged in the water. Then the onlookers began dumping the contents of a bucket into the water and a large splash occurred as the liquid was transferred into the shallow pool.

Llaus was jolted once again just like when he first got into the water, only this time, immediately after they shocked his body he was swarmed by a large sucker fish. Its sucker like mouth latched onto his skin and traversed across nearly every square inch of his body. It felt like it was pulling out his hair when in fact it was pulling the tiny Jitbots out through his pores and swallowing them. Llaus knew the process was finished when the fish left his body and swam up to the surface to be collected. The onlookers scooped up the fish in the same bucket then brought it over to another cut-out in the rock floor. They dumped it into the crevasse that led directly into the torrid rapids, so it could be carried away downstream with the Jitbots reporting misinformation the entire time. Llaus understood now why time was of the essence. Remaining in one place for too long could potentially reveal the whereabouts of where the switch occurred and ultimately where the Indigenous were hiding.

Llaus sat up in the shallow pool and looked around at the Indigenous inhabitants. Of course, he had seen their kind before in the 'killing plains' when he was being ushered to the Fortress, but now he had a chance to look at them when they were alive and mostly healthy. They were roughly the same size as him, probably a few inches shorter on average and much more slender, most likely due to malnutrition. Many sported beards and long black, braided hair. Several had orange-red hair and seemed to be a bit taller and though they were definitely all related it looked like they might be a different type of Indigenous, perhaps originating from a different region of the planet.

Some of them came back with a platter of food and a cup of steaming liquid. Llaus looked at the food on the plate and smirked as he saw that it was obviously a portion of a squid tentacle. Most likely the same type that only a few moments ago was trying to make him its lunch, the irony wasn't lost on him. He grabbed the food and bit into a hunk of the seared flesh; its texture was rubbery, and it tasted like it looked. Nonetheless his body craved the nourishment more than he thought and before he knew it, he was gorging himself. The drink was warm to the touch but left a cool sensation as he drank it. It quenched his thirst almost instantly.

"Who are you?" someone finally built up the courage to ask but before Llaus could answer, Baltheus, the largest of them all, spoke up.

"We saw you come in with a convoy a few days ago but we didn't think we'd ever see you again. Yet here you are .. and you're alive! What's your story? Where are you from?"

"I don't know" Llaus replied flatly with more than a hint of annoyance in his voice, before he went on a tirade.

"That's all I've been asked since landing on this damn planet and I don't have an answer!!!

"I don't know who I am!!

"I don't know my name!!

"I don't know where I came from!!

"Or where this is?! Who you are? Why I'm here... I don't know a damn thing!!! Ok!!?!" he said with a fiery tone. The onlookers collectively and audibly gasped at his reply, shocked by the tone of his response.

Llaus allowed himself to settle before he continued in a more calm and gracious tone.

"Look...all I know is that I woke up in a random spaceship, crash landed on your planet, then was hunted by some liquid life force and –"

"Wait!! " Baltheus interrupted and cut him off mid-sentence.

"A liquid life force? What did it look like? Where did it go? Does the Regime have him?" Baltheus stood up with an obvious alarm in his voice. Everyone else that was sitting in the room also stood up; there was an obvious panic in their posture as they awaited Llaus' response.

"No!" Llaus said firmly as if the single word answer could answer all of the questions that were being thrown at him at the same time.

"The Regime does not have him. In fact, he is alive and well."

The group let out an audible sigh of relief at the sound of the news.

"He was the one that guided me here through the water tunnels. I would almost go as far as to say that he is a friend, but I suspect that we just used each other to escape the clutches of the Regime, clinging to one another until we had a chance to spring loose from the clutches of evil". His answer seemed to temporarily appease the crowd and their panicked faces eased a bit but they still looked like they wanted to know more so Llaus continued.

"There is no definite shape to him. He is constantly evolving, translucent yet defined and colourful. He can pierce your mind and unseat your soul. He can find his way into your most inner thoughts and make you question your very own existence. And when he does take form, or portion of a form, his face is old and wise yet wild and fierce."

Now the mood in the room was one of intrigue and everyone gathered around Llaus like he was a teacher reciting a tale to the students of a kindergarten class.

"I knew He was alive !!" someone shouted from the back and everyone started to cheer.

"Rryl has delivered this man to help our cause" another shouted and the cheer erupted even more.

Baltheus stood up and lifted his hands into the air as if he was the reason for the cheers but he was just trying to hush the crowd so he could speak. His size was so disproportionate and different from the rest that he reminded Llaus of the Elite guards that he had encountered several times.

"The news is GOOD!!' Baltheus roared, inciting another round of cheers and applause.

"For whatever reason, this stranger has earned the favour of our protector. Rryl helped him escape from the Fortress and has guided him here to us, to help us!! Rryl is here to help us!!" Baltheus continued to speak to the entourage, whipping them into a frenzy of cheers. Then he put his hands up again to silence the crowd and turned to Llaus.

"Friend.... " Baltheus said with a very soft and somber tone.

"We have been at war with the Regime for many years. At first, we were able to cripple every attempt they made at establishing a foothold on this planet. We simply knew our planet and the way it worked better than they ever could. But they do not value life nearly as much as we do so they painted the sky" Baltheus said, referring to the thick orange/purple cloud that covered the entire planet.

"The planet started to die before our very eyes... the trees, the plants, the water dried up on the surface and the sun was hidden behind clouds that never disappear.

"The 'element of surprise' and resources we relied on so dearly vanished in a mere few weeks. The transition was dizzying and swung the tide of the war clearly in their favour. Hundreds of thousands of our kind died in a short period of time so we had to retreat. We couldn't live exposed on the desert-like terrain, so we retreated to the hidden underground caves of the aquafer, the lifeblood of this planet.

"Our battle continues but we are growing weary and our numbers are dwindling. Our warriors are being killed at an alarming pace and our females are losing their babies from malnutrition. There is simply nothing left to eat except the sparse forage of squid and the underground legumes that we have adapted to grow.

"We're pretty sure we know what they are looking for, and it is the very thing that you found when you landed; our life force Rryl. But we don't understand why he simply hasn't driven the Regime from our planet? Perhaps he is trying to teach us a lesson? Or perhaps we have angered him? But he has brought you to us... Are you here to help our cause?" Baltheus outstretched his arm toward Llaus in an act of kindness. Llaus graciously accepted the kind gesture before replying.

"I have two priorities. Killing that son of a bitch that shot my spacecraft down and took me to the dungeons of this hell hole. And getting off this rock!! If either of those helps your cause then consider me an ally"

"Very good, that is what we wanted to hear!

"We too have been trying to assassinate the Lt. Commander for years. If you kill the head of the snake, the body dies... though it would likely just be replaced by another head, however the time and transition in between could be enough to gain leverage and drive them from our planet. But we've tried everything.... Ambushes, poison, suicide attacks but nothing has even come close." Baltheus said with a sad and somber tone, thinking of all the lives lost.

"Until lately, the only means of gaining access to the Fortress has been either through the front gate or somehow through the Aquafer that runs underneath. That was until just recently. In fact, right around the time you landed we found another way into the Fortress. It leads directly into the dungeon area, probably the last place you'd want to go but if you are willing to be the first, we will equip you with some weapons from our limited supply. At least this way you have a chance to complete one of your priorities.

"But 'getting off this rock', as you call it, is well beyond anything we can help you with".

Llaus stood up and surveyed the Indigenous around him; they were broken and frail, skinny and weak. They almost all had defeated eyes except for a few. For a moment Llaus felt their pain, their struggle, their sorrow and their hate for the ones that came and did this to their planet. For a moment he wanted to fight for them in addition to his own ambitions.

'I'll do it...' he said sternly, and his response was met with a great cheer. Baltheus walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder in a friendly gesture then escorted him to their weapons storage room just off the main chamber.

"We don't have much, but you are free to choose whatever weapons you feel will help you with your assault" Baltheus said.

There was an assortment of weapons scattered on the floor, some were quite basic, like a club, while others were obviously more advanced. They were undoubtedly collected from skirmishes with the Regime. Swords, spears, axes, bows, crossbows represented the majority of their stock but Llaus knew from his brief encounter at the Fortress that he would need firepower; the more the better.

He turned his attention to the pile of guns and spotted a set of holstered of Revolver's. There wasn't anything fancy about them and they were certainly dated by the current technological standards but Llaus had some sort of fatal attraction to them, like they were calling his name. He retrieved one out of its leather holster; the dry leather creaked and moaned as if it was protesting before it released the gun. The wood on the handle was decorated with intricate artwork that looked like it was hand carved. None of the designs meant anything significant to Llaus but they were visually stunning. The barrel was long and pronounced, with just as much artistic detail. He carefully looked over every facet of the revolver like a child inspecting a new toy. On the bottom there was a jagged inscription of 'A.R.'; Llaus assumed it was the initials of the previous owner. He placed his finger against the trigger and the coldness of the metal sent a slight tingle up his arm, like the feeling one might get after reuniting with an old friend. He couldn't explain the sentimental feeling he held towards these guns. They certainly weren't the most powerful weapons in the collection, nor were they likely the most accurate either, but the primal instinct he had once he saw them, he knew that they were the weapon of choice. Besides, unlike some of the alternatives, these would be much more portable, and for where he was going, it would be close proximity fighting anyway.

Chapter 4: Journey into the belly of the Sun

Scene I

The celebration was cut short when several scouts came running into the main chamber with news that the Regime had sent out nearly their entire division of fighters and that they were tracking something. Baltheus suspected the worst so he ordered everyone to disband and relocate to another one of their gathering places.

"If ever there was a time to infiltrate the Fortress, it would be now. I told you that Rryl had something big planned for us" Baltheus said as he turned towards Llaus.

"I will send you with my two best guides; they will lead you where you need to go. May Rryl guide and protect you, friend" he said before quickly turning to continue shouting out evacuation orders.

Llaus was quickly escorted out of the chamber and guided through a myriad of tunnels, cracks and crevasses in the planet's substructure. After travelling for what seemed to be hours, he started to wonder if they were guiding him to the centre of the planet. The darkness was damp and smothering, and it oozed a dank and earthy smell. For the most part the tunnels and cracks were lined with solid rock but occasionally Llaus could feel an earthy texture underfoot. Everything looked the same to him and he certainly wouldn't be able to retrace his steps if they ever decided to just leave him.

Then one of the guides stopped and motioned to keep quiet. He didn't speak, he just motioned to look up. Llaus looked up and could see a very faint light above, no bigger than the size of a quarter. The guides had apparently gone as far as they would go, and they motioned for him to climb towards the light, knowing that the last leg of this journey would lead directly into the underbelly of the Fortress.

They didn't have an extra flashlight so Llaus was forced to climb in the dark. The only way he could navigate his way was by slowly reaching out with his hands to feel the tunnel sides and by blindly seeking ledges for his feet to rest on. A blind journey leading into quite possibly the most dangerous place he would ever 'willingly' go.

The rock was slippery and wet, making the climb slow and treacherous. To make things worse, the smell was horrendous; it reeked of rotten and decaying flesh. Llaus forged ahead slowly, checking the grip of each hand he placed several times before letting go of the previous spot. Several times his grip slipped but fortunately it was before he had taken the step of faith and moved onto the next ledge. The climbing was slow, and his body was getting fatigued, it was in this moment he was thankful for having selected the revolvers rather than the larger and heavier guns as the extra weight certainly would have made the climb even more challenging. He looked back down below to see if he could see the guides, but it was just a black void. It was almost like he was back in outer space.

' _There's no turning back now, I'm all in..._ ' he thought, not that he wanted to turn back anyway.

The blackness all around him was a slightly ironic reminder of where this journey had started and where it likely would lead, with the infinite black of his death. Llaus had no illusions about what he was getting into, he knew that he didn't have a safety net this time, no deity to watch his back and craftily guide him through the Fortress. His navigation through the Regime's main base would be just as blind as his climb; each turn could lead him to a dead end or right into an entire platoon of Elite guards. Nevertheless, what was the alternative? Starve to death with the Indigenous as they cowered and hid in caves? Not that he blamed them; they were severely outnumbered and outgunned. Hiding was the only thing that kept them alive to this point. They were hoping for a miracle, something that could turn the tide of the battle in their favor. However, Llaus didn't think he was the answer to their prayers, as he knew they hoped.

He was on a mission of revenge but truthfully, all that he desired was to find himself again. To find out who he was before landing on this planet, why he had a tattoo on his forearm that said 'All wiLL bE ReveAled', and everything else that escaped his memory. All these thoughts crossed his mind as he climbed, which helped to distract him from the smell. It was so thick and putrid that he could almost taste it.

He didn't know how far he had climbed, the only real gauge he had was the light at the end of the tunnel. Looking up, he gauged that he only had another 20-30 feet to go before he would be at the top. The opening was round and looked to be no bigger than a manhole. It was slotted like a sewer grate but where it led to and who was waiting on the other side was a mystery.

Llaus placed his foot on another ledge but instead of gradually easing more and more of his weight to assess its stability, he just stepped up and placed his full weight on it. The ascent had been tedious and as his body fatigued, his focus and attention to detail started to dwindle. Initially the ledge held after he placed his full weight on it, but the very moment he removed his hand to grab another rock further up, it gave out.

He started to slip and instinctively clawed at the wall to grab anything that would help him to regain his balance again. No matter what he did though, he continued to slip and slide down the rock face, and he was gaining speed. He had no idea how far up he was but he was sure that he didn't want to find out so out of desperation he pushed off the wall with his feet, hoping that the tunnel was narrow enough to wedge his body from one side to the other. Luckily for him it was, and he was able to stop his vertical descent by jamming his feet into the wall in front of him and his back into the wall behind him. He smashed his head and scraped his back while flailing about trying to regain his balance. Some rocks were knocked loose during his struggle and he could hear them careening off to the bottom; smashing off the sides as they descended. They took quite a while to get to the bottom so Llaus knew that he had travelled quite a distance.

' _I must be a couple hundred feet up_ ' he thought to himself.

The good news was that he wasn't falling anymore but the bad news was that he wasn't sure how he could continue to climb. He also wasn't sure how narrow the tunnel was further down so he didn't want to risk trying to push his body back into an upright position just in case it didn't work and he couldn't stop himself again. Especially since he was in complete darkness and had no idea where to place his feet or hands. He was essentially locked in place until his muscles eventually gave out and he would tumble down the tunnel anyway. Unwilling to give in, Llaus relaxed his legs to slightly release the pressure he was applying on the wall across from him, just enough so he could wiggle like a worm and slide his back up the wall. Then, once his back had moved up a bit he would use his core muscles to slide his feet up the wall, then repeat over and over again.

With time, the back and forth motion of inching up the wall with his back then repositioning his feet became automatic. Over and over he repeated this all while looking up at his end goal, the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes he would get to a spot where he couldn't slide up the wall because the rock formation protruded too much. He would have to abandon the slide technique and basically thrust his body up the wall, banging and smashing his head multiple times. A warm liquid streamed down the side of his face, originating from the location where he repeatedly banged his head; he was sure it was blood. He pressed on, pushing any thoughts other than achieving his ultimate goal aside.

When the end was only a few feet away Llaus could see that it was in fact a sewer grate that covered the exit of the tunnel. Looking through the slot he could make out a dimly lit room carved out of the rocky substructure of the planet, not much different than the room where he had met the Indigenous leaders, only the smell here was much more appalling. He pressed on until he could securely reach out with both his hands and firmly grab the round steel bars that stretched across the sewer grate. It wasn't until after he did this that he thought about the potential of a guard being drawn to the sound of his ascent, just waiting and watching the grate for movement. His body tightened as a surge of panic shot through him; the ascent had dulled his usual keen sense of awareness.

' _Too late now_ ' he thought as he used the bars to reposition his feet so he didn't have to jam his body across the tunnel. He held himself motionless for a while and strained his ears to see if he could pick up any sounds of movement. His hand was by his side, ready to grab a revolver, but there was nothing other than the occasional sound of dripping water.

Drip - The sound echoed throughout the room.

On occasion Llaus thought he could hear sounds of moaning and groaning but they were very faint and he thought it might just be his imagination. Or possibly a subconscious flashback from the last time he was in this place.

Drip

Drip

The cadence of the dripping water was fairly predictable and regular. Llaus thought it would be wise to try and shift the sewer grate at the same time as a drip to slightly disguise the noise.

Drip

Drip - Llaus pushed up against the grate with all of his might but it didn't budge! He let his muscles relax and decided to wait for another drip before trying again.

' _If I can't move this grate, it's all over!_ ' he thought.

Drip

Drip - Once again Llaus pushed up against the grate with all his strength, and he felt it shift ever so slightly but not nearly enough for the effort he exerted.

' _Maybe I need to reposition where I'm pushing?_ ' he thought.

Llaus spread his arms to the outer extremities of the grate and spread his legs across the expanse of the tunnel, like a spread eagle. It was an awkward position but it was the only way he would be able to apply enough vertical force.

Drip

Drip - He took in a deep breath. The next push would determine whether or not this plan would work.

Drip - He pushed up with all his strength. Initially the grate didn't move but he didn't stop. He tried rocking back and forth and from side to side. His effort and persistence paid off as the grate stubbornly creaked before it started to wiggle out of place.

' _So much for the element of surprise_ ' he thought as he continued to move the squealing grate. He didn't want to relent just in case he couldn't get it to move again. It slowly shifted from side to side until it finally breached the top and shot up several inches over the edge. The sudden movement caused Llaus to lose his footing and the grate came crashing back down. He was left dangling with only his grip on the bars keeping him from falling. He quickly repositioned his feet to steady himself and lifted the grate up and over the edge. The most difficult part of the task was finished; now all that he had to do was slide it to the side to make room to climb up and through the hole.

Drip - He slid it a little. The metal grate sliding across the rock made a noise equivalent to nails on a chalkboard.

Drip - He pushed a little more.

' _Timing it with the drip probably won't make a difference_ ' he thought yet he continued to do that until the grate was pushed over far enough for him to squeeze through. He paused for a moment and considered the possible outcomes; he had no clue where he would find himself in the Fortress or what kind of resistance he would meet. Best case scenario would be that he could sneak around in the shadows until he had a better idea of where he was and how he could get to the Lt. Commander. Worst case, he would pop his head up and come into contact with a large group of Elite guards. Either way, he was ready to go down fighting. There was no future for him on this planet, just a slow and inevitable death; he preferred taking matters into his own hands.

He took a deep breath then lunged vertically into the belly of the Fortress where the Regime had performed unimaginable atrocities against the Indigenous for years. He popped up and landed on his feet, his hands instinctively dropping to his sides to find the heels of his guns. He was ready to draw and fire at the sign of any type of movement, but there was nothing so he quickly moved to a corner and took cover behind some boxes.

Llaus found himself in a small and dimly lit room, not much bigger than the one he had been tortured in the last time he was in the Fortress. There was only one entrance which made his choice about which direction to go very simple. The floors sloped gently towards the centre of the room where the sewer grate was positioned. Shower heads lined one entire side of the room and a dozen or so metallic tables ran across the opposite wall. The tables were scattered with used bloody bandages and a multitude of sharp medical tools, some were so odd looking that he'd never be able to guess what they did. There was no doubt this was some sort of operating room, though he was certain there weren't any miracles performed here.

He looked over to the sewer grate and noticed that it was still pushed up and to the side, so if anybody walked into the room they would know that there was a breach. He strained his ears again to listen for guards but couldn't hear anything other than the occasional moan or groan; they were real and more audible now so it wasn't just his imagination. Without hesitation he dashed back over to where he had entered the room, repositioned the sewer grate so it looked undisturbed, then returned to the corner just as quickly.

So far everything had gone mostly according to plan, but getting in was the easy part. What came next was unpredictable and Llaus took a moment to settle his nerves. He placed his hands by his side and drew the revolvers that he had chosen to use as his primary weapon. The smoothness of the wood grip was in stark contrast to the harshness of the current room and it helped settle his mood.

Llaus knew there would never be a good time to make a move so he just went for it. Without thinking about the potential consequences, he got up and ran through the only entrance to the room. His guns were drawn and pointed in front of him, ready to fire at the slightest movement. He dashed through the door and down a dimly lit hallway lined with doors that extended as far as the eye could see. Each of the doors had a thin eye-hole slot near the top but Llaus didn't stop to look into any of them, he just continued running. His curiosity was certainly peaked but he couldn't risk being exposed in the hallway since there was nowhere to hide if someone or something came out of one of the doors. Occasionally he would run past a juncture where other hallways split off in opposite directions. Signs with some sort of non-descript language were posted at each juncture. He didn't know how to read the language but as he was passing he tried to retain what the symbols looked like, hoping to gain some sort of perspective of where he was. His footsteps echoed through the maze of hallways and he was certain that it would draw the attention of any guards that were in the immediate area. He needed to get out of sight as quickly as possible and figured that his best bet was to continue in a straight line, turning down any side corridors could get him going in circles.

After running for a long time, he was finally getting closer to the end of the hallway and he wanted to see where it led. There was a door and a T-junction with two other hallways leading in opposite directions. He dashed through the door into the next room with his guns poised and firmly pointed straight ahead, ready to explode at any moment.

As soon as he passed through the door he felt as if he had entered a completely different world. The air was thick and the smell was dark and putrid. The lighting was the same as before but for some reason it felt darker; everything felt dead. The room was as big as an airplane hangar and had the look of a jail with two levels full of prison cells. Llaus's running pace instantly stopped as his attention shifted from being ready to kill to looking at thousands of dying (or already dead) prisoners that were captured in these cells. They hardly acknowledged him as he walked past slowly. The gaze from their bulging eyes was glossed over and exuded hopelessness and despair. He could feel their eyes on him but no one moved or said a thing as he walked past their cells. Whenever he looked in their direction, they would look down to the ground submissively. Their bodies were thin and frail and their hair was messy, unwashed and tattered. Some bodies were piled up along the back wall, obviously dead but not removed or disposed of properly. Death and disease were everywhere.

These were the Indigenous that had been captured and locked up for who knows what reasons and who knows how many years. The war had been waging for years and he wondered if some of these Indigenous were born into captivity. They were obviously beaten, starved, tortured and more than likely experimented on. Llaus forgot his purpose for a moment and he stopped walking; the sight and smell was unbearable. Despite the rage and revenge that boiled inside, he didn't know how to proceed from this point. He didn't know how to walk away but he didn't know how to move forward either.

"You don't look like them?... Who are you?" a small and timid voice called out from the back of one of the cells on the lower level. Llaus looked in the direction from where the voice came from and near instantly everyone parted to the side to reveal a young Indigenous. He wasn't in nearly as bad of shape as some of the others and there was still a glimmer of hope in his eyes. He likely hadn't been locked up for very long or hadn't endured enough beatings to know better.

"Why are you here?... Are you one of them??" he asked shyly but almost with enough confidence to be taken seriously.

"No... " Llaus finally managed to get out "I am not one of them..."

"How did you get here?" the young Indigenous asked, now with more interest and certainly more optimism in his voice.

"Are you here to save us? Where are the rest? " he asked feverishly, excitement building in his voice as he stepped forward towards the prison cell bars.

Llaus looked around at the other prison cells and could see the rest of the captives stepping forward to get a look at him; their despair had turned into curiosity and optimism. Some even began to smile and reach out to him through the bars.

"Save us! Save us!!" someone called out in the distance.

"Get us out of here!! Take us home! Open the cells" another said.

"Hurry before they come back!"

"Unlock these cages!"

Crying and weeping could be heard as the level of excitement began to rise.

"SILENCE!!" Llaus yelled. His voice boomed throughout the hollow chamber and stopped nearly everyone in their tracks. Smiles quickly faded and the calls for help turned into gasps. Many of them cowered and fell to the ground as if they had been shot. Llaus was certain there would be a multitude of guards charging through the doors at any moment so he spoke hastily. He didn't even know what he wanted to say, he hadn't prepared himself for this but now here he was, standing in front of thousands of dying prisoners, all anxiously waiting for his next words.

"I HAVE MET YOUR ELDERS" Llaus started, still not really knowing what he wanted to say.

Several shrieks could be heard in the upper cells.

"AND I HAVE MET YOUR DEITY.... RrYL !!"

A multitude of audible gasps echoed across the room.

"HE SAVED ME ONCE FROM THIS FORTRESS OF HORRORS BUT I HAVE COME BACK TO SEEK VENGEANCE!!" he shouted.

"I HAVE COME BACK TO SEEK OUT THE ONE THAT ENSLAVED AND TORTURED ME!!, I HAVE COME BACK TO KILL HIM... AND TO SET YOU FREE!" Llaus knew that his intentions were never to liberate these Indigenous. He didn't even know that they existed until he walked into this room. But he recognized that they could help against the overwhelming odds that were stacked against him.

"RISE WITH ME AND HELP SET YOURSELVES FREE!!"

"RISE WITH ME OR DIE HERE LIKE ANIMALS!! RISE UP AGAINST YOUR OPPRESSORS!! LEAD ME TO THE LT. COMMANDER! WATCH ME KILL HIM AND SET YOU FREE!!"

Shouts of joy resonated throughout the chamber as the Indigenous cheered with whatever strength they had left. Llaus pointed his gun at the lock in the first cell and pulled the trigger. An echoing boom shot across the room like thunder as the lock shattered.

Almost as soon as he opened the door, a deafening alarm began to sound. The Fortress was now on high alert and he would soon be discovered. So much for his initial plan of trying to stick to the shadows, but he hadn't anticipated a scenario like this. Llaus continued to shoot open the cell doors at a more frantic pace now that the alarms had sounded. He instructed the strongest Indigenous to use the pry bars hanging on the walls to open the other cells. Some clung to his clothes and hugged his legs, making walking almost impossible.

"GO!!! SET YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS FREE!! WE MUST RISE AND RISE QUICKLY!! THEY ARE COMING!"

He no sooner said those words, when an explosion of flashbangs lit up the room. It was like he was back in the cave all over again with explosions raining down on him. He shielded his eyes but couldn't see anything through the bright white lights of the explosions.

There were screams of panic and screams of pain as several guards stormed the room and starting shooting into the crowd. The scene was chaotic; Indigenous men and women were running and pushing their way past him, trying to get as far away from the guards as they could. Others were clawing frantically at some of the other cells, desperately trying to free friends and loved ones. Others were charging at the guards, trying to get to them before they were shot. Llaus stood there, motionless for several moments, watching and evaluating the chaos around him. Then his instincts kicked in.

With speed and precision, he raised the revolvers in his hands, took aim at the guards that were rushing into the room and opened fire with deadly accuracy. He started walking towards the door at the other end of the room, firing round after round at the waves of guards that were swarming inside.

His walk became a jog and before he knew it he was full out running towards the other entrance with his guns ablaze, picking off the guards as they entered the room and shooting off the locks from as many cells as he could while passing by. Many of the Indigenous that were running away in the other direction had turned and now were following him. The young Indigenous with the questions had rallied the masses from fleeing now that they appeared to have a fighting chance.

Shot after shot found its mark as Llaus made his way to the other doors. He wanted to create a bottleneck so he could pick the guards off before they entered the chamber. The young Indigenous, whose name he did not know yet, ordered the others to grab the weapons from the dead guards and use them to open the remaining cells. Despite his size and appearance, he was cool under pressure and able to command like a field General.

Now positioned at the other entrance, Llaus peeked around the corner and saw several guards making their way down the hall. He shot them dead in their tracks then hid back behind the door.

' _This plan will work for a while until they start using bigger weapons_ ' Llaus thought to himself as he tried to determine what the next move would be.

At the opposite end of the room where Llaus had initially entered, guards came storming in and started blasting anything and everything that moved. Flash bombs exploded, causing temporary blindness to those that were unfortunate enough to be looking in the general vicinity.

Llaus knew that he needed to eliminate the guards at the other end of the chamber to allow the Indigenous to free as many as possible, and then the entire group needed to get mobile. They couldn't get locked down in one place; they needed to swarm towards the Lt. Commander and overwhelm their adversaries with sheer numbers.

Llaus yelled at the young Indigenous to take his position at the door so he could get over to the other side of the room to deal with the guards entering from that way. He rushed over with several others behind him; they all had picked up guns from the fallen guards and knew how to use them skillfully. They took up position where Llaus was and opened fire against the guards that were making their way down the hall trying to gain access to the chamber. By now there were a large number of guard bodies that had begun to pile up in the hallway and the guards were using the dead bodies as makeshift bunkers. Gunfire was exchanged back and forth with the occasional firebomb exploding close to the doors entrance, not finding its mark but getting closer. It was just a matter of time before their position would be overrun so Llaus needed to move quickly. He gave his new-found accomplices a look of approval before quickly turning to run towards the other end of the room.

At the other end, the guards seemed to be doing better, methodically picking off Indigenous prisoners by the dozen as their weapons sprayed everywhere indiscriminately. The Indigenous were caught in the middle and had nowhere to go. Some continued to try and open the cells while most huddled near the ground, holding and clinging to their loved ones. They moved slowly like zombies, groaning and moaning with each step and they reacted even slower, as the constant torturing and malnourishment had obviously taken its toll.

Running towards the other end, Llaus raised his weapons and opened fire. The sound of screaming and alarms seemed to fade to a dull hush as a shot of adrenaline surged through his veins. Everything was speeding up yet time seemed to slow down. Without aiming, he meticulously laid a barrage of fire on the guards and systematically knocked them off one by one, their bodies pirouetting and dancing as the gunfire pierced their flesh.

Before he knew it, he had run across the entire room and right out the door back into the hallway to the T-junction. He hadn't noticed until now that he was yelling the entire time. He stopped, lifted the revolvers to shoulder height, pointed them in opposite directions and opened fire. The remaining few guards that were running towards the prison room fell to the ground in a heap.

The Indigenous were still fleeing the cells but they all seemed to stop and look towards the end of the room where Llaus was standing. One last flash bang exploded near his feet and temporarily burned into their retinas the image of his silhouette with his arms stretched out to his sides like a savior.

He had near single-handedly eliminated the first wave of guards. Certainly there would be more but the first wave had been taken care of with relative ease and minimal casualties. This man who had met and was saved by their deity had now come back to save them. He stepped back into the room and yelled to the thousands of liberated Indigenous.

"RISE WITH ME AND SET YOURSELVES FREE!!"

Then he turned and ran down one of the hallways.

Scene II

Looking out from his window, the Lt. Commander stared blankly across the plains in front of him that had aptly earned the nickname 'The Killing Plains'.

' _How many lives have been snuffed out from existence on these plains?_ ' He thought.

'How many friends have I lost during this campaign? And all in an effort to capture the life force that resides on this planet.

' _It was within my grasp but I got greedy and let it escape. No!! It was that damn Doctor and the fool Lothian that let it get away._ '

But the Lt. Commander knew that he had to shoulder some of the blame, and that's what bothered him the most. He felt that there was something odd about this human and his 'chance meeting' with the deity. There was something bigger at work and that's why he was willing to risk losing it all, though the prospect of actually losing everything never quite crossed his mind, he was always certain that the plan would work out.

But now even the Jitbots were transmitting faulty data. Their last signal reported an internal core temperature well below what a human could endure for any length of time and a steady heart rate nearly twice as fast as normal. Plus, the reported location was rapidly approaching the inner core of the planet, at pressures well beyond anything a human could withstand. The reports seemed suspicious at best.

So, in a fit of rage, the Lt. Commander had ordered nearly all of his divisions out on a kill and conquer mission. After the failure of his latest experiment, he was more than ready to finish the never-ending battle with the Indigenous. They were weak and ready to submit; all he had to do was press the issue.

They would feel his wrath and suffer for his miscalculation.

He was all in.

Then an alarm sounded. It wasn't the evacuation siren, rather it was the alarm used for an incoming attack. He looked out across the plains and scrutinized the horizon but couldn't see any imminent threat.

' _This must be a mistake_ ' he thought.

' _It must be a malfunction_ '

The incessant alarm was annoying and caused the already irritable Lt. Commander to become even more unnerved.

' _I am going to hang whoever is responsible for this malfunction_ '. The thought of torturous pain brought a slight smile to his face.

"Sir..." the intercom interrupted his thoughts.

"There's a problem in the dungeon... do you copy?"

The Lt. Commander exhaled a grunt of dissatisfaction as he walked over to the intercom device on his desk.

"What kind of problem?!" he snarled to the recipient at the other end.

' _He too shall hang for interrupting me_ ' he thought.

"Sir..." the intercom crackled again.

"We are receiving reports from the reserve guards that all of the prison cells in the southern and eastern quadrants have been opened and the prisoners are mounting some sort of escape. The northern and western quadrants are still secure for now but we are receiving reports of heavy casualties..."

The Lt. Commander clenched his fists together, slammed his hands down on his desk then yelled at the top of his lungs "Arrrrgggghhh!!!!!!!!"

"Sir...?" the intercom interrupted once again.

"Do you copy?"

Slowly the Lt. Commander reached over to the intercom and pushed the button.

"Whooooo is this I'm talking to?" he spoke slowly, the anger in his voice suppressed as best he could.

"Sir?..." The voice responded slowly on the other end with an obvious desire to decline his request.

"What is your name?" The Lt. Commander repeated himself.

"Sir... with all of our regular and Elite guards deployed, we only have the reserves and early estimates show a worst-case scenario of being overrun in less than one hour.

"Sir, you should prepare your escape pod just in case we are unable to contain this uprising. Once the regulars return we will undoubtedly be able to control any attempt to....."

"SOLDIER!!" the Lt. Commander shouted into the intercom, not even acknowledging the news or advice.

"I asked for your name! WHAAAT IS YOUR NAAAME ?!!!" The Lt. Commander broke his veiled calm demeanor and exploded with rage.

"... Siiirr..... my name is... private Draggov..." his voice trembled with fear.

"From which reserve regiment?" The Lt. Commander pressed on with his line of questioning.

"... Siiir.... The 3rd..."

"Well, thank you Private Draggov from the 3rd reserve regiment. Now mount a bunker blockade at the base of the tower with all of the remaining reserves. We will hunker down there to prevent them from gaining access to the rest of the Fortress while we wait for reinforcements. Send a distress signal to all personnel to return to base and emphasize that this is NOT a drill.

"...Oh and private Draggov, good job!

"When this is all done, I would like to personally thank you for your efforts" the words oozed with falsity that even the Lt. Commander knew wasn't concealed very well.

"Sir... yes sir.."

The Lt. Commander then flipped a switch on his desk and pushed a button. A door opened across the room that revealed a small space craft.

' _Best to be ready just in case_ ' he thought.

Scene III

In the bowels of the Fortress, Llaus and the horde of Indigenous prisoners had mounted an organized offensive as they overwhelmed the reserve guards with their numbers. They had no idea where they were in the labyrinth of hallways but they had managed to come across three other giant rooms full of prisoners that they released in the same manner that Llaus had done in the first room. Now there were thousands, if not tens of thousands of Indigenous prisoners running through the maze of hallways, all looking for a way to get out.

Llaus had always gone in the direction of the resistance, towards where the guards were coming from, assuming that it would lead him to where they could escape, but it seemed like all it did was bring them around in circles. Then the resistance dropped off completely, almost as if they had given up on fighting against such a massive horde of prisoners and retreated. Llaus knew this wasn't the case and he was sure they were planning something else.

' _Maybe there wasn't a way out? Maybe it was just an endless maze of corridors? Maybe the Regime had managed to create a never-ending maze of hallways that no one could ever leave?_ '

These thoughts crossed his mind as he continued to turn down hallways that he thought he hadn't tried before. Every now and then he would shoot off the handle of one of the doors that lined the hallways just to investigate. Most led into dead-end rooms with archaic electrical equipment that was likely used to persuade those being questioned. Other rooms looked like operating rooms that you would see in horror movies with chains hanging from the ceiling and a wall lined with horrific looking tools. Certainly nothing was sanitized, and there was likely no need to, since these operations weren't meant to save lives.

A rather large group of Indigenous had decided to follow Llaus through the labyrinth of hallways. He had liberated them from their cells so they trusted he would lead them to safety. After turning down some random hallways, they came across another hallway they hadn't seen before; it was wider, slightly brighter and seemed to bend around a corner, rather than run in a straight line.

They followed the hallway into an enormous circular room that stretched to the sky. It had a winding staircase that wrapped around the outer walls like a helix and led up and out of the hole they were in.

' _We found it!!_ ' Llaus thought to himself as he stopped and looked up in amazement at the winding staircase. The group of Indigenous that followed him rushed into the room with excitement.

Llaus had no sooner finished his thought when a screeching shot stretched out towards him from the middle of the room. The shot didn't find its mark but it detonated close enough to send him flying through the air and back down the hallway he entered from. His head smashed into the wall before his body crumpled to the floor. Time slowed and his thoughts trailed off like an echo as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. The Indigenous that ran ahead of him were being decimated by machine gun fire and showered by a flame thrower; they shrieked in pain as the fire melted away their skin.

Llaus sat there, momentarily stunned, trying to decipher if what he was seeing was real or not. The sight of scattered body parts and blood was everywhere, while the smell of burning dirty flesh and unwashed hair was overpowering. Mothers and children ran away from the fighting while others sat crying on the floor, holding the limbs or lifeless bodies of loved ones.

Llaus stood up slowly and regained his balance. He never let go of his revolvers despite being sent flying across the hallway. He carefully walked back to the mouth of the hallway and cautiously poked his head around the corner. Within a split second he had seen everything he needed to see and knew exactly what was needed in order to save these Indigenous.

' _This is the way out and of course this is where the Regime would make their stand_ ' he thought.

The remaining guards from the Regime had created a makeshift bunker at the centre of the room with a massive amount of machine guns, flame throwers, concussive bombs and every other type of destructive weapon they could gather. Llaus initially failed to see the bunker when he entered the room; he had been captivated by the grandness of tower structure and enamored with the thought of finally finding the way out of the maze.

There would be no easy way out of the basement of the Fortress. The Regime had retreated and set up a seemingly impregnable defense at the epicenter of the escape route once they knew they couldn't contain the jailbreak. They knew the majority of the Indigenous would be unarmed, malnourished and frail; the remaining few guards could just sit and wait for them to die off one by one without having to launch an offensive. They certainly would launch a counter attack though once they assessed that the horde had lost its zest to escape and ceased being caught up in the frenzy that had consumed them during the initial rush of the jailbreak.

There were only 4 main entrances into the grand round room, and if anyone was going to get out alive, they would need to work together. Many would need to sacrifice their lives for the few, but it was the only way. Llaus backed away from the entrance then with his loudest voice he yelled out across the great chamber so that the Indigenous at the other entrances could hear him as well.

"FELLOW PRISONERS!! MY BROTHERS !!" he shouted.

"ONLY A FEW HOURS AGO YOU WERE DEAD!!!"

The Indigenous that were retreating stopped and turned to listen.

"AND NOW THE ONLY THING THAT STANDS BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR FREEDOM IS THE BUNKER IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT GREAT CHAMBER!!

"TURN YOUR BACKS NOW AND YOU'RE DEAD ALL OVER AGAIN

"ONLY YOU'D HAVE TO LIVE THE REMAINING HOURS OF YOUR LIFE KNOWING THAT YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO TRY AND CHANGE YOUR FATE

"THERE IS NO OTHER WAY OUT OF HERE!!!"

Llaus' voice trailed off, he wasn't sure if any of them were paying attention but he continued on.

"WE OUTNUMBER THEM WELL OVER A HUNDRED TO ONE, MAYBE EVEN A THOUSAND TO ONE!!

"SACRIFICE YOURSELVES FOR THE ONE BESIDE YOU!"

Some cheers arose in the hallway and from across the room.

"SACRIFICE YOURSELVES FOR YOUR LOVED ONES!"

Others chimed in now.

"SACRIFICE YOURSELVES FOR THE FUTURE OF YOUR SPECIES!!"

They all seemed to cheer in unison now.

"FIGHT TOOTH AND NAIL, FLESH AND BONE

"DO WHATEVER YOU NEED TO DO TO GET TO THAT BUNKER!"

All of the Indigenous had stopped fleeing by now and turned to listen to Llaus. His message was obviously striking a chord.

"DO WHATEVER YOU NEED TO DO TO GET TO THAT BUNKER AND..."

Llaus took in a deep breath before yelling at the top of his lungs

"LET THEM FEEL YOUR PAIN!!!!!"

Before he could get the last word out of his mouth a horde of Indigenous sprang up and ran towards the bunker, yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs.

They were met with a deadly barrage of gunfire as the rounds pierced their flesh and tore off their limbs, killing them instantly but the Indigenous kept running out of the hallway like someone had turned on a faucet and they were the water. They poured into the grand chamber without any regard for their own lives; it was almost as if reminding them of their heritage was the trigger to incite mass hysteria and suicidal insanity.

' _This is going to work_ ' Llaus thought, ' _but only if they all commit_ '.

Llaus ducked into a pile of Indigenous rushing forward into the room and aimed his revolvers at the bunker as they rounded the corner. They were instantly met with a steady barrage of gunfire and the bodies, or what was left of them were starting to pile up near the entrance. By the time Llaus entered the room, the bodies had only made it about 10 feet from the door before they were torn apart. The ones that were just wounded kept crawling forward until they were either shot again or bled out. The near dead would climb on top of the other bodies to create a flesh pile that the living could hide behind as they tried to rush forward. The sound of gunfire was loud and near deafening but the sound of metal piercing flesh, intestines being ripped apart and bones being smashed and pulverized was all that Llaus could hear. The screams of the wounded swirled and echoed into a sonic frenzy that was almost poetic in a morbid way.

Llaus quickly ducked behind some bodies then pointed his weapons at the darkened bunker in front of him. There were no distinguishable features to aim at, just the muzzle fire of guns pointed at them. When he opened fire, more Indigenous prisoners began to spill out from the other three entrances almost as if they were waiting for his gunfire, like at the start of a running race. The horde had finally engaged from every entrance and they were all rushing towards the bunker. There was no way of knowing if they would make it but rushing the lone bunker from four different directions was their best chance.

Screams and gunfire echoed across the chamber and dripped from the walls as Indigenous bodies, young and old continued to pour in by the hundreds from all of the entrances. The flame thrower weaved across the room, launching its flaming arc of death as far as it could, melting the skin and flesh off those that were unfortunate enough to get in its way. Even on fire the Indigenous would continue running towards the bunker until their ligaments melted under the intense and penetrating heat. Even then they would continue to crawl as far they could, screaming and flailing until they were met with silencing gunfire or succumbed to their liquefying organs. It was utter chaos!

The floor pooled with the dead and dying's blood but no matter how many were being cut down they kept pouring into the room with complete disregard for their own well-being and the wave of the dead continued its slow journey towards the centre of the room.

Some Indigenous had taken a creative approach and were using the bodies of the dead as flesh shields. Several of them would pick up a dead body and press onwards towards the centre. The ones that had guns dove in amongst the corpses and opened fire towards the bunker, slowly crawling towards their ultimate destination.

Others would form a single line and have their peers follow behind them, sacrificing their bodies so the ones behind them wouldn't get shot. The single file approach worked well until an explosive round passed through and obliterated the first few in line, scattering a shower of their internals onto everyone else.

The gunfire from the bunker was having a hard time restraining wave after wave of the sacrificial bodies. One side would make some headway before a flurry of gunfire would stop their forward progress, but while the guards were containing one side, the other side would run forward and make some gains. Every wave was slowly getting closer and closer while the pile of dead bodies was getting higher. Llaus didn't know how many Indigenous were left but he felt as though they were going to make it.

At the centre of the room, enveloped by the Regime's bunker, was a grand stairway that led up to 4 arches. The arches extended over the main floor and across to the snaking stairs that wound themselves up to the top of the tower. Llaus continued around the outer portion of the room rather than running right at the bunker; he was still surveying the situation and wanted to buy as much time as he could before he charged to his impending doom. Of everyone with a weapon he had the deadliest shot but he needed to be closer to the bunker and there was just too much chaos from this vantage point to make precise shots.

He carefully watched the ebbs and flows of the scene with a certain admiration. One side would charge hard until they were met with a flurry of gunfire then the other side would have a chance to make their push. Despite the grotesque intensity of the event, there was something romantic about their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. He watched as mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters gave their lives selflessly for their kind, it was a thing of beauty.

And then it was time to make his charge.

The barrage of shooting shifted from his side to the other and without hesitation he was up and running towards the centre of the room. He had nowhere to run other than on top of the dead Indigenous, his boots crunching their bones and splattering their blood. While running, he noticed that shots were being fired from the winding staircase above. Guards were positioned high above with sniper rifles and were shooting the Indigenous as they ran across the room. He lifted his guns towards the sky and systematically picked them off one by one.

Llaus was much faster than even the fastest member of the horde; they were so malnourished and weak that their charging speed was no more than a fast walk for him. He dove to the ground and did several rolls as he evaded gunfire from a guard on the stairs above. Mid-roll he was able to fire a shot straight between the guard's eyes and he fell to the ground below, between a pile of wounded Indigenous. Instantly recognizing him for what he was they started to claw at his face and gouge out his eyes while others pulled on his arms and bit into his legs. Even though the guard was already dead they dug into his chest, pulled out his heart and took turns taking a bite; the cannibalistic ritual seemed to invigorate and renew their resolve. With the blood of their adversary smeared on their faces, they started to crawl towards the bunker with a dogged determination.

Now back on his feet, Llaus pulled ahead of the horde and continued his dash towards the bunker, fully exposed without any cover. He opened fire at anything and everything that moved inside and consequently drew the attention and gunfire of the guards. The flame thrower projected its flame of death towards where he was running and shots whizzed past his body. He ducked, rolled and jumped in a continuous motion like a ballerina performing a graceful yet powerful dance. He was almost there but the bunker was never his ultimate goal.

He had bigger plans.

He had to pay a visit to someone who was likely at the very top of the tower.

With a fluid motion Llaus ran up the side of the bunker and launched his body upside down like a gymnast. He landed in the middle of the bunker but only for a fraction of a second, just enough time to execute several guards in direct sight. Then in a swift movement, he carried on running up the stairs towards the one that he really wanted to see again.

Chapter 5: Prey for the Surge

The Lt. Commander stared out across desert plains with his arms folded behind his back. Off in the distance he could see the markings of his Elite guards charging hard back towards the Fortress.

He had made a hasty move to deploy nearly all of his division so soon after the escape; his anger and quick temper had gotten the best of him. This was a character trait that had served him well the majority of the time but this time it had backfired epically. The siren that had sounded, what seemed like an eternity ago, was still blazing but he had grown accustomed to it by now. It almost seemed to blend in and compliment the sounds of explosions and gunfire that resonated and reverberated up the tower from the dungeon below. His reserve guards were holding their own against the uprising, but still he would have preferred to not be in this situation. There would be questions from above that he would have to answer, and he hated answering to anybody.

Then, like a cool breeze on a hot summer day, he felt _a_ presence.

He could feel _eyes_ focused on him.

He could feel _his_ presence.

Somehow, deep down, the Lt. Commander knew this man was the catalyst for the uprising. He knew that he wasn't dead when the Jitbots started reporting erroneous results. He knew that he had somehow found a way to circumvent the tracking robots, but he didn't expect that he'd come back. The plan to track him to the remaining Indigenous was over before it even started but at least all was for not, he was here now and the Lt. Commander relished the opportunity to finish things with his own bare hands.

"Very impressivvvve..... " the Lt. Commander said while drawing out the end of his sentence in his typical fashion.

"It appears as though you've caught me with my pants down..."

"I'm not here to talk" Llaus replied bluntly as he took several steps forward into the Lt. Commander's chamber.

"No no no... of course not" the Lt. Commander fired back just as quickly.

"You're here to kill the bad guy and save the poor Indigenous people, then live happily ever after, aren't you?"

Llaus took a few more steps towards the giant desk that the Lt. Commander was standing behind with both his revolvers drawn, pointed and ready to fire.

"So, let me get this straight, you thought you would just stroll in here, shoot me in the back, like a coward, then everyone would just lay down their arms and the Indigenous could stroll out of this place. Is that right?" The Lt. Commander paused for a moment, waiting for a response but there was none, so he knew that he had a captive audience.

"You mount and execute such an elaborate escape plan, but then you deny yourself the honour of your efforts by killing me in cold blood? I mean, where's the fun in that?!" The Lt. Commander near shouted the end of his sentence as he turned around to look at Llaus standing just in front of the doorway.

"Well now I don't have to shoot you in the back" Llaus retorted dryly.

Truthfully Llaus hadn't really thought how this would all play out. All he knew was that he wanted to kill this son of a bitch; honour was the last thing he cared about. Though the more they talked, the more he realized that he not only wanted to kill this central figure from the Regime, but he wanted to tear him apart limb from limb. He wanted to project all of his rage for the pain and suffering that had been inflicted on him and the Indigenous.

The Lt. Commander turned his back to Llaus once again, confident that he wouldn't shoot and clearly trying to buy himself some time. The uprising was a bit of a surprise, and the fact that it had escalated to this point was even more of a surprise, but this scenario was beyond anything he would have imagined. He needed to buy as much time as he could, or somehow even the playing field by coaxing this son of a bitch into a fist fight. He could sense that his comment about shooting him in the back had struck a chord so he would play the honour card as much as he could, even though he himself had no honour or sense of fairness. The fact that he was still alive was encouraging because if the shoe was on the other foot, he would have already pulled the trigger, multiple times.

"My Elite guards are on their way back as we speak. If you scan the horizon you can see them steaming back to the Fortress. They should be here within an hour or so and they'll make quick work of the uprising. Did you really think-- "

"Like I said earlier, I'm not here to talk and now my trigger fingers are getting itchy...." Llaus interrupted.

"Whoa... let's not do anything dishonourable. You're still pointing those things at my back"

"Then turn around..."

"If you were going to shoot me you would have done it already..." The Lt. Commander stated as he continued to look out over the horizon, stretching out every moment for as long as he could while he thought over and over about what he could do or say to prolong the conversation.

"I SAID TURN AROUND!!!" Llaus boomed.

The Lt. Commander flinched at the intensity of the command but obliged. As he started to turn he blurted out anything that came to mind, whether it was true or not, in a last-ditch effort to provoke a fight.

"She squealed more than you did, you know.... " He didn't know why he said what he did, he didn't even know who she was but for some reason in this instant, that's what came to mind.

Bang!

Bang!

Llaus unloaded 2 shots.

The Lt. Commander truly wasn't expecting to be shot in this moment so the suddenness of the gunfire caught him off-guard and caused him to close his eyes. He kept his eyes closed and scanned his body with his mind to see if he could identify where he'd been shot. He waited for the pain to set in and for the blood to start oozing out of his body.

He waited but nothing happened.

' _Maybe my body hasn't had time to process the pain yet'_ the Lt. Commander thought as he slowly opened his eyes just in time to see Llaus' foot flying directly at his face.

Llaus had purposely shot wide of his mark to cause a diversion and while the Lt. Commander was stunned by the gunfire, he placed his weapons on the ground and ran towards him with every intention of smashing his face with his foot. While he was running towards his mark, the last words the Lt. Commander said replayed over and over in his mind.

' _Who was she that he was talking about? Does he know more about my existence than he's letting on? Or were they just desperate words trying to instigate a fight?'_ he thought, though ultimately it didn't matter because he was going to beat him to a pulp and kill him either way.

Llaus lunged over the desk and planted the heel of his foot square between the eyes of the hulking Lt. Commander. The flying drop kick knocked the Lt. Commander flying backwards and his body toppled over and smashed up against the window that he had just been looking through. A trail of dust and smoke from the Elite guard extended to the sky from across the horizon, they were well on their way back to the Fortress but this fight would be resolved in a matter of moments.

After delivering the first blow, Llaus fell on top of the desk. He quickly stood up and positioned himself for the next blow. He formed a double fist with his hands and launched himself off the desk at the head of the Lt. Commander who was still reeling from the initial blow. The double-fisted punch landed square on the jaw and the momentum of his body continued, slamming into his side. Llaus quickly got up after delivering the second blow, not wanting to give his adversary the opportunity to grab any part of him. The Lt. Commander was much bigger and Llaus knew that he wouldn't win a grappling fight; he needed to be quick to land as many blows as he could until he beat the Lt. Commander into submission. Then he would retrieve his weapons and end it the way he had originally planned, with a bullet through his skull.

The Lt. Commander winced in pain, his face hurt, his jaw hurt and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself face down on the floor. For a very brief moment, he thought it was funny to see the room from this vantage point. Of all the years that he'd occupied this space, not once did he ever get this close to the floor, and yet here he was. A smile started to form on his lips as he lumbered to reposition his body in a way that would allow him to get up. He smiled not only because he thought it was funny that he was on the floor but because he had succeeded in initiating a fist fight. Sure he had taken a few wallops to start, but all he had to do was get his hands on the skinny little prick and it would be lights out.

"Well done... well donnnnnnne" he said before snorting out a laugh.

He couldn't remember the last time he had been hit like that. Of course, he took part in the occasional fist fighting event that the Regime would host but everyone he fought would only put in a half effort and never really truly fight back. Most likely because of his rank and reputation for taking the fights personally, he expected nothing less but it was still annoying.

He got to his feet slowly and wiped some blood off his upper lip. The world danced and swayed in front of him but he could clearly see his adversary standing on his desk.

"Sooo.... I guess this means that you're not going to shoot me in the back after all?... Just a running sucker punch instead..." he said condescendingly.

"First I'm going to break you then I'm going to throw you down to the Indigenous horde below so they can tear you apart like the maggot you are" Llaus shot back with a certain ferocity in his voice that even surprised himself.

"Is that so? Well I wish you all the best, now come show me just how TOUGH YOU REALLY ARE!!" The Lt. Commander screamed right before he lunged his large body towards Llaus, swinging and clawing as best he could to try and get a hand on him. Llaus had anticipated such a move and was poised and waiting. He quickly sidestepped the attempt and replied on his own with a swift kick to the face that knocked the Lt. Commander back.

"Ahhhh !!!!! Are you going to fight or just dance around like a princess? Get 'yer ass down here and put up your fists!" The Lt. Commander demanded as he spit up more blood.

Llaus knew that he could dance around and counter punch enough times to beat the Lt. Commander into submission but that would require a lot of time and patience, and he had neither at this point in time. Besides, he had some pent-up rage that he wanted to unload in a flurry of fists. He jumped down from the desk on the opposite side where he had entered the room, backed up into the open and mockingly curtsied for the Lt. Commander to join him in a dance.

"Well........" the Lt. Commander sneered.

"Looks like somebody grew a set!!"

The Lt. Commander lumbered his way out from behind his desk with the world still spinning in front of him, but now it looked like he would get his chance. He couldn't keep up with the speed and agility of the smaller human, and surprisingly his power was much more impactful than he anticipated, but all he needed do though was get his hands on him and this would be over in a hurry. Llaus stood motionless in the middle of the room, poised and ready to move and react to whatever situation would present itself.

The two foes stood across from each other for several moments, neither one speaking a word and neither one looking away from the other. It was like the prelude to an old-fashioned western shootout, only there weren't any guns, other than the few that Llaus had placed on the floor behind him before bull-rushing the Lt. Commander. Neither made a move. It was almost as if initiating the first move would be a resignation of defeat.

Then, the Lt. Commander leaned forward and started running towards Llaus like a rhinoceros charging at a predator. At the right moment, Llaus dropped to the ground on his back and planted his feet in the stomach of his rushing adversary. He had wanted to use his body as a pivot to lift the Lt. Commander up and over but he overestimated his own strength as the trials and tribulations to get to this point had sapped most of his core strength. Instead of flipping the Lt. Commander over, his legs buckled under the immense weight and he came crashing down on top of him.

Llaus tried to roll out of the way as quickly as he could but he wasn't fast enough and a large elbow clipped him in the ribcage. The blow sent pain throughout his entire body but he knew that it would pale in comparison to the pain he'd feel if he didn't quickly get out of reach. A giant hand swiped across his shoulder, grasping and clawing to grab hold but Llaus instinctively dropped his arms, rolled to his side and twisted away from the danger, or at least he thought he had. While he was content to have escaped the clutches of his hulking foe, he noticed that the Lt. Commander had continued to roll and crawl towards the entrance of the room. A surge of panic shot through his body as he realized that the Lt. Commander was headed straight for the guns he set down earlier.

' _After all the talk about honour and wanting to engage in a fair fight, would he dare use my guns against me?'_ Llaus thought, but the glance the Lt. Commander shot his way as he scrambled across the floor was all the proof he needed to know that that was his intention all along. He had no honour and there was no moral compass with his type. Llaus quickly got to his feet and sprinted across the room towards his guns while the Lt. Commander continued to scramble and crawl across the floor like the dog he was.

The Lt. Commander had amassed a sizeable lead before Llaus realized the gravity of the situation so he was able to get to the weapons first. He grabbed the first revolver he could get his hands on. It was small in his hands but just big enough for him to fit his finger through the trigger hole. He thought there was something oddly familiar about the revolver as the markings and engravings looked like something he had seen before, but maybe it was just his imagination on overdrive due to the intensity of the moment. He rolled over as quick as he could, trying to gauge where his enemy was. Certainly by now the human would have clued into what his intentions were.

But just as had happened before, as soon as he turned around Llaus was on him. The Lt. Commander lifted the revolver in his direction and pulled the trigger a mere split second before a foot came crashing against his face again. The shot just missed but he continued to fire shots all over the room as he desperately tried to end the conflict. Llaus grabbed hold of his giant arm and wrapped his legs around it to prevent him from being able to aim. The Lt. Commander thrashed and flailed his arm to try and shake off his opponent but he couldn't. Llaus held on like a bull rider, only this ride wouldn't end after 8 seconds. He lifted his arm and slammed it against the ground with Llaus's body taking the brunt of the blow. More shots were fired as they continued to struggle; some struck the ceiling, the desk, even the giant window but the glass didn't shatter.

Llaus somehow needed to get the gun out of his hand but he was doing his best just to hang on. It was only a matter of time before he lost his grip so he placed a chunk of forearm into his mouth and bit down as hard as he could. The metallic taste of blood rushed onto his lips and into his mouth.

"You MOTHERFU--!!!" the Lt. Commander bellowed as he released the gun and grabbed onto Llaus with his free hand. Finally, he had him in his grasp. He pulled him into his chest and squeezed as hard as he could.

Llaus knew he was in trouble and he began pounding on the Lt. Commander's chest. He tried to squirm out of the vice-like grips of the much bigger and stronger rival but no matter how hard he tried, the Lt. Commander wouldn't relinquish his grip. Like a small animal caught in a leg trap, he grabbed at the restraint, pounded on it and even tried to bite again but this time the Lt. Commander used his other hand to push his face away.

Sensing that he had a good grip on his prey and the tide of the fight was turning in his favour, the Lt. Commander began to laugh maniacally as he dragged Llaus over to the window. He would end this fight soon enough by choking out his adversary, much like he had wanted to do in the cave when he first met him, but for now he wanted to have a little fun.

' _So much for being something special'_ the Lt. Commander thought to himself.

"You know I let you escape from the Fortress, don't you?..." he whispered into Llaus' ear as he grabbed his hair and pushed his face up against the window so he could look out at the plains.

"I thought there was something special about you so I let you get away. I was hoping you'd lead me to something bigger, that you might lead me to the core of the Indigenous resistance but instead you come right back to me, for more punishment. I thought there was more to you but you're just a punk, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And now I'm going to snuff out your life like I should have done a long time ago. But before I do, I want to show you what the sight of inevitability looks like" he said as he pressed Llaus's face further into the window. Llaus had no option but to look out over the vast plains.

"My troops are less than an hour away and the Thunderbirds will be rolling in soon; you can see them in the sky, can't you?" The Lt. Commander said as he twisted Llaus's neck upwards so he could see the smoke trail in the sky.

"This little uprising is over. Now it's just a matter of deciding what to do with you.... Or rather, how to end you" The foul stench of his breath only worsened the already tumultuous situation.

"I could squash your face into this glass until your brains spurt out your ears..." he said as he pressed harder against the glass. Llaus could feel the pressure mounting against his forehead.

"Buuuuuuuuut, after all the trouble you've caused, I think you deserve something a little more special and elaborate" he said while drawing out the last letter of the word as he seemingly only did when he was in a position of power and control.

"ESCAPE POD READY" a loud voice boomed out from all over the room.

The suddenness startled the Lt. Commander ever so slightly and he flinched just enough so that Llaus could sense a slight release. Like a fish caught in the talons of an eagle, Llaus had let his body go limp until the right moment when he would give everything he had left in a last-ditch effort to escape. This was that moment and Llaus pounced on what could be his last attempt to escape. He pushed off the glass with his head and legs then flexed his core while squirming in a frenzy to try and break the clutches of his nemesis. It worked enough to free up one of his arms and he instantly thrust his hand back towards the face of the Lt. Commander, reaching for any type of leverage that might help him get away. His fingers scored a direct hit as they burrowed deep into the soft fleshy portion of the right eye socket. The Lt. Commander howled in pain as he lifted his hands to his face, dropping Llaus to the ground in the process.

"AHHHHH!!! YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!" He screeched as his right eye dangled out of its socket with blood pouring down his face.

"I'M GOING TO CRUSH YOU !!!!!!"

Llaus made the most of his opportunity to get away and he ducked behind the desk towards the front of the room. The Lt. Commander stumbled and screamed while he frantically tried to push the eye back into its socket.

"You SON OF A BITCH !! Get 'yer ASS over here!!" he yelled as he began rummaging through his desk drawers.

' _I bet he has a weapon stashed in there'_ Llaus thought, so in an instant he leaped over the desk and lunged at the Lt. Commander who was paying more attention to looking through the desk drawer rather than where his opponent was. Llaus went directly for the other eye; he hadn't planned on gouging out eyes as a means of fighting but after the Lt. Commander broke the unwritten code of honour, all was fair game. Besides, it had worked better than he had expected.

Once again, Llaus's fingers found their mark as he plunged them deep into the oversized left eye socket. The Lt. Commander fell back and instantly grabbed at his face again, this time with another eye dangling from its socket for him to play with.

Llaus slid away from arm's reach and stood up against the window, wiping the blood from his hands on the sides on his pants. He stood there as the Lt. Commander wailed in pain and stumbled around like a drunken sailor. The Lt. Commander grabbed both his dangling eyes and tried to push them back into his head, as if that would miraculously cause them to work again. A smile formed on Llaus's face as he basked in the screams of pain that he had inflicted. He savored the sight of each drop of blood that fell to the ground. The fight was over. It wasn't _when_ he would finish him off, more a question of _how_.

Llaus spotted an old wooden staff across the room that was on display as if it were some sort of treasured memento. It had carvings and markings on it that reminded him of the Indigenous and he assumed that it likely originated from them.

' _Maybe it was stolen at some point during the war or perhaps it was given as a gift of peace when the Regime first landed on this planet.'_

Llaus thought how ironic it would be to use that to deliver the final blows. Even if he was wrong about the origin, it would still do the trick. He wanted to walk triumphantly across the room but he knew how quickly the tide had turned for his adversary so he quickly made his way across the room and grabbed the staff. The Lt. Commander continued to flail around on the ground while launching insults at his opponent, whom he would never see again.

Llaus made his way back across the room as silently as possible and positioned himself several feet behind the Lt. Commander. But perhaps he wasn't quiet enough because the Lt. Commander turned and lunged as quickly as he could in that direction with his arms outstretched like a fishing net, looking for the familiar texture of a live body. He was never going to see again but he still had some fight left in him.

Llaus quickly ducked out of the way and in the same continuous motion, swung the staff with all his might, shattering the bones of the Lt. Commander's upper left arm and ripping the ligaments apart.

The Lt. Commander howled in agony as his left arm drooped into a useless limb. The blow didn't stop his trajectory though and he smashed face first into the wall with an awkward thud. Llaus seized the opportunity to strike again and he quickly jumped up and swung the staff, crushing the other shoulder. The blow made a sickening pop as the ligaments that once held the bone together were unwound like a guitar string letting go. Now the Lt. Commander, already missing his two eyes was also missing the functional use of both of his arms. Nevertheless, he didn't concede and he continued his verbal tirade of curses and insults. Somehow, he managed to use the wall to help lift himself to his feet yet again and he started lunging forward with his feet swan kicking, like a German officer. For a very brief moment, the sight struck Llaus as even being somewhat comical, but the job wasn't done yet. He rolled across the floor as silently as he could, out of harm's way and prepared for his final assault. With two precise and accurate swings, Llaus smashed and broke both of the Lt. Commander's knees, toppling him over and sending him to the ground. Without the use of his arms to break his fall, he landed face first onto the floor, breaking his nose and smashing his teeth. He fell silent and didn't move as blood seeped from the wounds on his head and spread across the floor. Llaus thought that he was either dead or knocked unconscious from the impact. He approached slowly, still apprehensive despite the severity of his injuries since the Lt. Commander was wily and ruthless. If there was anything he could do, no matter how dishonourable, he would do it.

Llaus poked the Lt. Commander's body with the staff, looking for any signs of life. He wedged the staff underneath the torso and used it to flip his body over. His chest was still moving up and down every so often so he was still breathing.

"Make it quick.... You owe at least that much to me....." the Lt. Commander exhaled in an exhausted tone of submission, his body broken from limb to limb.

"I don't owe you anything" Llaus shot back.

"In fact, the slower and more painful you die, the better it is... but... I'm going to grant your wish because it serves a greater purpose..." Llaus said, and those were the last words that he would ever speak to the Lt. Commander.

In a deliberately rough manner, Llaus grabbed the Lt. Commander's hair with both of his hands and began to drag him across the floor. The Lt. Commander, despite his earlier admission of submission, swung his limbs in an attempt to grab at Llaus but they were useless. A trail of blood followed the nearly dead body across his great room, a place where once he would plot and make plans on how to kill the many Indigenous of the planet. And now he was the one that was nearly dead with someone else plotting how to kill him.

"Where are you taking me?... let go of me... just take 'yer damn gun and finish this !!" The Lt. Commander shouted with anger.

Llaus struggled a bit with dragging such a large mass by the hair across the room but the satisfaction he held inside was all the incentive he needed to carry on. He dragged him across the room, past the main desk and out through the doors he had entered.

Outside of the room, Llaus looked down the spiraling helix of stairs that wound themselves up the tower. The middle portion of the tower was wide open and stretched all the way down to the dungeon area where war was still being waged between the Indigenous and the guards. Llaus looked over the edge, and what looked like several miles below him, he could see a horde of Indigenous that looked like the size of ants. He wasn't sure which side was winning but he knew that the next revelation would clinch it either way.

In one swift motion, Llaus summoned all of his strength, reached down and somehow managed to lift the Lt. Commander over his head, the dangling limbs flapped like a soldier waving a white flag. Llaus held the body over his head, pausing for a moment to absorb the triumph of what had been accomplished. Then with one last heave, he launched the Lt. Commander over the edge, sending his near lifeless body plummeting towards the horde below. The descent lasted longer than he had expected but it ended with a sickening thud that could be heard all the way up to the top of the tower. The Lt. Commander's body hit the ground in the dungeon below and exploded like a water balloon being pierced and releasing its inner contents.
Chapter 6: Sentient

Llaus stood motionless for a while and watched as the scene unfolded below. It looked like the horde of Indigenous was shredding and tearing apart any remnants of the Lt. Commander's mangled and broken corpse. It also looked like they had assumed full control of the bottom floor and were organizing the next part of their escape.

But the overwhelming sense of satisfaction was cut short by the roar of several Thunderbird aircraft flying in formation past the tower. Llaus rushed back into the room and over to the window where he could see that the Elite guards that once were way off in the distance, were now on the direct horizon in front of him and likely only a mere few minutes from returning to the base. They certainly knew about the uprising, but there's no way they could have known that the Lt. Commander was dead.

' _Do they know what kind of resistance awaits them? Could the Indigenous win this battle? Or would it be another blood bath victory for the Regime, the latest chapter of the epic saga between the Regime and the Indigenous?'_ Llaus wondered as he looked out across the plains and pondered his next move. Though the end goal was always to kill the Lt. Commander, and he firmly believed that he would, he hadn't really thought of what he would do next. He didn't anticipate this playing out like it did, where he would have a chance to help and liberate an oppressed species, one that appeared to have done nothing wrong, other than be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"ESCAPE POD READY!!"

A monotone voice cried out over the loudspeaker in the room, the very same voice that had momentarily startled the Lt. Commander just enough to turn the tide of their battle.

' _Escape pod?....'_ Llaus thought. He certainly knew that the Regime had the technology to get off this planet but he figured that any attempt for him to do so would either require hijacking or hiding away in another craft. The thought of being able to evacuate within a few moments was tantalizing.

' _Should I stay and fight to help liberate the Indigenous?... then what?... try and track down the deity again?... For what purpose..?_ ' Scenario after scenario played out in his mind but he kept circling back to the same few questions.

' _Where was I headed and why can't I remember anything from my past?'_

Then several loud explosions shook the tower; the Elite guards were back and beginning to storm the Fortress. Llaus knew that many of the Indigenous were killed during the uprising; he also knew that the likelihood of defeating the Elite guard in its entirety would be slim if not next to impossible, even with their superior advantage of occupying the Fortress (or at least a portion of it).

But Llaus knew that he had given them hope.

And they believed.

They were fighting for their freedom, and many times that was more powerful than a mercenary, such as the Elite guards, whose only allegiance is to their pay cheque.

"ESCAPE POD READY!!" the voice sounded out again.

There it was again, the answer. Llaus knew this would be his only chance to escape the planet and despite the conflict within, he needed to seize the opportunity. Snapping out of the internal debate that waged within his mind, Llaus turned away from the window and back towards the door where he had entered.

' _Where is this Escape Pod that I keep hearing about?... The Lt. Commander must have sensed that there was at least the chance for things to get out of control otherwise he wouldn't have initiated the launch sequence'_ he thought as he scanned the room. Close to the entrance was another door that he hadn't seen before, or more likely had missed since his primary focus was to kill the Lt. Commander.

More explosions shook the tower and the floor swayed back and forth; the bombardment would be relentless until the Regime could penetrate their stronghold. Llaus knew that time was of the essence; he didn't feel as though the resistance would last for a very long time.

In hindsight, perhaps the horde of Indigenous would have fared better running through the caves under the Fortress, just as he had used to get in. But at least this way they would die fighting for their freedom, something that wasn't available to them less than a few hours ago as they rotted in their cells, waiting for the end to come.

Llaus darted across the room quickly, collecting the revolvers and the staff he used to break the Lt. Commander. He didn't know his past but he was determined not to forget anything moving forward. The staff would always remind him of his time on this planet.

' _Am I running away because I'm afraid?'_ He questioned himself and his motives like a psychiatrist as he moved through the door into a small room. Directly in front of him was a small spacecraft, primed and ready to launch, waiting for someone to attend it.

' _Why am I turning my back on the Indigenous at the very moment they need me the most?_

' _Why do I feel like I owe them anything? I could have left them in their cells and carried on with my journey...'_ Llaus couldn't quite figure out why he felt such an attachment all of a sudden. Perhaps it was because he knew what fate held for them or perhaps it was because he knew that he could help them and he felt the guilt of abandoning them in their time of need. Or maybe he felt like he had used them for his own selfish gains.

Still debating his true intentions, Llaus continued to go through the motions of preparing to leave. He looked over the shuttle; the lines connected to it steamed and hissed like they were announcing that they were primed and ready to engage the launch sequence. There was only one seat in the craft and it had very limited space behind it for whatever provisions the occupant would want to bring. It wasn't very big, perhaps the size of a small compact car with just enough room for one.

Llaus climbed up several stairs that led to the cockpit and surveyed the controls. The dash was lit up with screens and buttons, very similar to the spacecraft that he had been in before. He had no clue how to use any of the controls nor did he even know how to engage the launch sequence. He was hoping that everything would just work automatically, and from the fighting he could hear below, he was hoping it would be soon.

Another loud explosion sounded from below, this time it was closer than before, almost as if the Fortress wall had been breached and whatever munitions that were being fired were now penetrating inside.

Climbing into the cockpit would prove to be difficult since the shuttle was facing upwards in a vertical direction but Llaus stepped inside and managed to position his body so that he was sitting correctly. The seat was made for a much larger being but he managed to position his body as best as he could.

Buttons were blinking and screens were flashing on the dash in front of him. He had no idea which was the right one to push or if there was a sequence that he needed to follow. One button in particular caught his eye though; it was larger than the others and it seemed to flash more frequently and with a brighter light. It almost begged him to push it.

He reached over and placed his hand on the button but hesitated for a moment before pushing down. The internal debate raged on; he wasn't sure if he paused because he was afraid of pushing a wrong button or if he was afraid of starting a process that there would be no coming back from.

With his hand hovering over the button, another explosion, even louder than the previous one shook the entire room. Within a few seconds of that, several aircraft screamed past the tower. The Elite guard was closing in; it was only a matter of time. With that thought in mind, Llaus pushed down hard on the button. Instantly a loud squealing noise started as the ceiling above him started to open like rose petals reaching out to the sun in the early morning. The steps that he used to get into the cockpit retreated and the thrusters beneath him started to rumble and engage. Llaus reached behind, grabbed a restraining device and pulled it over his shoulders. With the roof more than halfway open, Llaus could easily see a dozen Thunderbirds circling the tower above.

' _Would they be able to shoot me down?' h_ e thought, not that it mattered now anyway, whatever was going to happen would happen.

He sat in his seat and waited impatiently for the remainder of the roof to open, being idle for so long made him feel vulnerable and exposed. Once the roof was completely open he braced for takeoff, assuming that he had done everything necessary to launch the small craft, but instead, he just sat there, waiting.

' _Something is wrong..._

' _I should have launched by now... Maybe I need to push another button?'_ he thought as he frantically looked on the dash for something obvious to push. Then, just as he was scrolling over the dash something caught his attention in the sky. It was some type of helicopter and it was starting to fly over the tower.

' _They're on to me... I need to get out of here !!'_ he thought

"Launch you son of a bitch !!! Go GO GO GO!!" he yelled as he rocked back and forth in the cockpit seat, trying to urge the spacecraft onwards and upwards.

The helicopter hovered in the sky well above the tower and away from the predicted flight path, but it was descending and getting closer. Llaus could clearly see an Elite guard hanging out over the edge of the helicopter with a big mounted gun pointed towards him.

"Lt. Commander, this is Tango Alpha Niner in open air space. We have you in our sight, please confirm your identity and intentions. We just want to make sure there isn't a malfunction and everything is okay down there, over." the loudspeaker in the cockpit suddenly interjected.

Llaus froze in his seat, afraid to make any movement at all, but still he continued to scour the dash for something obvious to launch the spacecraft. Several moments later, another message was broadcast.

"Sir, you have not responded to any of our requests, is everything ok? Are you in the cockpit or is it malfunctioning, over?"

Llaus continued to sit motionless as the helicopter continued its slow and cautious descent towards the top of the tower. The Elite guard sat poised with his hand on the trigger of the big gun, ready to unleash the fury of his weapon, though he was certainly unnerved by the thought of pointing his gun at what could be the Lt. Commander.

"Sir... Please identify yourself... This is your last chance or we will be required to open fire, per your evacuation protocol, over" the voice said somewhat timidly, purposely citing where the directive came from.

Llaus knew he was out of time so he began pounding on the dash and the door simultaneously, frantically trying to initiate or abort the launch sequence, whatever came first.

"Do something!!! Let's Go !!!! Launch !!! Launch !! Launch!!" Llaus shouted as he continued to pound on the dash.

"LAUNCH NOW!!!!!!"

As soon as he yelled those words, the thrusters underneath erupted. The shuttle stuttered for a split second then shot off the platform like a cannon. In an instant, it screamed past the helicopter which had descended close enough to the platform so that Llaus could see their reaction as he rocketed past them. The gunman had tried to pivot the gun so he could shoot the craft as it went roaring by but he was too late.

At the same time, a laser shot out from the top of the Fortress and pierced the atmosphere, parting the cloud cover to allow the escape pod to pass through without being disrupted by the intense gravity that it created. The acceleration pinned Llaus to his seat but he was able to turn his head enough to see the base of the tower completely engulfed in flames. He had survived the clutches of the Regime, for now, but many hadn't and his heart sank as the blackness of space slowly swallowed the spacecraft.

###

ABOUT

jOvian veiL is a Hard Rock album written in unison with a Science Fiction Novella (Series)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to acknowledge the following individuals who helped bring this project together

Michael Herbert

You're a great friend and I sincerely appreciate the countless hours you've invested in this project. Thank you for everything you do!

Jen

Thank you for being such a supportive and understanding wife.

Avery

For your creative input, enthusiasm and artistic talent. So thankful you're part of this project.

Payton

For being one of my biggest supporters.

Dave Manners

Thank you for your proofreading skills.

And to the many other friends and family that have inspired and supported me over the years. It's been a long time coming but all in the right time...

