Part I: The Nightmare

Traveling through a vast night sky, the Andromeda Ascendant awaits its next challenge toward the rebuilding of the New Commonwealth. As the glorious silver craft soars undisturbed, the same cannot be said of Tyr Anasazi. He lies in his bed, asleep... sweating and groaning. Visions of an attack are swirling through his subconscious. Nietzscheans prides, the Kodiak and the Drago-Kazov, have their guns turned on one another. The Kodiak women and children running and hiding, trying to take cover. The blood from the fallen soaks the ground and the wounded are unfortunately left to suffer. They are seen as inferior and their failure to survive will not be tolerated... that is, if any of them live to rebuild their quickly dwindling pride. Through the chaos, Tyr's visions focus on a man... a tall, dark-skinned Nietzschean alpha male; intimidating and undeniably brutal. He is being attacked from all sides, yet he seems virtually unable to be defeated. One after another, he cuts his enemies down, leaving carnage in his wake. He feels this battle is in his pride's favor and soldiers onward. This is the notion that is blocking out the feelings of fatigue and the excruciating pain of his wounds. After slaying the last of the enemy warriors, he lets out a powerful growl announcing that he is victorious. When it seems the Drago-Kazov's numbers are lessening, suddenly a second wave of attackers come charging toward him in full force. He fears that he and his pride will pay for his premature prediction and feverishly tries to gather what's left his family, as do the others. Ducking rapid gunfire by hiding behind trees and crouching under the brush, he heads for a small cottage.

"Victoria!!" he cries out, hoping he will not be struck down before she hears him. "Victoria!!" he cries out again.

Crouching on the floor, away from the window, a beautiful, dark-skinned, but fair-complexed Nietzschean woman sits, motionless. Cradled in her arms is her 13 year old son. She hears a voice in the distance calling her name. She lifts up her head to get a better listen and after signaling to her son to stay put, she slowly creeps to the window for a quick glimpse outside. She sees a man being shot at, running at break-neck speed toward the house. She realizes this is her husband.

"Babarossa... we are here!!" she replies. "Hurry!!"

Relieved by the sound of his wife's voice, he heads for the cottage. The gunfire is more intensified now as he is no longer able to out run it. With about a dozen Dragons on his tail, he decides to turn and stand his ground. Fighting valiantly, their bodies are dropping one right after the other and when it seemed the last had fallen, he continues his retreat to the cottage. Unbeknownst to him, nestled in the trees, a Dragon has his gun aimed on him and has prepared his shot. He pulls the trigger, and the blast shatters the side of Babarossa's cranium. His death was almost instant. Victoria screams out in anguish as her husband's body falls to the earth. The Dragon, not even a second into his celebration of the death of alpha male he had slain, hears his chance for an additional notch on his belt. He motions to the rest of his pride that more potential victims lie inside the cottage, but assures them that he can handle this alone.

Victoria, left without the chance to mourn her dead husband, quickly turns her attention to the survival of her and her son at all cost. Seeing the Dragon approaching, she safely tucks away her son beneath the house by removing some floorboards.

"Stay here, my son" Victoria says as reassuringly as she possibly could. "No matter what you hear, no matter how bad it might sound... do not come out of hiding." "You must stay strong for me and... and for your father." "Do you understand?"

The boy nods in compliance. She presses her forehead close to his and looks upon him as if this might be the last time she sees his face. Before she could get too emotional, she hastily replaces the floorboards.

Drawing the last ounce of strength she has left, she waits for her assailant to enter. As he walks through the door, she spreads her bone spurs and with one forceful thrust, she plunges them into his abdomen. His cries of pain send an alert to the rest of the pride who, in turn, heads toward the cottage. Victoria, overwhelmed by their number, deduces that she should flee in an opposite direction to divert attention away from the cottage and away from her son. Thinking she could out race them, she makes a run for it out the back and into the woods. The Dragons see her entering the woods and are in hot pursuit.

The boy, worried about his mother and thinking he's alone in the cottage, lifts up the floorboards and wiggles out of his hiding place. He has nothing on his mind but revenge for his father's death and wanting safety for his mother in her current situation. He grabs the knife of the Dragon that his mother left dead on the floor and heads in the woods to help her any way he could.

The running seemed like it took forever. All the scenery looked the same... a revolting combination of green leaves and grasses saturated with blood and the ground littered with stiffening corpses. He felt he would never find his mother, that is until he heard some faint voices in the distance. He peered from behind a tree to see his mother, tied to a tree, surrounded by the Drago-Kazov. They've captured her.

"You killed Moloch, Kodiak bitch!!" shouted the Drago ringleader, hitting her in the face with the back of his fist.

Blood is drizzling from her bottom lip, but Victoria absorbs the force of the blow, not allowing herself to shed a tear in pain. She will not give them the satisfaction of seeing her become weak.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... and a life for a life." she says, sneering at them. "He killed my husband, you Dragon bastard!" and she spits blood in his face.

The ringleader is angered and disgusted by her act of defiance. He grabs her by the throat, and presses a sharp knife blade against her windpipe. She starts to breathe heavily, feeling the fear in her creep up her spine. Reading her current emotional state like a book, he starts to laugh.

"Is that... fear I smell on you?" he said, chuckling in her ear. "Oh, I can't tell you how much I am going to enjoy watching you die." "Very...much...indeed." He presses the blade further into her flesh as the others anticipate the impending execution.

"Any last words, Kodiak bitch?" sneered the Drago ringleader.

Out the corner of her eye, she catches a glimpse her son looking on from behind a tree. She lets the fear overtake her, but not for her own safety, but for the safety of her son. He is frozen as his and her eyes lock on one another. It was like she put him under a spell. Under her breath, she lets a single word pass her quivering lips...

"Tyr."

Her throat is slit from ear to ear shortly afterwards.

Tyr awakens immediately in a cold sweat.