AUTHOR'S NOTE(S):

After a ridiculously long planning phase that went through multiple variations, the sequel to The Oasis is finally here. I would have liked to write this is such a way that it wouldn't have been necessary to read The Oasis in order to understand what's going on in this story, but that didn't happen. So, let me try to summarize The Oasis for those of you who haven't read it...

Sorry, but I don't think that's possible. The Oasis was such a sprawling mess until about the halfway point that it's virtually impossible to sum it up in anything resembling a concise manner. So, if you want to understand some of the factions, locations, and plot elements, you'll need to have read The Oasis. That's not to say that you can't read this one if you haven't read the former story. Just be forewarned that there is going to be quite a bit that you're not going to fully understand.

Also, the Iridium Chronicle is now gone. The reason for this (apart from the atrocious writing) is that this story is its spiritual successor and will reintroduce many of the elements and characters from the chronicle into The Oasis AU timeline. So, if you liked Iridium, you might be able to get into this one as well.

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① Nocturne ①

Two weeks after the Cerinia incident...

The silent air in the bridge of the Ichtosian battlecruiser Amethyst hinted at the blank emotions of the ship's crew as they began their return to their homeworld following the conflict on and above Cerinia. The vast expanse of space yawned ahead of the ship, with the streaks of stars creating a dreamy, if nauseating view through the front windows. With the lights in the bridge down apart from the multicolored control panels where a number of crew members monitored the Amethyst's vital systems, relative darkness shrouded the area.

In the back corner of the bridge, Brigadier General Irena Volkchelovek sat alone in a red chair with her safety belt fastened around her waist. In contrast with her Cerinian campaign attire, the red and gray-furred coywolf wore a dull gray set of fatigues that appeared bland apart from the numerous medals and pins that covered her left breast pocket. The other crew members in the area occasionally shot her a passing glance, but ignored her for the most part. While she could command attention if she so desired, now was not one of those times. With the ship traveling through space at the maximum speed that its lightdrive engines were capable of providing, she sighed and took the time to reflect on the events of the previous two weeks.

In her mind, the campaign had been a failure of sorts. Although the Demiurge no longer lived to threaten the people of the known universe, over 750,000 of her own soldiers had been killed in the skirmish. Only making matters worse was the fact that she had found out about Felix Sparta's prior knowledge of the Demiurge's Seismic Rupture Device from one of Gaia's mercenaries. She had relayed the information to her Supreme Commander, but had not heard anything back from him regarding what he intended to do with it. On top of it all, the planet now existed in five floating chunks, with nearly all of its native peoples, wildlife, and vegetation wiped out by the cataclysm caused by the Seismic Rupture Device.

Part of her felt sickened that the decision had been made to dig up the salvageable pieces of the planet in hopes of extracting the valuable rare earth materials that supposedly made up a large portion of the planet's composition. In her mind, tearing the remnants of the planet apart after its destruction did not feel much different than beginning the mining operation with the planet and its people still intact. Despite the unfriendly natives, Irena viewed Cerinia as one of the most naturally beautiful places she had ever visited; and as a result, she felt somewhat devastated to see it reduced to its current state.

But she had other things to focus on at this point. With her job on Cerinia finished and her return to Ichtos guaranteed, she knew that a meeting with her Commander awaited her. A faint smile crossed her muzzle at the thought, which hinted at the special relationship that she shared with him. While most of his subordinates feared and respected him, she interacted with him on a personal level that most of his men could never hope to aspire to.

For a moment, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled. It would be good to be home after having spent two weeks around the hostile world of Cerinia. Opening her eyes again, she glanced towards the front of the bridge and raised an eyebrow when the ship suddenly lurched and began to decelerate. The panicked commotion of the pilots and officers at the front of the bridge alerted her to the reality of a legitimate emergency.

"Then again, this ship has had lightdrive problems before."

Refusing to take action for the moment, Irena focused her keen ears on the commotion in front of her. The stars in front of the ship began to slow down until the long streaks of light became dull blurs that dissipated as the ship exited superluminal. Over the din, she heard one of the pilots shout out, "Gravitational anomaly detected! Emergency deceleration activated!"

As the ship slowed to its subluminal cruising speed, Irena stared in shock at the sight that presented itself through the ship's front windows. The other crew members spotted it at the same time, with the bridge growing eerily silent as they locked eyes on the object that had thrown off their interstellar transit – a black planet illuminated only by six geometrically symmetrical blue streaks converging around a large central circle. No city lights broke up the darkness of the planet's surface, which appeared to be mostly covered with dense forests.

"This isn't supposed to be here," the ship's husky pilot deadpanned. "There's nothing on our star chart mentioning a planet between Cerinia and Ichtos. What the hell?"

"It doesn't matter what the chart says – if it exists, it exists. This changes nothing. We'll just have to clear the planetary gravitational field and then we'll be back on our way again," his co-pilot growled.

Shaking his head, the pilot replied, "You're right. I just don't like the look of…"

Without warning, the Amethyst shook violently, throwing the pilot to the ground after he unfastened his seatbelt and stood up to get a better view of the strange planet.

"I don't believe it! It's a gravity well! It's pulling us in!"

Irena's eyes widened. Raising her voice, she barked, "What do you mean? How is that possible?"

"I don't know!" the pilot shouted, abandoning all forms of professionalism in his desperation. Turning back to the ship's controls, he ordered, "Activate the emergency auxiliary thrusters! We're not going to let this thing take us down!"

A thundering reverberation resounded through the ship as the auxiliary engines roared into life. The massive battlecruiser listed to the left as the thrust from the engines took effect, but as the pilot increased thrust to the right side emergency engines, the descent towards the planet's surface only seemed to increase. While the pilot sat with his jaw hanging open in terror, an earsplitting alarm blared in the ship's bridge, along with an automated voice emotionlessly declaring, "Warning – hull integrity compromised. Repair immediately."

A sickening crunch and a secondary vibration cut off the robotic voice, but the temporary silence meant only one thing – that the ship had been ripped into two pieces. As a confirmation of the crew's worst fears, the ship's front status readout blazed red and indicated that all power to the ship's engines had been lost, along with the rear half of the vessel. In addition, a secondary alarm chirped out a warning that the ship's oxygen supply was gradually and rapidly being sucked out the back of the ship's severed hull.

With nothing to prevent its descent, the doomed Amethyst rotated to face the planet as the gravity from the planet's surface continued to pull it down. As the dark world grew large in the ship's windows and the mesospheric flames began to flicker across the bridge exterior, Irena held her head in her hands; and despite having never believed in the supernatural, she silently prayed for her survival, knowing that her death was almost certain at this point. The shattered warship careened through the atmosphere with a ferocity that would have sent the crew flying across the bridge had they not been strapped into their seats.

In seconds, the ship broke through the ionosphere into the dark, rainy skies above the planet. The ground loomed larger with every split second, seemingly inviting the Amethyst's crew to their graves.

"This is it – this is the end," Irena sobbed, hoping that no one would notice her as she held her head in her hands and dug her claws into her skin.

A moment later, all sound and movement ceased; and her world faded to black as the warship slammed into the planet's surface.

A throbbing pain shot through Irena's head as she slowly opened her eyes. Placing a hand on her head, she recoiled in horror when she felt the sensation of warm blood on her fingers. The view of her hand did nothing to improve her mood. In addition, her left arm felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer. Multiple ribs on her left side screamed in pain, and she noticed that the gash in her forehead was not the only part of her body that had suffered a laceration of some sort. The torn fabric of her left pant leg suggested multiple gashes in her skin.

Deciding that she did not want to find out if she had sustained more injuries than she was already aware of, she looked around at the wreckage of the bridge in front of her.

It wasn't much of an improvement.

Twisted metal surrounded her, and exposed wires hung from the walls, sending out a shower of sparks every few seconds. From what she could tell, the only reason she had managed to survive was because the area where she had been sitting miraculously collapsed into a hollow cocoon of scrap metal, whereas the rest of the ship's frame had smashed everyone and everything in its path. Even the crew members who hadn't been crushed by the impact lay dead on the ground around Irena, thanks to the overwhelming g-forces of the collision with the ground. Seeing her fellow crew members dead around her, she wondered how she could have possibly survived. She briefly considered that her desperate prayer had been answered, but she quickly dismissed the notion as a trifling superstition.

Despite the temporary thrill of having survived what should have been a fatal accident, living through the crash gave her very little comfort. She knew that any fighters or transports in the Amethyst's hangar would have been destroyed along with the mothership, meaning that whether she liked it or not, there would be no escape from the strange, dark planet. In some ways, she wished that she had been crushed during the ship's collision with the ground. At least that death would have been quick, if rather painful.

Her attention was diverted to the sound of falling rain dripping onto the floor nearby. Although almost no light filled the area, she could vaguely make out a small hole in the ceiling from where part of the bridge's frame had buckled. Seeing the gap gave her the hope of escaping the ship, although she had no idea if surviving outside was even possible. At the very least, the air seemed breathable, even though it felt heavy and painfully humid. Apart from the intense moisture in the air, Irena noticed the humidity level when she took a quick look at the fur on her right arm and frowned at the frizzy mess that it had become with almost no provocation from anything apart from the elements around her. The balmy temperature only added to the humid misery; and Irena's first order of business after standing up was to shed her jacket and strip down to the cutoff black tank top that she wore under her fatigues.

Moving towards the gap in the roof, she looked up and breathed a sigh of relief when she noted that it would be more than wide enough for her to escape through. On the other hand, the gap was five feet above her head. Silently cursing her half-coyote bloodline that caused her to only reach a height of five feet and one inch, she set to work pulling some of the scrap metal from the immediate area into the center of the floor in an attempt to use it as a makeshift ladder. After thirty minutes of dragging around sheet metal and suffering numerous cuts, she pulled herself out of the gap in the top of the bridge and stood on the top of the wrecked battlecruiser's fuselage.

The area around her resembled a tropical rain forest, with towering trees looming over her and a veritable monsoon soaking her from head to toe. In the skies above her, massive black clouds obscured any view of the starry sky. Almost no ambient light presented itself to Irena, forcing her eyes to adjust themselves to the near-complete darkness of the surrounding area. For a moment, a massive lightning strike crashed through the heavens and struck a tree several miles out, sending a forceful sound wave through the humid air. For the split second that the lightning bolt was visible, Irena thought she saw a colossal tower in the distance. Despite seeing no signs of civilization around her, she felt that she was not alone. She knew that it was not by accident that the Amethyst had been pulled to the planet's surface; and as a reflex, she reached for her belt and placed her right hand on her handgun.

"At least I've got something to defend myself with," she muttered to herself.

Carefully working her way down the ship's wrecked hull, she jumped to the wet turf below and scanned the area for any signs of life. She knew that staying with the ship would likely be the best option in her situation, but she knew that at some point, any supplies she could retrieve would be depleted.

"I'd better make sure that I'm not the only one who survived. Even if everyone else is dead, I still need to find a way into the armory and the pantry. I have a feeling I'm going to need the contents of both."

The ship stretched for over a quarter mile in front of her – at least, what was left of the ship's front half. The aft section of the vessel was nowhere to be found. Even though Irena had the feeling it was nearby, she knew that both the armory and the pantry were located a third of the way down the hull.

Numerous fallen trees brought down by the ship made traversing the wreckage difficult, but after working her way to the intended area, she found a male alsatian crawling out of the wreckage. He looked just as wounded as Irena did, with bloody cuts and bruises that were likely only the beginning of his injuries. Wincing and standing up, he noticed Irena out of the corner of his eye and jumped. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he recognized his commanding officer and hobbled towards her. He did a double take when he noticed her bare midriff, but he averted his eyes for fear of angering her.

Irena glanced at the tag on his military jacket, read the title "Captain Arzt," and immediately felt a twinge of relief knowing that she was not the only surviving officer. Given her situation, she likely would have treated him much differently if he had been a private. Feeling her spirits rising somewhat, she looked Arzt in the eyes and asked, "Is anyone else alive that you're aware of?"

The captain returned a grim scowl. "Private Mason and Lance Corporal Khudozhnik are the only two that I've seen. Everyone else is either dead or about to be dead. How did you survive? Your part of the ship hit the ground the hardest."

Irena shook her head. "I have no idea, Captain, but you should be glad that I'm still alive. We need to access the armory if possible. Can you get to it?"

Arzt nodded. "Yes. I already have Mason and Khudozhnik trying to salvage any weapons that are still functional."

"What about the pantry?"

"That's fubar."

Irena curled the corner of her mouth. "That's just great. Well, I thought I saw a few fruit trees around here anyway. Maybe it won't be a problem."

"Food is the least of our concerns right now. We have to get off this planet somehow," Arzt replied.

Irena placed a hand on her hip. "On that note, did you try to contact Command, by any chance?"

"Yes, ma'am. No response. There's some kind of interference blocking the signal."

Not wanting to further demoralize the captain, Irena weakly nodded and took a deep breath. "We'll think of something. First things first, though – we need to arm up and scout the area. I saw a building the last time lightning struck, so this planet is definitely colonized. We need to know who we're dealing with here. If they deliberately pulled us out of orbit, they're going to be coming for us any minute now."

"Assuming that we we're what they're after. Some of these people are wreckers – people who intentionally wreck ships and salvage the parts. If they wanted us alive, they would have kept the ship intact."

Irena glared at Arzt. "Like I said, they're going to be coming for us. Hurry up and show me the armory."

"Yes, ma'am."

Ducking under part of the ship's hull, Captain Arzt led Irena into the shattered crew quarters where he had emerged from. From what Irena could tell, Arzt's area of the ship had suffered the least amount of damage. Even the hallway through the crew quarters remained relatively intact. The ceiling dipped slightly and significant damage covered the walls, but the main corridor was still clean enough for Arzt and Irena to reach the armory, where a white husky and a tall barn owl stood sorting through the weapons and ammunition that had survived the crash.

Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, both soldiers looked toward the armory door and acknowledged the two officers as they entered the area. Without speaking a word, Irena looked at the husky and the owl and noted the ranks and features of both. She avoided visibly showing frustration at the husky whose uniform hinted at his Private rank, knowing that it would do nothing to help them. When Arzt remained silent, she approached the pile of weapons that Mason and Khudozhnik had organized on the floor inside the armory door.

"Arm yourselves for close range engagements with little to no line of sight. Long-range weapons aren't going to do us any good in this environment. Make it quick, too. We might be about to be overrun."

The suggestion of being attacked caused both troopers to set to work arming themselves as quickly as possible. While Mason and Khudozhnik each picked up a compact bullpup rifle and clipped several spare mags to their belts, Irena selected a slightly heavier rifle which she recognized as an export from her home region of Rodina. Captain Arzt picked up the last remaining bullpup rifle and turned toward the exit while Irena slipped four spare magazines onto her belt and stepped back into the hallway.

Glancing over her shoulder, the coywolf warned her three subordinates, "Don't fire unless fired on first. Avoid unnecessary conflict at all costs, and if you can help it, stay out of sight of anyone you see. We'll take it one step at a time."

Irena led the company through the ship's central corridor and into the crew area where the external wall had been ripped apart. The already-familiar feeling of the driving rain and stifling humidity returned in spades as she and the three behind her stepped into the elements outside the wrecked battlecruiser. Glancing at the compass on her right wrist, she stared in the direction of the tower she had spotted earlier and said, "We'll head northwest from here."

The jungle canopy surrounding the small company of soldiers constricted their movements, which concerned them in the event that they were to be ambushed. The sound of the wind, rain, and lightning masked all other noises in the forest, effectively deafening them to any threatening audio waves.

As her eyes finished adjusting themselves to the darkness, Irena noted a marked similarity between her current surroundings and the jungle in Cerinia's equatorial region. The resemblance struck her as being more than a coincidence, although she had nothing to base her supposition on. The only difference she noticed was the lack of oversized vegetation endemic to Cerinia. As she swung her body over a fallen tree and continued her trek into the forest, the husky private at the tail end of the group gasped and blurted out, "Did you see that?

Irena sneered. The last thing she wanted to deal with in this situation was an inexperienced soldier. Looking over her shoulder, she tried to keep a straight face and asked him, "What were we supposed to see?"

"Eyes…glowing blue eyes. There's someone out there. They're watching us," Private Mason whispered.

Captain Arzt's ears perked up, and he gave Irena a concerned glance. "Orders, General?"

"Keep moving. If you see it again and it makes any wrong moves, shoot it full of holes."

"Copy that," Arzt replied before looking back at Mason and Khudozhnik and warning them, "Don't let your guard down."

The party of four continued their slow, arduous march through the thick, dark jungle, with Irena maintaining a close lead that she seemed unhappy with. Knowing more about her than the private and the corporal behind him, Arzt understood that she would have made far more progress without him and his two men. He knew that Irena despised slow operations; and the slog through the rainforest fit that description perfectly.

Suddenly, Irena stopped cold in the center of the path. Fearing the apparition that Mason had warned them about, Arzt crept up behind her and whispered into her ear. "What is it?"

"There's a building up ahead," Irena whispered in return.

Arzt adjusted his eyes and saw the aforementioned structure farther up the path. From a distance, it looked to be constructed out of a reflective alloy and painted dark gray or black – it was difficult to tell the difference in the darkness of night. Along the edges of the building near the flat roof, deep blue lines pulsated with a cadence that seemed almost lifelike. After looking more closely, Arzt realized that the entire building had the same pulse as the blue trim lights. The side of the structure faded in and out of a dark silver color, switching to black every two seconds.

"Now that's unusual," Irena muttered.

"Do you think it's worth the risk to check it out?" asked Arzt.

Irena faintly nodded. "We're all going to die here eventually unless something changes. The more we know about this place, the better our odds of surviving are."

Arzt turned to update Khudozhnik and Mason on the situation, but when he glanced over his shoulder, only the former of the two was behind him.

"Oh shit – Mason's gone," the alsatian deadpanned.

Irena's eyes widened. "You don't think…"

"I do think," Arzt nervously replied.

"Then we need to get inside that building ASAP. If something's out to get us, they won't have the same element of surprise that they would if we were outside."

"I don't like it, but I see your logic," Arzt replied, motioning for Lance Corporal Khudozhnik to follow him and Irena towards the building.

The trail sloped upwards, growing steadily steeper as the trio neared the building. At a closer distance, the pulsating building panels became more noticeable. Standing thirty feet from the structure, Irena noted that the sides seemed to have honeycomb-patterned seams etched into the metal. A short set of stairs led to the door, which didn't appear to have any notable security measures. Ever vigilant for any threats, Irena scanned the building for security cameras and saw none.

Tentatively waving her two counterparts on, she climbed the steps and stood in front of the door. Artz and Khudozhnik moved in behind her, with the latter walking backwards and pointing his rifle at the path behind him while keeping his back pressed against the Captain's armored vest.

Irena eyed the black door latch and grasped it. She pressed down on the open button, and as she expected, the door refused to open.

"Captain," she whispered, "Can you give me a hand here?"

Arzt gave her a wary eye. "Are you sure you want to breach the door? What if an alarm sounds?"

"It's definitely possible – likely, even. However, I don't think it would make things much worse for us than they already are. This doesn't look like a centralized building, so if someone is monitoring it, it would take a little while for them to take action. By that time, we'd be hiding in the forest. Besides, if we don't get in here, that thing is going to keep coming after us."

"You do realize that we'll have to deal with it whether we get into this building or not, right?"

Irena frowned. "Yes, I'm aware of that, Captain. We're going to test its patience and wait it out."

"I don't like that. It could call for reinforcements and trap us inside if we give it the chance," Arzt objected.

Irena bared her canines and replied, "I don't think calling for reinforcements is even on its mind. It's toying with us. If it's been following us for the last few miles, that gives it more than enough time to call for help. It hasn't done that. I don't think it's going to, either. To defeat these kinds of enemies, you have to play their game and then beat them at it. Now, can you force this door?"

"Yes, ma'am," Arzt grumbled.

The canine moved towards the door while Irena stepped out of his way. Turning his body to the side, he slammed his right shoulder into the door with all the force he could muster. The door flew open and slammed into the wall on the side that it was hinged to, but no additional sounds came from the action. No alarms blared, no automated defense systems presented themselves, and in the silence, Irena felt that something was not right.

Holding up her assault rifle, she stepped into the building with Arzt and Khudozhnik in tow. The light level inside the small structure was every bit as abysmal as it was outside, but Irena could vaguely make out the forms of desks that occupied both the right and left walls. Multiple clear, glass-like monitors sat atop the desks, along with equally clear keyboards and mouse track pads that shared the same minimalistic theme. In the center of the rectangular space, a large stack resembling a box of servers stood by. No sound emanated from it, suggesting that the last users of the facility had shut it down for reasons that could only be guessed at this point.

Hoping to light up the room, Irena reached for a nearby button on the wall and pressed it. Nothing happened. Frustrated that the lights refused to cooperate, she glanced over her shoulder and said, "Khudozhnik, shut the door. Make sure nothing else gets in."

The corporal replied, "Yes ma'am," and placed his hand on the door handle. While the owl eased the door shut, Irena and Arzt stepped in front of the long, wall-mounted desk on the right side of the room. Swiping her finger across its plasticky surface, Irena brought her index finger to her face and noticed the alarming amount of dust on it. A second glance at the area revealed numerous spiderwebs and piles of dust that caused her allergies to flare up within seconds.

Feeling an agonizing itching sensation in her nasal cavities, Irena let out a loud sneeze as the door clicked shut. After recovering and sniffling in response to the rekindled feeling of dust in her nose, she turned around to address the corporal.

"No…you can't be serious."

On the floor just inside the door frame, numerous boot prints stood out amidst the dust that coated the metallic surface. Only a matter of feet inside the door, several other marks attracted Irena's attention. With wide eyes, she stared at the streaks of clean flooring indicative of someone or something being dragged out of the building by force. In the dusty chaos on the floor, she noticed a different set of footprints – footprints created by what looked like bare feet. Their diminutive size brought to mind Irena's own feet and could not have been made by a man.

Abandoning all restraint, Irena ripped the door open and looked in both directions for any sign of Corporal Khudozhnik. However, just like Mason, he was nowhere to be found. She whirled around, half expecting Arzt to be gone as well, but the large shepherd dog still stood behind her.

With her ears standing on end, she barked, "Captain, we have to make sure we don't get separated. If one of us has our back turned, that thing will use it as an opportunity to attack."

Arzt gave his commanding officer a worried expression. "You don't think it's in this building, do you?"

Irena studied the room around her for a moment and then replied, "I can't know for sure, but I don't think so. We would have heard the door…"

"…Did you see that?" Arst blurted out, taking a terrified step backwards and looking like he had seen a ghost.

"Where?" Irena demanded.

Arzt pointed towards the back left corner of the room, close to the exit door on the opposite side of the building. "Over there. I don't know how it could have possibly gotten in."

"What did it look like?"

"I only saw it for a second. All I saw were two glowing blue eyes and blue conduit patterns below them," Arzt explained, trying to prevent his hands from shaking.

Irena scowled. "Well, next time you see it, shoot, damn it!"

"It was gone before I could do anything. I swear, if I get a good shot at it, I'm taking that monster down."

Although she hid it well, fear began to creep up on Irena. The realization that the building offered her no protection from the apparition that had already taken two of her men caused her to feel a form of terror that she had not experienced since an incident in her teenage years that left her with acute hydrophobia which she had never managed to overcome. She began to eye the exit door fifty feet from her position, but as she stepped towards it, she glanced to the right and noticed the opened front panel of the data bank in the center of the room. Near the top of the electronic unit was a large, round button which she assumed would power up the console.

Figuring that it would be unlikely to start, she pressed the button. To her shock, a quick orange glow shot through the console before the wave of orange wove its way through the numerous boxes and units inside the console. Turning around, she stared in shock as the clear monitors and keyboards on the desks came to life, bathing the area in a warm, orange glow. The systems booted up far more rapidly than would have been expected of technology that had been left unattended for long periods of time. After the loading process, numerous images appeared on the orange-trimmed screens.

"Captain? Are you seeing this?"

"Yes," Arzt replied, walking to her side and staring at one of the computer monitors, which showed the anatomical layout of what looked like an anthropomorphic feline. He looked at the screens to the right and left of the one in front of him and noted similar depictions on them.

Turning towards Irena, he asked, "What's the meaning of this?"

Irena shook her head. "I wish I knew. I thought this place was strange before, but this takes it to another level."

"These screens seem to show the anatomy of almost every major form of anthropomorph that we're aware of. Why, though?"

"You are asking the wrong person," Irena deadpanned, turning around and looking at the monitors on the opposite side of the room. Like the monitors on the left side of the room, the ones on the right wall glowed orange – all except the one at the end of the right desk, near the exit door.

"A blue screen?" Arzt whispered.

"I'll bet there's a one in three chance that it has something to do with those blasted Cerinians," Irena muttered, walking towards the blue screen. "What do you know? I was right."

Arzt followed his commanding officer to the back end of the room and shook his head. "Of course they'd get their own special screen. Let's hope this doesn't have anything to do with the Demiurge thinking that the Cerinians were the galaxy's master race."

"'Were' is the operative word," Irena replied. "You'd think that someone as interested in Cerinian domination of the known universe would be a little more hesitant to blow up the planet with ninety percent of the entire galaxy's Cerinians on it." The coywolf looked over the screen for several seconds, then shook her head and growled, "It would be nice if the text here wasn't in hieroglyphics. It would probably explain everything about this place."

Arzt grumbled in response; and as Irena continued to stare at the screen, she felt the dust irritating her nose again. Looking away from the screen, she brought her hand to her muzzle and sneezed into it. While her senses recovered, she opened her eyes and heard a quick yelp behind her, followed by the sound of the nearby exit door clicking shut.

The realization of what had just happened dawned on her and spawned a wave of fear and anger that threatened to overwhelm her mind's logical control center. Baring her teeth, she reached for the door handle and heaved it open. Below the short set of metal steps that led to the ground level, trees and shrubs encroached on the building from every angle, preventing her from seeing anything other than the dense vegetation and the thick curtains of rain as they fell from the heavens.

She struggled to the point of denial with believing that the large, muscular captain had been dragged out of the building by a silent aggressor with her same shoe size, but after a frantic minute spent staring at her surroundings, she forced herself to admit to being alone. Without anyone around her, she felt vulnerable in a way that felt foreign to her, even as an officer with several crucial operations under her belt. The rainy, dark surroundings played against her; and although she hoped that the sun would rise soon, she wondered if the planet was locked in perpetual darkness. She had never seen or heard of such a planet, but the oppressive nature of her surroundings forced her to consider the possibility that she was on one.

Biting her nails, she thought, "I don't know where to go now. I'm one on one with that thing, and it has every advantage over me. I could keep moving forwards, but there might be more of them farther ahead. If I stay here, I'm dead. If I go back to the ship, I might be able to hold out a little while longer. It's the only place where I might have an advantage. But wait – whoever runs this place brought the ship down on purpose and definitely didn't want anyone to survive the crash. If they're going to try to salvage the ship like Captain Arzt suggested, heading back there would be just as bad as moving towards their civilization."

She paused for thought for a moment and wondered, "Maybe if I leave the area, that stalker will stop following me and leave me alone. Arzt mentioned that something was jamming our comms signal. If I travel far enough, I might be able to break free of the jamming system and contact home. It's a long shot, but I think anything's worth a try at this point."

As the rain poured down around her, she glanced at her wrist compass and looked to the west. The trees that towered over her allowed her to see nothing more distant than five hundred feet, but she knew that the tower she had seen earlier stood to the north. From her brief view of the planet from orbit, the world seemed mostly uninhabited except for the strange central point, which the ship had been pulled into. She wondered if heading west would be a mistake, but she also understood that staying in the building would only give her shadow more time to plot its next attack.

Reluctantly, she descended the short set of stairs at her feet and set foot on the soggy forest floor. The rain saturated her fur once again as she made her way through the underbrush, turning around and looking down her rifle's sights every few seconds. To her left, the sound of bushes rustling reached her ears above the roar of the weather.

Thirty feet ahead of her, she saw a circular clearing covered in lush grass. The sound of something brushing against the leaves around her continued to bombard her ears; and this time, the sound came from the right as well as the left. Recognizing the danger of her situation, she sprinted into the clearing and spun around in time to see two quadrupedal creatures emerge from the underbrush. Their appearance brought to mind her own lupine blood, but apart from the vaguely similar shape of their muzzles, no other similarities stood out. The black creatures sported lush fur coats that covered the majority of their bodies, while traces of white stood out on the tips of their muzzles and lower legs.

As she stared at the feral wolves, she noticed two more of them crawling out of the forest to her right and left. Looking over her shoulder, she heard the faint sound of twigs crackling and saw the faint glint of four additional yellow eyes in the darkness. With six wolves surrounding her, her heart rate spiked when the two ahead of her bared their teeth and snarled. At that moment, she glanced at the forest path that led into the clearing and locked eyes with the blue-eyed monster that had claimed the lives of her three counterparts. At least, she assumed that it had claimed their lives.

The ghostly figure was shod in black, with its only visible aspects being the blue, conduit-like lines that ran up and down its feminine body and its haunting blue eyes that struck fear into her the longer she looked into them. A thick tail whisked back and forth behind its back with an angry cadence that unnerved Irena all the more.

It only took a matter of seconds for her to realize that the shadow had no intention of showing mercy to her. The six wolves continued to approach her with a slow, measured gait, as if they failed to notice Irena's assault rifle pointed at them with its owner's finger hovering over the trigger.

Irena knew what would happen next if she did nothing. She knew that she would have to open fire before the wolves could come any closer, but seeing the blue-eyed ghost standing thirty yards away from her gave her other ideas.

The wolves moved to within twenty feet. The shadow on the path ahead of Irena remained in place. The coywolf kept her aim trained on the first creature to her left, but she knew that she stood no chance of killing all of the wolves before they ripped her to pieces.

One final course of action presented itself to her. Baring her teeth, she took aim at the glowing pair of eyes and fired. The sound of plasma erupting from the barrel of her gun shattered the humid jungle air as the six wolves broke into a sprint and lunged at her.

AUTHOR'S NOTE(S):

I know that opening the story with an all-OC chapter probably isn't the most popular thing to do, but just bear with it. The standard character cast will return in the next chapter and stay at the story's forefront from then on. Also, if you read Iridium, you definitely recognized the character stalking Irena and her unit. Yes, she's back.

Also, this story is going to get some proper cover art...eventually.