The TALE of the TESSERACT
28: Ruins of Thar
"The physical form is weak. We can be ravaged by disease, broken in an accident, drowned in a bowl of water. Our bodies can betray us with cancer or organ failure. If we survive a life of accidents, our bodies break down and kill us." -Stones of Force (Vol. 3)
"Sir, you have a visitor!"
The Commander spun around.
"Who is it this time?"
The Starlen official who had brought the message took a few steps to the right, leaving no obstruction in front of the door. "It's her. The one you decommissioned."
"I don't understand..."
"You will."
The doors burst open, and in came Aster.
She was confident, striding in with a look of power and dignity. Aster smiled as she looked at the Starlen behind the long and ornate desk.
"Commander Niro," Aster said, as if it had been a long time since they'd last met, "It's such a pleasure to finally talk to you without being ridiculed all the way here."
"Aster, explain yourself now," Niro stated firmly.
"I have a message for you."
Aster pulled out a small triangular computer chip, throwing it forward onto the desk. It slid across the polished wood, sliding to a halt just before the commander's hand. Niro picked it up with his front talon-like hand. Hesitantly, he placed it into the chip receptacle on the underside of the desk.
"This better be important," Niro said.
A holographic image materialized above the desk. The projection shifted and faded as the picture was adjusted for optimal viewing. When the loading was complete, the form of Captain Roku was unmistakable.
Through the recorded hologram, he spoke, "This is Captain Roku Azero of the High New Tharian Fleet, and secondary attack planner of the Chimera Alliance. I hereby request that Aster Saphiren be fully reinstated into the upper ranks of the Starlen fleet, not just as a captain, but as the high general of the entire Starlen military."
"What?" Niro exclaimed.
"It's just a recording..." Aster said, "He can't hear you."
Niro was in no mood for that.
Roku continued, "You must have seen our broadcast. We are forming a galactic army. The power of everyone in Aeron... a force that might be powerful enough to bring down the Grox. This is one of the steps we are taking. Aster will be the commander of this galactic army. She will lead Aeron to victory."
Niro was just shocked.
"This message is authenticated with a triple helix code. There is no way it was faked. I fully give my consent towards this plan of action. This is also supported by Captain Arcadia of the Chimera, and the entire Akros Board of Alliances. You can contact them if you want... this is the truth. Aster will be the High General of Aeron."
Roku smiled, and the hologram faded away.
"Impossible," Niro said, lowering his head.
"Are you all right?" the official in the back of the room asked.
"I'm fine... I can do nothing to change this. General Aster, it looks like I'm under your command now."
"I guess so."
"But... may I ask..."
"Anything."
"Where is Roku right now?"
Aster smiled.
"In the shining Pyles system... on the third planet. I assure you, he's fighting for all of us."
"Pyles... you don't mean..."
"Good Day, Niro," Aster said, turning and walking out of the Commander's office.
Proximity Alert. Vessel hyperspace tunnel moving through highly controlled Groxian Space. Alternate route highly suggested.
"Dang it! I thought I fixed that!" Stekvan shouted, running wildly around to the other side of the control panel. He spun a small dial and then typed a few things on a holographic keyboard.
Repeat. Proximity Alert: Pyles System is dangerously overrun with Groxian Vessels... sug...g...g...es...s...s... t... t... Messages Terminated.
"There!" Stekvan exclaimed, "Fixed the problem."
"No you didn't," Roku stated, stepping towards the Jaxxod, "You just turned off the announcer."
"And... now we don't have to listen to the annoying voice any more. Once again, problem solved."
Roku just rolled his eyes and took a step back.
They were in Stekvan's Spaceship, which he had recently explained was called the 'Cerion.' It looked exactly as it had in the memory that Roku had witnessed. A central column with a circular set of interface panels. This ship itself wasn't much larger than the Tharak, but Roku could tell, just by examining the architecture, that this vessel was more advanced.
Solid platinum in different colors composed much of the floor, the ceiling., and the different columns around the ship. There were multiple chairs with force field harnesses that could swivel and lock into place. Roku couldn't help but notice that none of them were sitting in any of the chairs.
Behind Roku stood Chase, Maruck, and Arcadia, each also taking in the strange design of the ship.
Chase was the most dumbfounded of them all.
"This ship is just... amazing. It's the same size of the Tharak, and yet it can rocket through the galaxy almost instantaneously. Not to mention the fact that, regardless of the speed were moving at... we're still standing here."
"That would be the inertia dampeners," Stekvan explained, "Along with the artificial gravity simulators. They create a completely isolated environment inside the ship immune from the way the laws of physics from the outside world that would normally affect us."
"That's awesome..." Chase said, "It's almost like the TARDIS."
"The what?..." Stekvan asked, still piloting the Cerion.
"Doctor Who?"
Stekvan just shook his head in confusion.
"It's an Earth thing..." Roku explained, "Besides the point. Anyway, if I knew anything about those scanners... then I'd say were almost there."
"Very true."
Arcadia took a step forward.
"I still don't get how you could pilot this thing..." Arcadia pointed out, "You can't even see out of the ship."
"Oh yeah, about that..."
Stekvan pulled down on a large lever on the panel. A chime resonated through the ship as the walls around them began to slide away. While the ceiling and floor remained where they were, the cylindrical sides of the Cerion were moving upwards, disappearing into the ships hull. In their place was a thick layer of Jaxxod glass, filled with crystalline kronon energy.
"What..." Maruck said, "It's like the front view window of a normal ship, except its on all sides..."
"Yep," Stekvan said, "And... its tinted using reverberated kronon... making it so we can see out..."
"But other ships can't see in..." Maruck finished.
"Exactly. To anyone outside of the Cerion. The walls would look like they hadn't even changed. It would appear completely intact."
"Awesome," Chase said.
The four captains took in the view around them. Past the orange-ish metal of the Cerion's hull was the shimmering energy of a hyperspace tunnel. Purple and blue energy shifting and warping through an endless void.
"Ok..." Stekvan said, "It's time to show you guys how I really pilot this thing."
"What do you mean... really pilot?" Roku asked, facing the Jaxxod again.
"Oh come on, you didn't actually think I would use this flimsy little panel to control it all the time? That's just for simple hyperspace tunneling."
"Simple?"
"Yeah. The real controls are in here..."
The Jaxxod grabbed a knob on the panel and threw it to the highest position. The computerized voice responded immediately.
Preparing Full Control Systems. Opening Central Link Chamber.
The interface panel and central column split in two. Each half slid slowly in opposite directions. It quickly became apparent that the central column was hollow, containing a large pillar of translucent blue energy. It twisted in a double helix, pulsing like the beat of a heart.
"What..." Maruck said.
"Neural interface," Stekvan explained, stepping into the energy with ease, "Designed to detect my thoughts and will."
Roku stepped around the panel to observe Stekvan.
"Really?"
"Completely," the Jaxxod said, placing his arms and legs into clamping socket-like devices, "I'll have more control over this ship than anyone else in this galaxy has ever had for a couple hundred billion years."
Roku smiled.
"Good luck."
"Well I should be saying the same to you."
"Huh?"
"The windows aren't just view tinted, Tharian. You can launch attacks through them as well. The four of you need to use your Alminar abilities to attack approaching enemy vessels, but the good news is... none of them will be able to see you."
"Seriously?"
"Of course. I'll see you guys in a few minutes... when we're on the surface of the New Tharian Homeworld."
The interface panel began to close around the Jaxxod captain. In his last moments of visibility, he said, with a smile on his face, "Here goes nothing."
The pillar closed, and another chime sounded through the ship. This one was of a lower tone, and followed by the computer's voice.
Cerion entering full combat mode. Hyperspace tunnel dropping.
The lights all around them became a prominent red, lighting up the ship in a drastically different way. Not even seconds later, the ship dropped out of the hyperspace tunnel. The energy ripped apart in a violent vibration that shook the entire ship.
They were no longer in hyperspace, the were blazing through the Pyles system, with constellations in the distance shooting by in a blur. Their speed was slowing, and within a few more seconds, they could make out the ships destination. The four captains were taken aback.
Before them was a massive fleet of Grox spacecrafts. Motherships, raider vessels, battle-cruisers, flagships, and entire armadas were flying before them. None of them appeared to be going anywhere... they were just hovering ominously in the vacuum of space. It was if they were guarding something, and it was immediately clear what that something was.
Thar.
The planet was slowly drifting in the distance. It was perfectly round, with continents of color ranging from brown to orange to green. Clouds drifted across the atmosphere, blurring the organized lights of the many cities on the planets surface. The lights were organized like a multitude of spider webs, with a large central cluster of lights merging together on the side of the planet facing them. It was stunning and beautiful.
A solitary moon was orbiting the planet as well. Surprisingly, lights littered the gray and white surface of it as well.
The ships intercom suddenly went up. "Ok, prepare for descent," Stekvan said over the ship's speakers, "This is going to be a bumpy ride."
The Cerion began to accelerate again, blasting them forward through the network of Grox vessels. Spacecraft after spacecraft flew past their view window like specs of dust. Stekvan was ignoring all of them. He wanted to get to the destination with as little fighting as possible.
But of course... the Grox are fighting machines.
Within 20 seconds of their descent, they had 4 Grox raider vessels on their tail, chasing them through the Pyles system.
"Dangit... here we go," Maruck said, moving towards the rear of the ship, and looking out at the approaching crafts.
One of them primed an anti-matter beam, and before they could stop it, it fired upon the Cerion. It impacted the shield, giving the velocity of the entire ship a bit of a kick, and disorienting the four unsecured passengers.
"This would be the time when you guys attack!" Stekvan commanded again, "I can't control everything while trying to pilot this ship through a field of increasingly deadly warships!"
"He's right," Arcadia said, dashing forwards, "Now's the time to fight back!" He held out one of his arms in the direction of the raider vessel, closing his fingers tightly, making a fist.
A large amount of ice built up inside the warships energy cannon. The Chimera smiled at the success. Oblivious, the Grox fired the anti-matter cannon again, only to have a nasty backfire. The energy exploded on the ice, causing the dangerous exotic particles to explode all over the raider vessel. The engines went out, and the craft spiraled off to the right.
"Yeah! One down, 3 to go!" Chase shouted.
"You might want to re-think that..." Maruck said, pointing at further behind them.
All of the flagships were taking notice of the Jaxxod vessel. They knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who the ship belonged to, and they were stopping at nothing to destroy it. More and more raider vessels were streaming out of the many flagships, and while a large majority of them were far away... it still proved to be incredibly foreboding. It was one small ship, versus an entire Grox armada.
"How... what?" Chase said, exasperated.
"We have no time to waste!" Roku shouted, running in to the rear of the ship as well. He threw out his arms, and crossed them, forming a large 'X' in mid air. The result was instantaneous.
The rear thrusters on the closest two Grox vessels spun wildly in opposite directions, sending both spacecrafts on a dangerous collision course with each other. The two ships impacted in a bright cascade of fire and shrapnel, shaking the Cerion even more.
"Why aren't you doing anything Chase?" Maruck exclaimed, looking over at the human.
"Fire can't burn in the vacuum of space, Maruck!" Chase retaliated, "And shouldn't I be asking you the same question!"
"Enough bickering!" Stekvan shouted through the speakers, "We're passing over a flagship, and it's covered in electron cannons! Prepare yourselves!"
What the Jaxxod said was true. Below their vessel now was a massive Grox command ship, large enough that it appeared, from their perspective, as a giant sheet of metal extending in all directions. Two very large turrets were rising from the flagship below them, pointing their powerful energy cannons in the direction of the Cerion.
They fired seconds later, streams of blue colored energy shooting towards their position.
"Not today!" Maruck shouted, taking Roku's place. From each of his hands, he arced large amounts of his own electron energy towards the opposing beams. All four of them collided, the right beam with the electricity from Maruck's right hand, and the left beam with the electricity from Mauck's left hand.
Maruck was sweating as he tried to hold the electron energy back, mustering all of his power to pull off this almost impossible feat. The electrical output from the flagship was at least 10 times more powerful than Maruck's own Alminar ability.
"No... stay back!" Maruck exclaimed. Despite the Cerion's constant movement, the beams were getting steadily closer.
"Alright... you asked for it!" Maruck threw his hands together in a clapping motion. His two beams moved together into one, causing the opposing beams to magnetically attract and follow the same motion.
Pure Chaos. The energy from all four electron beams impacted at the same point, releasing a shock wave of pure beta radiation. Bright light obscured everyone's vision.
When it faded, both beams were gone, and they were a safe distance from the flagship.
"Excellent work Maruck!" Stekvan said, "We're now entering Thar's atmosphere. Hold tight, we're almost there..."
Chase looked behind them. The Cerion was surprisingly close to Thar at this point. The lights from the many cities were even more prominent, and the clouds drifting lazily through the atmosphere were stunningly beautiful. As they moved further, a thin layer of fire was building up along the Cerion's shield.
"That's my queue," Chase said, turning back to face the cluster of Grox vessels chasing them. They were far enough away that the flagships gave up on sending more vessels. The vessels before them now were the remainder of the force that was chasing them. In a way, that was scary... because if the space defense had given up... they must know that the defense on the surface is just as... if not more comparable.
The enemy ships were also cutting through a build-up of atmospheric fire.
"Perfect..." Chase said.
The human brought his own arms up, and extended his palms towards the nearest two. He closed his hands in a fist, just as Arcadia had. Chase smiled as his plan came to a glorious success. He was manipulating the atmospheric fire, causing it to bend and engulf the the two nearest raider vessels.
With his own alminar ability, he amplified the strength of the flames to at least 3 times their normal potency. No longer were they just streaks along the edge of the Groxian shields, they were full on columns of fire, spreading like an infection towards all sides of the spacecrafts.
The shields were weakening, Chase could tell. The raider vessels were slowly swerving out of control, until suddenly...
BOOM.
The vessels collapsed in an explosion of fire. No trace of the ships remained. Thar's atmosphere had consumed the ships almost instantaneously. As the Cerion continued to fly further into the atmosphere, the pillars of fire from the destroyed ships drifted slowly away.
"See Maruck!" Chase exclaimed, "I do awesome stuff just fine."
The Scorpnak just rolled his eyes.
"3 more incoming!" Roku said.
"Great..."
The next three Grox crafts wasted no time in their assault. The moment they were within range, the enemy ships opened fire, sending a flurry of archon bullets in their direction. The tiny yet incredibly powerful shards of metal impacted the Cerion's shield like a downpour of rain.
"Guys! I can't take this kind of fire! You need to do something!" Stekvan commanded.
"Ah! I'm so stupid!" Arcadia shouted.
"What?" Roku said, confused.
"My ability could make this so much easier."
The Chimera extended his arms, and within seconds, formed a solid wall of ice all along the back end of the Cerion. Their vision was now blurred by a 3 foot thick layer of ice.
"What are you trying to do...?"
"Chase slowly use your fire ability to melt the tiny layer connecting it to the ship..."
"Why?"
"Just trust me."
The human looked at the layer of ice and concentrated. He release a single column of flames from his palm, allowing it to slowly heat up the Jaxxod glass on the back of the ship. Droplets of water poured down the obscured view window as the layer touching the outside of the ship began to melt. It happened moments later. The thick layer of ice broke off from the ship, and before long, it lost the Cerion's inertia, dropping backwards, and flying right towards the enemy ships.
"Awesome," Roku said.
Taken completely by surprise, the Grox crafts smashed right into the layer of ice. The captains watched as the ice wall was disintegrated and evaporated from the heat of 5 exploding raider vessels.
"Complete success," Arcadia stated, taking a step back.
"We're now within the bottom level of Thar's atmosphere," Stekvan said, "We're almost to Alyxia. Just a little bit longer..."
Below them, a vast expanse of crystal blue water shimmered as they passed near it. They were below the lowest cloud layer, very close to the surface.
There were seven remaining Grox raider vessels that had followed them through the atmosphere. Each of them armed to the teeth and ready to destroy their aircraft.
"Everyone... all at once!" Roku ordered.
The four captains took their positions. Arcadia covered the viewscreens of two of the raider vessels in ice, while Roku spun the orientation of the propulsion rockets out of control.
Two more Groxian vessels spun off to the side, completely without control over their engines. But of course, with the two that were destroyed, two more were waiting right behind them.
"Give me a break," Maruck exclaimed, realizing that he was going to have to do work as well.
The scorpnak jumped forward, preparing for another attack.
One of the remaining raider vessels accelerated, getting dangerously close to the Cerion.
Without warning, it launched a missile, one that appeared to constructed completely out of unbreakable Groxian metal.
"Oh snap..." Chase said, staring at the approaching object.
The Cerion swirved quickly to the right, trying to dodge the approaching weapon.
The unexpected happened. As the spacecraft swerved at a drastic, and assumingly unpredictable angle, the missile followed, somehow attracted to their ship.
"It's a homing missile!" Stekvan said, "There's nothing I can do to shake it! You're going to have to stop it somehow!"
Maruck turned back to face the approaching rocket, and realized what needed to be done. He raised his arms, and arced as much electricity as he could muster, right into the core of the homing missile.
"What are you doing?" Chase shouted.
"Homing missiles are controlled by a very simple lock-on system that derivatives the base value of..."
"Simple?"
"Yeah... never mind. The point is, if I can reverse the polarity of the missile..."
"Reverse the polarity... come on, that only works in those cheesy Sci-Fi shows. Of all the cliche things to say..."
Right in the middle of Chase's monologue, the homing missile swerved, its target drastically changed. Instead of heading for the Cerion, it was heading for the Grox raider vessel.
The missile impacted, sending the enemy craft into a debris-filled spiral towards the ocean water below.
The remaining four raider vessels were chasing them with relentless determination.
"Why can't they just... ya' know... give up," Chase stated, quite annoyed, "I mean seriously... how many times have we almost died within the last 4 minutes!"
"We're entering Alyxia city limits. Prepare... I have a feeling this could get really rough..."
The four captains realized that the raider vessels were now backing off. They were decelerating, no longer attempting to wipe the Cerion out of the sky.
"What..." Roku said, confused, "Why...?"
"Oh my Spode..." Maruck said, stepping towards the view window, "It's... it's... the city of Alyxia..."
"Yes it is..." Roku said, "We're still in a battle!"
"But just look..." Maruck said, gesturing to Chase.
Chase's mouth dropped on the spot.
Towers stretching higher than any planet they had been on so far. The light from the sun was bouncing off the shimmering metallic buildings in a way that made the entire city just... beautiful.
The two captains would have taken in more of the city, had they not been severely interrupted.
All of the ship's system shut down at the same time.
The lights went black. The engines shut off. The inertia dampeners failed. All at once.
"What the?" Arcadia exclaimed.
"Was that an EMP?" Maruck shouted.
"Whatever that was... it was 10 million times more powerful than a regular EMP... that blasted through our shield instantly!"
The Cerion was now in drifting mode. The only function that remained was basic gravity reducers, the portion of the ship that kept them in the air.
But that was failing as well. They were rocketing towards the surface of Thar at a dangerous speed.
"Stekvan!" Roku shouted, "I know you have the skill to land this ship safely... but I have a request."
"What?"
"Don't land it in the city. If you do, whatever took down our systems will be witness to where we landed!"
"Even if we land outside of the city... they'll see us. How is this idea any better?"
"Because we're going to jettison ourselves."
"WHAT?" everyone else shouted in unison.
"Stekvan, pilot the Cerion towards the edge of the city, and then use the ships beaming teleport to move us right outside of the ship," Roku commanded.
"You're sure about this, Roku?" Stekvan questioned.
"What choice do we have?"
A few moments later, Stekvan responded. "I'm ready. We're just beyond the edge of the central Alyxia complex. Priming teleport..."
Arcadia walked up behind Roku. "What are you trying to do?"
"We're going to have to get into the city one way or another. This way, we actually have a chance to be disguised."
"Huh?"
"I'll explain when we get to the surface. Stekvan, we're ready for jettisoning. Wow... I never thought I'd say that before."
"Copy that... Teleporting... NOW!"
A bright light obscured everyone's vision, and before they could react, before they even had time to blink, their spacial position was changed.
They were falling.
Falling.
Faster and faster.
The wide expanse of the Tharian sky stretched out all around them. Turning onto his back, Chase saw the Cerion shoot off into the distance, completely without a pilot.
Around the human was the rest of the crew: Arcadia, Roku, Maruck, and even Stekvan.
All of them were falling towards the surface of Thar.
"What were we trying to accomplish here?" Chase shouted, trying to be heard over the roar of wind all around them.
As the five captains reached terminal velocity, the uncomfortable zero-g feeling subsided.
"Remember!" Arcadia shouted, "before we hit the ground, use your glider pack to slow your descent. We don't want any of you to hit the ground and squish yourselves into a pile of... yeah."
"Copy that."
They continued to fall, the distant ground appearing closer and closer. Below them was a large sloping hill. It was far less urbanized then the main portion of the New Tharian capital, but blotches of civilization were prevalent in different areas across the hills.
Chase tilted his head up to see the main city. He couldn't believe how amazing it looked. Hundreds of towers all in perfect formation. And right in the center was something even more ridiculous. A massive tower, stretching all the way into the sky. It was at least 3 times taller than the rest of the buildings, a single spire in the center of the most glorious city Chase had ever laid eyes on.
He almost got too caught in the moment.
"Deploy your glider packs... NOW!" Arcadia shouted.
The other four captains, save for Roku, complied, activating the propulsion devices strapped to their backs. Instantly, their decent speed was cut in two.
Nifty technology, Chase thought.
The human reached for his own glider pack control, pressing down on the button on his wrist.
Nothing happened.
He pressed it again.
Still nothing.
"No.. no... NO!" Chase exclaimed.
Roku noticed the Human's struggle.
"Oh... Chase..." Roku said, rolling his eyes.
The Tharian tucked in his wings and dived, shooting past Arcadia, Maruck, and Stekvan.
Chase was getting dangerously close to the surface, which was looking more and more like a big giant flat plane of death.
"Come on... come on!" Chase exclaimed, pressing the button over and over again.
Right when he was about to give up hope, something came flying out of nowhere, grabbing hold of him. Completely surprised, Chase looked up to see Roku holding him around the waist.
The Tharian took no hesitation in extending his wings. Chase continued to take deep breaths of anxiety as he and Roku slowly glided to the surface of the planet. It wasn't until they touched down on the ground did Chase realize just how close of a call that had been. They probably weren't even 50 feet up when Roku grabbed him.
"For future reference," Roku said, holding up Chase's arm and pointing towards the controller on his wrist, "I set the glider pack for control button 3. I told you that 15 times."
"Oh yeah..."
"Yeah..."
Stekvan, Maruck, and Arcadia came to a gliding halt behind them, their glider packs giving them unbelievable grace in their landings.
"So..." Maruck said, "Where are we?"
Looking around, the five of them saw long curving hills in one direction, and a thin forest in the other. The grass was a vibrant shade of green... similar to earth and yet noticeably alien.
"The Marks memorial park. Its just beyond the main city, yet still within the large network of urban sprawl that surrounds the Main Control Tower," Roku explained.
"And that's that giant building in the center of the city I'm guessing..."
"You'd be correct."
"Wait... I thought you said you'd take us out of the city?" Arcadia asked, looking over at Stekan.
"Well... I couldn't really fully accomplish that. The Cerion was going down quite fast. This was the closest safe place to jettison that I could find. No life signs in this entire park... so here we are."
"Speaking of which..." Chase said, "Your ship?"
"Oh yes, it'll crash land somewhere far off, the Grox we'll think we're dead... blah blah blah... all the while, the Cerion will slowly repair itself. But... that's not the problem right now."
"And what is?"
"Right now we need to focus on how we're going to get into the main portion of Alyxia without getting caught."
"Yes, that reminds me..." Roku said, "Follow me."
The Tharian took off, with the rest of his crew in tow. They walked through the thin layer of forest trees, coming out onto a small clearing before a large lake. The water was perfectly still across the entire body of water. It was strangely surreal. Beyond that was a perfect view of the capital city. All of the towers lined up, producing a stunning skyline.
But then they noticed what they had been missing before.
In the Cerion, they had been unable to get a good look at the city. They had just assumed its perfect majesty... but now that they were getting to look at it more, they were taken aback.
While a good portion of the towers remained intact, almost all of them were damaged in some way. Some had smoke coming out of them. Some were falling over onto other towers. Many of them had a large amount of the metallic plating removed, revealing the thick grid like skeleton of the building. The city looked like it had suffered a powerful natural disaster, one that had no mercy in its destruction. The Main Control Tower appeared intact, standing tall in the midst of complete ruin.
"What happened?" Maruck questioned.
"The Grox started dropping anti-matter bombs all over the city. But... the buildings are reinforced with incredibly resilient Tritium metal. It absorbed most of the blast energy. Unprotected buildings, like the workshop I was in, would have just been completely obliterated. I left before I could view the damage... but my guess is that the Grox continued to bombard the city. Over time, the structures would have weakened, some tipping, some tearing, and some collapsing. Honestly, this city is better looking than I thought it would be."
"Then, why is this park area mostly preserved?"
"The plants here are specially designed to grow to their exact perfect height with incredible speed. Even if they were incinerated, they would have grown back."
"That's... cool."
"Yes, and the buildings have the same function. The only reason the city is still standing at all is thanks to their reconstruction ability. But..."
"But what?"
"Anyone outside during the bombardment would have been killed on the spot. Once we actually get to the city, we'll be able to view the damage."
"Why though? Why didn't the Grox just destroy the entire planet. And if they just wanted the Tesseract, why didn't they just leave?"
"I don't think they just wanted the Tesseract... and that's what we're here for. We need to infiltrate that city and reach the tower, learning as much information as we can."
"That doesn't seem like a very good reason to risk our lives..." Chase asked.
"We're here not just to learn information, but because the Tesseract is here," Stekvan explained, "We knew it from the start. I can sense it, and so can Roku, I'm assuming. We don't know much about what the Grand Master plans to do with it, but we do know that if we can take it, he'll be without his greatest asset."
"But if the Tesseract is here..." Arcadia began.
"So is the Grand Master, yes," Roku finished, "Most likely at the top of the citadel."
"Citadel?"
"Its just Tharian slang. The tower has many names. Main Control Tower. Main Command Tower. Citadel. Just... The Tower. Tons of stuff... its a rather large part of the city, if you didn't notice."
"Obviously. So... I'm assuming you guys have a plan," Arcadia said, looking at Roku and Stekvan.
"Indeed we do," Stekvan responded, stepping forward. He held out five small pins, each glowing with a strange energy. "These are Morphic Inducers... highly advanced Jaxxod technology. Temporarily rewrites your entire genetic makeup, while storing your original bio-signature in its memory. We're going to use them to become New Tharians."
"Why can't we just become Grox?" Arcadia asked.
"We would be without cybernetics. The Grox would tell the difference. As New Tharians though, we can blend in. Roku is going to have to use one as well, as I'm very sure the Grox will recognize him."
"Oh yes they would."
The four other captains reached out and grabbed one of the inducer pins, holding it awkwardly. They arranged themselves in a circle.
"What do we do?" Maruck asked.
"Pin the inducers to your shoulder. By the way... I should warn you, it's probably gonna hurt."
"Thanks for warning us," Chase said.
"On my count... 3... 2... 1... now!"
The five of them pinned the inducers to their skin. The sharp needles dug deep into their shoulders, clamping to them through some strange advanced magnetism. They bent over in pain, the feeling of a knife jabbing into them.
A shifting green energy began to build up around the five captains. Roku's facial features began to change, rendering the original Roku unrecognizable.
That was the simplest change.
The other four captains doubled over in great pain as feathers grew from all of their limbs. Maruck's scorpion tail disappeared. Stekvan's strangely feline groxian face morphed into a more humanoid one. Arcadia's second set of arms shifted to his back and warped into a pair of wings. Roku watched in amazement as pairs of wings sprouted out of the backs of his other three comrades. Feathers covered the new wings. All of them fell backwards as their feet morphed into talons, with sharp claws sliding outwards. When their facial features had settled, they slowly got to their feet... um... talons.
Before Roku, was four more New Tharians.
"This is really weird..." Roku said.
"You're telling me..." Chase said, moving his wings back and forth, the look of a four year old on his face. "Ok... this is cool."
"Wait... how did our clothes change?" Arcadia asked, noticing that they were all now wearing a simple uniform: thin gray pants, made out of some kind of cloth, along with a matching shirt that was equally as bland.
"The morpher defaults to the most common attire within a 400 mile radius. This must be what the Grox are forcing the Tharians to wear," Stekvan explained, still trying to stay balanced on his new talon appendages, "All of our weapons are stored in our other form. When we switch back, we'll get all of our battle gear."
"Well, now that we're all incognito, I think its time to go sneak into the city. How about you guys?"
"Let's do it," Maruck said, moving forward. While they were all in different forms, it was still somewhat easy for the captains to tell each other apart, mostly due to them listening to the other captains voice. "It's weird though," Maruck continued, "I've always wondered how it would be to control wings coming out of my back... but now that I have them... it's like second nature."
The five new New Tharians, turned towards Alyxia, and took off. Roku got about 5 feet in the air, when he noticed that the rest of his crew were lying on their backs, having just fallen over.
"Oh that's right..." Roku said, a smile on his face, "I have to teach you guys how to fly..."
Roku glided back towards the ground, helping Arcadia get back up.
In the middle of their disorganization, a light burst into existence, a good 10 feet off to the side. It was a teleport beam.
"What the..." Maruck said, looking at the light, "Who could be..."
When it faded, the forms of three Dronox soldiers were revealed.
"Oh..." Chase said, looking at the cybernetic warriors with an expression of annoyance.
Roku made a gesture to for the rest of his comrades to not attack the Dronox in any way. They nodded in return.
"Do not think you can escape, New Tharians," one of the Dronox stated, his voice mechanical and hard to decipher, "Your life signs are have been attained. You will be returned to your posts in the construction of the final generator. Any attempt at violence or escape from this sentence will be immediately punishable by death." The Dronox held out a plasma gun. "Any questions?"
"Um... no, not at all," Roku responded, holding his hands in the air, "Please, by all means, take us back into the city." The Tharian captain winked at the rest of his crew.
The Dronox looked confused by the politeness in the Tharian's compliance.
"Very well then, remain still."
The three Dronox encircled the five disguised captains. The one that appeared to be the leader spoke into a small microphone on his wrist. "Beam us back to coordinates 443, 221, 17."
Another computerized voice responded with, "Command accepted."
Before any of the captains would have had a chance to run away, a white light obscured their vision, and they dematerialized on the spot.
The prison door came sliding open, its metallic hinges making their creaking noise as they locked into place.
Harko looked up. He was sitting on a small bed, with little to no comfortable items. It was just a mattress, and a frame. The walls were made of solid Tritium metal, polished and impenetrable. The Tharian engineer looked up at his visitor.
It was Veara.
Harko could barely stand the sight of the corrupted Artlen. Her smile showed nothing but malice, and her one good eye... well... it was full of fury.
"What do you want?" Harko asked, showing no care for the other creature in the room.
"The last energy spire is almost complete," Veara responded, leaning against a nearby wall, "We need you to input the energy algorithms. After all, you wouldn't want your homeworld to blow up now would you?"
Harko didn't even look back at the Artlen... showing any contempt with her presence was out of the question.
"The Grox are so powerful... why didn't they just create the generators themselves?"
Veara laughed at that one.
"You're the engineer. You tell me."
"Because the Grox are... um.. what's the word?... lazy?"
"You're lucky I'm not a Grox. No, it's because all species evolve in different ways. While the mighty Grox Empire may be greatly more advanced than the New Tharians... your control over Dark Energy remains quite stunning. We needed your help if we were to complete the Grand Master's stratagem in a timely manner. That's why we never destroyed this planet completely."
"Is that so?"
"It is so. Now, follow me, Tharian."
Harko forced himself to stand up, taking slow strides towards the Artlen.
Veara smiled and turned to walk out of the prison cell door.
Then she froze.
The Artlen didn't move a single muscle, she just remained completely stuck in mid stride.
Harko was confused. He took a few steps forward. It was as if someone had pushed a pause button on Veara's entire being.
"Veara?" Harko asked, waving a hand in front of her eyes.
The engineer took a few steps around to look at Veara's face. None of her features were moving. Her mouth and lips were still. Her feline-like nose was complete immobile.
Something wasn't right.
That's when he noticed it.
Her eye. Right in her good eye he could see something. It was vague, blurry, and hard to make out, but he could see it. Harko got closer to get a better look.
Within her eye, just beyond a translucent pupil, was small hard-to-make-out Veara. She was tied in chains of dark energy, screaming at the infinite dark. None of this made any sense. Harko was just shocked. He was witnessing something that shouldn't exist.
The Tharian remembered something from an ancient Old Tharian tribal scroll. It was funny that he even remembered it.
"The eyes are the windows of the soul."
Harko struggled to realize if he was truly witnessing Veara's consciousness, bound in chains of... what exactly?
The Tharian bent even closer, trying to view the scene within the Artlen's eyes.
Veara snapped back to life.
"What are you?" she exclaimed. Veara used her arms to hit Harko straight in the chest, knocking him back a good five feet. "What in the name of Agriath were you doing?"
"I should've asked you the same question!" Harko retailiated.
Veara smiled.
"It's no problem, that little matter was resolved." The Artlen turned and walked down the prison hallway. Harko got to his feet and followed her, still confused about what had just happened.
Had he... witnessed Veara's true consciousness?
