Outer Rim
Morkai Anomaly
Morkai 4.3, one of four moons in orbit about supermassive gas giant Morkai 4
Temple of the Unnamed King
Agent Sluka opened his eyes.
He was sitting in the branches of a tree, high from the ground. Beside him, coiled in the branches, was the Horned Serpent. He was surrounded by trees too. Laughter filled his ears from below.
Agent Sluka looked down.
Two humans, a man and a boy, were beneath him in a small clearing. Each was dressed in animal skins. Their hair was black, long and unkempt, the man had a scraggly beard. Both his hands were out, palms up. The boy placed his hands into those of the man and each looked into the other's eyes. Like lightning, the man flipped his hands and, from above, grabbed the wrists of the boy who tried but did not succeed in pulling them away fast enough. The man laughed and looked up in the tree at the Horned Serpent coiled in the branches beside Agent Sluka. The boy nodded and placed his hands out palms up.
Realization dawned on Agent Sluka. The Tribes, he said in his head. This is how the Horned Serpents started.
Yes, it is, answered the Serpent in his head. Look!
Images flashed in Agent Sluka's head. He saw tribes of warriors stalking game in the woods. And he saw them, wielding axes and spears, stalking men. Blood was spilled and people died. Then, he saw them with blasters and lightsabers. Then he saw through their eyes. Men and women fighting and dying. And they left for the heavens in ancient starships.
Look at what you have seen, the Horned Serpent said. Kings who fought for their people. Competition for resources. This is the way of Nature, it is Life and Death. Now, watch below!
Agent Sluka looked down.
Beneath him was a King who wore dark armor and a man crawling away from him. A man missing his left leg beneath the knee was crawling through the dirt. Fear filled his eyes, and panic. A King wielding a lightsaber with a yellow plasma blade slowly followed him. Anger filled his eyes. Anger and…something else.
The crawling man muttered something in his tongue. Agent Sluka did not know the words spoken, but he understood them as if he did. Please, the man cried. Don't do this. It was plain as day in Agent Sluka's mind.
The King struck once with his blade and took a foot from the man's other leg. He struck again, yellow plasma blade swinging through the air, and took off that leg just beneath the knee. The man on the ground became frantic, crawling away with his arms and leg stumps as fast as he could. The King laughed. He struck off the man's arm…and laughed again. The man gave up trying to crawl away and simply tried to curl up into a ball. And the King struck again. Again and again. Yellow plasma hacking up and down, again and again. And as he swung the blade changed. It bled red. Streaks of red shone through it and grew until there was no yellow remaining. His anger sated; the King stared at his blade without understanding.
Do you recognize what you sssaw? The Horned Serpent stared into Agent Sluka's eyes and locked them in place. That wasss not the way of Nature, the Way of Life and Death. That was evil, the Horned Serpent said. If the jubot fly laysss its eggsss in a corem rat, the eggsss hatch and the larvae eat the corem rat alive. Eat him apart from the inssside, the Serpent continued. The rat sssuffersss, but that is the Way of Life and Death. Life is the means and the goal, not the sssuffering. The Serpent raised higher as if it were ready to strike Agent Sluka. If you learn one thing here, learn that. Do not cause suffering for the sake of suffering.
Agent Sluka nodded.
Follow me, hissed the Serpent in Agent Sluka's head. It quickly stretched out and moved along the branch. Agent Sluka sat there confused for a moment. Do not think, hissed the Serpent. Jussst follow.
Agent Sluka stopped thinking and just acted. He reached out. One moment he was sitting there, the next he was slithering along the branch following the Horned Serpent. The Serpent coiled up in a branch and Agent Sluka did so beside it.
Each looked down.
Beneath them were two canines feeding on a carcass of some furry hooved animal. The canines were wolf-like with fur that was several shades of green, a camouflage pattern.
Is this the canine that the Pit Fighters modeled themselves after? Agent Sluka asked. The Serpent paid him no mind.
Looook! It hissed into his head.
Agent Sluka looked down. Beneath him he saw warriors were running through the trees. Warriors dressed similarly to the hunters he saw before, yet their skins were dyed into various shades of green and beside them ran the camouflaged wolves, hunting together, like a pack.
And they were chasing humans. And again, the humans clashed and people died. First with spears and axes, then with blaster and lightsaber. The wolves were bred into fighting dogs. Then a King stepped forward, a King in Green. A King bearing a lightsaber whose blade was a green burning plasma. And Agent Sluka stood before the King, wearing yellow and with lightsaber in hand, its yellow plasma blade waiting for combat.
And they met.
Agent Sluka felt his life taken away from him as the green blade cut him in two. His eyes opened and he was facing another King in Green. Agent Sluka stepped forward and again he died. And again, he died under the green blade of another King. Again, and again, each time under the blade of a different King. Until he finally took down his opponent.
And the Serpent looked down at him from the branches and again hissed, Follow me.
After passing from branch to branch Agent Sluka watched a purple avian hunt its prey and then watched the Tribe on its way to Corvus. And again, he faced a King. This time a King in Purple whose lightsaber emitted a purple plasma blade. And again, Agent Sluka lost, over and over, before finally claiming victory. Next, he watched a black spider hunt in the forest and then faced Kings whose lightsaber emitted a black plasma blade. And again, Agent Sluka finally emerged victorious.
Then, Agent Sluka watched the blue feline stalking its prey through the woods. And then he watched the tribes fight and battle until they fled to the stars and then even after that.
Now for the King in Blue, Agent Sluka thought. The last one.
Agent Sluka was standing in the jungle, once again in his flight suit. Where is the King? He reached out with his senses, followed the warm trail like the Horned Serpent that he was. And closer he drew until finally he stood before two trees like the two where he landed near to in the zeta-class shuttle. One covered in vines with the two thriving and the other being choked to death by the vines and flowers covering it. He took a step up to the space between.
And up stepped the King in Blue.
Except it wasn't a King. It was a Queen. It was Sal.