Well, that certainly something.

"Hey you still alright there, did he hurt you in ways you're not telling me about?" （；´д｀）ゞ

Again I'm fine. He only rough me up a bit after I kicked him in his equivalent of the nads out of shock. He then knocks me out and I figured out that I was taken hostage yet again and so got more annoyed to the point where I didn't take his next threats seriously.

"Well you were lucky that I was there to save you."

I was waiting for that exact thing to happen. And while I was waiting I actually came to a decision that plagued me for some time.

"And what is that?"

Alright then. *Clears throat*

ATTENTION ALL READERS, THERE WILL BE A COMPLETE REWORK FOR ALL THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, ESPECIALLY THE FIRST FEW ONES, TO FIX ANY AND ALL GRAMMITCAL ERROS AND FORMATTING THAT HAVE BEEN BUGGING ME FOR SOME TIME, I JUST WANT TO GIVE THE BEST EXPEIRENCE FOR MY READERS. I WILL HOWEVER KEEP THE OLD VERSONS TO MYSELF TO REMINID ME OF HOW MUCH I'VE IMPROVED! THE CHANGES WILL BE GRADUAL AS I NEED TO PREVIEW EVERY CHAPTER AGAIN! *Inhales deeply*

Okay, finally got that out. 😤

"Did you have to shout?"

I need to make sure that EVERYONE gets it.

"Sure, so should get this other chapter out?"

Yep, lets get to it.

Chapter 39: Artifact Thievery

It's quiet in the storage room, a sensation Ares is all too familiar with, the silence of being alone while rummaging through his thoughts as he's practicing with his own abilities like what his brother Janusar had suggested with him carrying a box a few meters in the air in front of him, a task trivial to him at this point. Cronos is currently out helping the Raiders with another assignment, something to do with some sort of artifact, while Janusar is busy researching both the purple gas from Belshir and the minerals from Redstone in the corner of the storage room giving him one of the few times to be alone. Though even a creature like him needs rest once in a while, he doesn't enjoy doing nothing, he already spent four years doing so.

With everything going on outside this room it's calming to him. It reminds him of home, or at least the space station that he once called home. He kept his focused on keeping his hold on the crate while his mind shifts through his memories of his past within that science station, within that room. From the day he was born, to when he first heard Janusar's voice in his head, to their eventual evacuation of the station itself, there's been one constant among them: Sira.

Though he had communicated with his brothers over the years, she was the only one he had ever had personal contact with, they assigned her to the boy to act as a supervisor to his activities. However, as time passed they grew more attached, Ares knew no other person he had been around just as much, even the fellow telepath Garis kept his distance. But she never did, and he could tell that she cared for him, even after they put the Psi-inhibitor collar on him. She was the one who was willing to guide him around the functions of the new world when no one else even bothered to and instead just saw him as a mindless science experiment meant to be tested on.

And they left her to die.

It was then he lost focus and dropped the metal crate towards the floor causing it to tumble harshly on the floor and tip over as metal clangs against metal. The boy however just stands there, completely unaffected by the loud noise that filled the entire room, a shadow now draped over his eyes. Under the curtain of black hair a single tear slowly rolls down his left eye which he quickly rubs off as a mix of anger and grief ran through him, but he suppresses it as sniffle was heard.

This is something he's supposed to leave behind, but why can't he? Why is he so shackled by these memories?

That's when he realized it: they're all he has.

His life up until now was mostly spent in that station, with Sira, there's nothing outside those memories, just the void as empty as space itself. But that isn't the case anymore now that he's free, there's so much out there to see and explore, new memories to make to replace the old, he just needs to be willing to move forward. Perhaps that's what she would want as well.

His blue eyes, now glowing a faint blue glow, look down at the now opened box laying on the ground before him with all its contents now spilled out in between them leaving a good size mess. He leans down and begins putting the stuff back into the crate not wanting to just leave it all lying there. The items ranged from smaller boxes storing their own items to books that were made of paper and leather unlike the tablets the scientist usually used, all of which he did his best to organize the way they were prior to the accident until he came across one that caught his attention.

On the front cover is the image of the familiar image of a double helix shape that he remembered seeing a few times on the monitors the scientists used, and then he read the title of the book.

Art of Gene Manipulation and Advancement

By.

Daniels M. Handerson

Daniels? That name sounds familiar, he believes that he heard Sira called a man by that name a few times before, his brothers said that he was also the reason for their creation, now he's curious.

He opens the book and read its contents with the curiosity only matched by his siblings with his eyes carefully but swiftly scanning each page, their contents containing information that reside in a completely foreign realm to him with things like these base pairs in these so-called DNA structures, them having something to do with the human cell, and so many other aspects of the subject that he just can't wrap his perplexed mind around. Are humans really capable of learning such complex information? If so then he's excited to learn this topic, but for more than one reason.

He lays a hand on his chest and reminisce about his own body as under its simple frame hides the unification of three whole species within him, something that as far as he and his brothers know, is a trait solely within him. If he could study the book and everything it contains, he could gain a better insight into his own biology and a better understanding as to what he is capable of. Mabey even unlock some secrets that even his creators never knew of.

This was when he notices the presence of Janusar near him causing him to turn towards his brother's observant gaze. The sound of him dropping the box had no doubt alerted him, and he could feel his annoyance in his mind. The two stare at each other for a moment before Ares broke the silence.

"Is it okay if I study this?" He asks awkwardly, nervous of his brother's refusal. This was only made worse as his Protoss equivalent contemplating silently for a short while before coming to a conclusion.

"Perhaps, just as long as you learn something useful out of it." The answer brought relief to the boy, Janusar is usually strict with what he can do in the meantime, but this seems to be an exemption. "Be sure to clean up your mess, we will resume later today." Ares nods before watching his brother disappears back behind the wall of boxes to continue his work.

He settles the book to the ground beside him and resumes his own task on sweeping up the contents of the box in his humble home.

Cronos stares at the chasm below, its bottom obscured by a thick green fog that is common in the area, and the only thing that he can see among it is half of a massive skeleton of a creature that had once lived on this now dead world. Based on what he had seen of this planet nothing lives here anymore, aside from him, the Terrans he works with to retrieve the artifact, and the Tal'darim that are currently trying to stop them from doing so.

He looks up ahead to inspect the structure of interest: a large Xel'naga temple built within the side of the mountain on the other side of this chasm. Apparently the only way in is through the front entrance, and with no visible way to open it they need to break through it, and he turns his head towards their solution: a large laser drill. This massive three legged device left behind by the Mobius Foundation is the only thing powerful enough to break through the temple's multiple doors to reach this artifact they seek, and he could feel the energy emanating from its bright orange beam, all they need to do is defend it until it is done with its work.

Speaking of defense, he could see a group of Tal'darim forces gathering up at one of their ramps, comprising of zealots, stalkers, and a few archons. These large beings are how the hybrid was able to see through the fog of the planet, they are quite literally a beacon of pure psionic energy that he could easily pick up on, and they are only comprised of two high templar merging which serves to show an example of the Protoss' incredible power. He observes the group heading towards their left giving the hybrid an indicator as to where to go.

Cronos stomps through the base the Raiders have set up, passing some marines and marauders heading towards the other side to defend the other entrance. Upon passing the factory building another siege tank emerges from within the structure and heads towards the same direction as him. He stops right in front of a supply depot as the tank meets up with another and sieges up as well, the vehicles so far have proved invaluable alongside the bunker, not even the Protoss with their advance weapons were able to punch through them so far.

He looks over to the attack group and sees that the drill was targeting at the approaching group, specifically against the archons, and picking them off one by one with ease despite their powerful shields leaving only the zealots and stalkers charging in. As soon as they were in range, the troops in the bunkers and the tanks fired, throwing a hail of bullets and tank shells at the enemy, making mincemeat out of them in mere seconds. Cronos would be dishonest to himself to think that he would get past this much firepower unscathed, even with his armor.

His gaze turns back to the temple in which he catches that another door has been melted through bringing them one step closer to their goal, but the Tal'darim know this as well as he could already see another battle group being formed, but this time with a new unit: the colossus. The bio said that these titanic four-legged walkers use powerful beams contained in their large ovular upper bodies to incinerate any lightly armored units to ash from great range, and he could see their immense frames all the way from the base. He does however question how such a top-heavy machine can be able to walk steadily with such skinny legs.

Regardless of the answer, they're still a problem since their great height can able them to see above the cliffs that had given them the advantage thus far, and their size gives them high durability. But luckily, they have just the weapon to deal with them, and the terrans know that. Before the attack group could move out the giant drill was refocused towards the first of the two colossi, forcing them all to move out, and the immense power of its own beam pushes through its heavy shields before damaging the metal hull. As quickly as the shield was destroyed, the metal hull of the machine gives in and the beam punches right through causing the towering machine to combust into a fiery blue explosion from the inside out destroying it in its entirety. The drill then sets its sights on the remaining robot, and just as the attack group made it halfway through to them, it suffers the same fate.

With the drill now refocused on the gate, all that's left of the group are a few zealots, a pair of stalkers, and a single archon, now this will require his intervention. He rushes back across the base to meet them at the other entrance which he sees is still being constructed and won't be finished by the time the Protoss arrive. He jumps down the ramp leaving the other troops that are moving to reinforce the position to catch up with him and rushes past the working SCVs still constructing the bunkers before stopping in front of them.

His glowing blue eyes stares at the encroaching group as he growls in anticipation with his four blade-tipped tendrils twitching to reflect this.

The two sides clash with the zealots being the first to engage the hybrid as all three of them charging with reckless abandon, but with such a great difference in size and strength between them these warriors were at the disadvantage. He tackles the middle member killing him instantly and causing the Protoss to dissipate in a blue flash, then quickly swings around for a tendril to strike a second member across the torso and taking him out of the fight. His eyes then sets on the final opponent before sending another tendril flying to end him, but the zealot dodges out of the way and took a leap right towards Cronos' face. Despite the sudden maneuver he quickly responds and catches the zealot by the shoulder in midair and with a clawed hand stab through the shield and armor of the warrior, finishing him off.

He lets out a small chuckle as he removes his now bloodied hand out of the zealot and tosses the body aside to focus on the remaining forces now arriving to face him. The two stalkers immediately fire upon their opponent as he charges forward to tear one of them apart. Just as he was in striking distance of his prey it blinks away before even his tendril could reach him earning a growl of annoyance from him. He looks over to spot the stalker now behind the archon which is already preparing to attack him. Cronos charges it letting out a menacing roar right as the psionic being unleashes a beam of energy right at him, and despite its power, he was able to shrug it off long enough to reach his opponent.

His body smashes against its shielding but it stays intact causing both of them rebound against each other. The archon strikes again by throwing a clenched fist towards the hybrid making contact with his head, and with it rivaling him in both size and physical strength, it actually staggers Cronos for a second. He could feel the stalkers trying their best to assist in the fight, but their bolts did little to harm him in comparison to that hit. With another bellowing roar he swings another claw around but the shield holds, he responds by continuing to throw a series of furious blows not giving his foe a chance to retaliate back until finally he feels the barrier shatter under his might.

Another strike was thrown, but it was caught by a hand of psionic power, and another was thrown by the archon in retaliation only to be caught by him as well. The two stare each other down with eyes full of fury with the strength to match, with neither ever considering to back down from one another, and that's the drive of his next move. His remaining pair of arms reach out and grab the archon by the collar of its "armor", brings it in close before raising all four of his tendrils rise from behind him, and like snakes to their prey, they all strike at the head. The archon was helpless as four large blades pierce its head causing it to quickly dissipate into a blue mist with even its armor disappearing into nothing.

His eyes, now full of malice from the adrenaline, both turn towards the remaining stalkers who are still trying to kill the hybrid in vain as he now charges at the closest one with a mighty roar. Once in range he raises a claw to bisect the walker, but like before the stalker blinks away right before he struck, but this time he's prepared. That strike was a fluke for the real one as a tendril lashes out and impales the enemy right behind him, and in one swift move he throws the remains right towards the survivor forcing it to teleport a short distance away. He then leaps towards the stalker and with no way to avoid him, it was crushed under the monster like a piece of tin ending its life.

Despite his victory, the growling monster isn't satisfied. He wants more. More essence, more conflict, more blood.

He turns his sights towards the most concentrated source of it: a Protoss base.

Without hesitation he charges towards the base at full speed, ignoring the ringing currently going off from the device he carries, and leaps right into the base. As soon as he was spotted the photon cannons begin firing but each shot did nothing to so much as phase the hybrid as he comes hurtling down like a tank shell. Psionic energy begins to build up beneath his carapace with each attack that connects, and by the time he lands all the pent up energy envelops the immediate area and the cannons along with their respective pylons were consumed in the resulting dust cloud.

The dust quickly settles reviling the glowing energy of the hybrid piercing through the shroud like a predator in the night. Seconds later he lets out a menacing howl that echoes throughout the entire base before charging with bloodlust in his eyes. Every defender comes charging towards the rampaging beast that is Cronos to put an early end to him, but with every warrior that comes face to face with him is another one eviscerated by his claws, not even the stalkers have time to avoid his wrath. Any building in his way was heavily damaged as he will not allow anything to stand in his way. With the death of each Protoss warrior he lets out a crazed laugh as more purple blood is sprayed across his blue carapace.

The rampage goes unchallenged as dozens die by his hand, that is, until an energy bolt crashes right into him with enough force to stagger the monster at the slightest. He snaps his head towards the one with the audacity to strike at him only to be shot again now this time feeling a tinge of pain. His eyes finally caught a glimpse of the unit responsible, an immortal, large war machines almost as big as an archon whose plasma bolts can easily punch through heavy armor while bearing that of its own.

This barely matters to the hybrid as he sets out for more blood and charges once again. However, another shot hits him from behind causing him to dart behind to spot another immortal that had emerged from behind a gateway, now he's getting annoyed. He tries to go after the newcomer but the first immortal fires again prompting the second to attack which now properly staggering him. Yet another immortal joins in as they begin to fire in a pattern to keep him from gaining momentum again, and even began to push him back towards the entrance. Additional warriors began warping around them to join in the fight with a fourth immortal walking in to provide additional firepower. The situation was made worse as a colossus walks in, towering above all as its shadow drapes over Cronos.

Things are dire for the hybrid as the Protoss close in on him, and the Colossus begins to charge up its attack, but then a beam of orange light comes in and melts through the titan's shield then soon after its armor causing it to combust into a fiery blue flame like the ones before it. Before they all could recover from the sight the beam then hits one of the immortals quickly stripping it of its shield forcing it to activate its personal barrier which even then couldn't stop the damage done. The golden machine combusts and a blue liquid spills out as its legs crumple to the ground.

He suddenly feels the ground vibrate as explosions erupt from all around him and within the Protoss ranks. He adverts his eyes from the flashes and looks back down the ramp to see that four siege tanks have set up near the base of the ramp and are shelling the position with relentless intent. The immortals however were able to survive thanks to their barriers, but he's not going to allow their survival. He reaches out psionically until he could feel their essence, then he lets out another roar before ripping it out causing the machines to stumble forward as the drivers feel the painful effects of their essence being stolen, and yet Cronos feels so revitalized now. As a result, they their barriers falter in time for the tank's shells to hail right on top of them, and he just watched as they were obliterated under the rain of fire and metal.

To be frank he was relieved that the terrans intervened, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten out of that intact, and as he inspects himself, he still sees visible fractures all across his body. It was then a green beam lands onto one of these fractures and slowly it began to close making him look behind to see over a couple dozen marines, marauders, and medics march up the ramp, and among them is a lone medic healing him up which he gives an approving grunt in response. He then hears the familiar beeping of the communications device which he pulls out from his back and responds reveling the rather disapproving face of Jim Raynor.

"That was reckless of you Cronos, you're lucky we're here to save your sorry butt." Like a child being talked down upon by their parent he groans before rolling his head to simulate rolling his eyes. The image of a map of the area suddenly pops up to push Raynor's out of the way to show a glaring red point flashing franticly. "Looks like they're on the move again, return back to base while we finish off this one, at the very least some pressure will be relived off us."

Now fully recovered from his adrenaline-fueled bloodlust, he calmly complies with this order and rushes back towards the base to meet while the forces behind him continue to demolish the weaken Protoss base. While he runs his eyes also trace the drill's laser beam back towards the temple to see that its making progress on the very last gate from the looks of it meaning that they're almost to their prize. It's a shame though, he wouldn't mind wreaking more havoc on another base. But it seems that the Tal'darim know this as well as he spots half a dozen warp prisms along with two void rays and a few scouts as escorts.

"Looks like they're sending everything they've got, double time it everyone!" A veteran solider spout out causing all the nearby soldiers to run back towards the base with Cronos taking the lead.

They come upon the now finished bunker line and the supply depot built in between a couple of them which lowers to let them in and have Cronos to continue to leave behind the others to the base. Upon making it up the ramp he watches as the established missile turrets begin firing at the large craft, focusing one down before the others start dropping off their forces. A couple zealots and an immortal were dropped in front of him to take out the turrets, but him and some nearby War Pigs mercenaries intervene as he takes point while the marines offer supportive fire. Before the Tal'darim did too much damage to the turrets they turn their sights on Cronos and the zealots charge in, but they were trampled as easily as the rest before leaving only him and the immortal to face each other.

The plasma bolts pound against his carapace like hammers, and his first strike causes its barrier to come up. But luckily the War Pigs are present to provide cover fire as though the walker's barrier can withstand heavier attacks like his own they are vulnerable to lighter attacks like that from marines, and their combined fire causes the barrier to fall leaving it wide open for him. Before another shot was fired, he grabs hold of one of its cannons and rips it clean off, then using that time of it being staggered he circles around and tears off the other cannon, leaving the immortal defenseless. Without wasting time, he grabs hold of the immortal's chassis and leg base and begins to split them apart causing its legs to flair around in a vain attempt to shake him off, and with a surprisingly sickening crack he tears the machine's halves in two causing a blue liquid to gush out like blood all over the area.

He looks up just in time to witness the destruction of the warp prism that dropped off the forces along with the others by the actions of the missile turrets and goliaths in the area, and their cargo being finished off by the other defenders, and the thunderous booms of the tank shells hitting the targets outside the base. Meanwhile, the final void ray is being finished off by the laser drill as the orange beam cuts right through the ship's hull causing it to combust into blue flames. He watches as its remains fall into the chasm below to join with the long dead remnants of the planet's previous inhabitants.

The battlefield grew silent with the exemption of the metal of the drill whirling as it sets its focus back towards the final gate, and everyone watches as the gate begins to light up a sharp orange as the drill comes closer to their goal. Eventually, they all witness as the barrier finally collapse under the intense heat of the drill exposing the temple's interior to the wider galaxy for the first time in untold centuries.

"Looks like that last attack took a lot out of their forces, move in before they can regroup." The voice of Raynor calls out from the communicator.

"You heard the man, everyone move, get that roller movin'!" It was then he caught sight of a flat top platform on treads moving out from next of the command center with marines and medics walking beside it.

A supply depot lowers to make a path for the coming escort in which he decides to follow as he wants to know just what all this fighting is even about and if he and his brothers can benefit from it. The whole group rush down the ramp and make a beeline for the temple grounds before the Tal'darim can recuperate. With the fervor of pirates, they run across towards their objective, but even then some of the Tal'darim still try to stop them as a few Zealots come down a ramp to intercept the group, but Cronos uses his momentum to smash right through their lines giving little for the others to mop up. Within seconds they reach the entrance of the temple with the remains of the gates still sizzling red hot.

"Alright everyone, let's make this quick. Move in!" Cronos heads in first with the platform trailing right behind him.

He looks around the tunnel as they make their way down into the ruins of the temple, his eyes scanning the ancient halls which are oddly pristine for being so old, but besides the green lights oddly floating around there's not much to see. That is until they find what they are here for: the Xel'naga artifact.

Cronos was perplexed, just what is so valuable about this? From the looks of it the object is no weapon whatsoever, it's just a long piece of metal floating above some sort of shrine, he tilts his head in complete confusion as to its purpose. But upon taking a closer look, he could feel something from it, like an odd sense of familiarity with it as if he had seen it before. He shakes his head to remove this feeling as the terrans begin the procedure of retrieving it, but he looks away as he senses catch something else odd.

His glowing eyes lay upon a strange device just floating within the shadows of the room on top of a podium with the only way of seeing it just being the faint green glow it gives off. He takes a closer inspection of the device while staying wary of it, the device took the shape of a pyramid with a dim green core contained within a glass-like frame, and from the core he could feel something from it. It feels like essence.

He takes a quick look around the area to make sure that there's no immediate threats around, then he raises two of his hands slowly, staring intently at the device like its an unsuspecting prey. With one fast motion he snatches the device from the podium and tenses up and darts his eyes around expecting some sort of trap to be set off, but nothing happened, the room remained still. He looks back down to inspect the device which now sits comfortably in his hands and is now shining brighter in his hands as if it is responding to his presence. He doesn't know exactly what this is, but it's something Janusar will no doubt be interested in.

"Artifact secured, now let's get the hell out of here!" He turns back around to see the Raiders marching out of the temple with the object now strapped onto the platform giving him reason to leave as well.

They all exit the temple together, with their quarry now in hand, and a couple siege tanks setting up to secure the area. Over on the horizon a few dropships are coming in to pick them up now that the deed is done, but not before a ringing can be heard causing him to pull it out once again.

"Incoming transmission." The adjutant announces before the face of a protoss comes on screen, and from the looks of it he's furious.

"You have prevailed for now. Word of this sacrilege will echo across the stars, James Raynor. The day of reckoning draws near, and not even your infernal beasts will stay our wrath!" The Tal'darim executer proclaims in a focused rage before the message cuts out.

Cronos just scoffs at this threat by clicking his large mandibles over his mouth as the dropships approach, let him send all of his warriors as he wants, it'll just be more delicious essence for him to feed on.

Ares' eyes dart back and forth of the book's pages with wonderment, amazed with the information presented to him, the information read so far was of the information about DNA. This spiral string of a molecule is what apparently holds every last detail of an organism inherited from its parent organism ranging from eye color to body type to even some behavioral traits. Even more fantastic is that fact that they are found within every single cell in the body, contained within a protein package called a chromosome, and that it is duplicated with each new cell created through division. It's so important that one small flaw can have dire consequences on the organism. It's a miracle that he and his brothers were ever created in the first place.

This was just the beginning of it too, there's so much on the topic he could learn from, maybe even ways to improve himself. His feet tap against the side of the box he's sitting on in excitement at this idea.

His thoughts were halted when he hears the entrance door screeching open causing him to look up to witness Cronos entering the room, though he gets his large horns stuck in the doorframe causing Ares to chuckle a little in response before finally getting himself in.

"Hey Cronos." He greets, happy that his brother is back from another mission.

"Hello Ares." Cronos' eyes then notice the book. "What are you reading there?"

"A book about DNA I found, Janusar said I can keep it as long as I learn from it." He shows his elder brother the cover of the book, letting him inspect the book for a few seconds before giving a small nod of approval.

"I see, keep reading then." The boy was given a light pat on the head despite the size difference between the two, it was then they both sense a third presence, being that of Janusar who is just emerging from the wall of boxes next to them.

"Welcome back Cronos. I take it the mission was a success?" Janusar greets with the tone of a pleased parent.

He nods. "Yes, it was, despite the Protoss resistance we were able to claim the artifact. Though it wasn't what I expected."

"What is it?" Ares asked making Cronos face him.

"It was only an object, a piece to something, but to what I do not know." He looks back to their eldest sibling.

"We will figure it out in due time. Anything else to tell?"

"This." Cronos reaches behind and pulls out a pyramid shaped object that pulsates with bright green glow. How did Ares not see that earlier? "It's some sort of device that I believe stores some sort of essence, I found it alongside the artifact piece." He then tosses it to Janusar who effortlessly catches it then begins to examine it like an eager scientist.

At first he just examines it normally with just his hands, but then suddenly suspends it in midair with psionic energy causing it to spin in man directions between his orbiting hands, and this went on for a minute or so before he clasps it back into his hands.

"It is full of essence, it's old based on what I feel from it." The boy's eyes widen, he's shocked that he was able to figure it out that fast. "Indeed, Ares, one day you will hold the same talent. And I believe you'll be one step closer to such." He states before he begun extracting a faint stream of green energy from the device briefly, reveling in the taste before passing it on the Cronos. He does the same before the device was finally passed one to him.

Ares is a little excited to absorb whatever's inside this object, partly because he could feel himself getting hungry again, and also the prospect of getting stronger as well. He places it on top of the open book on his lap and begins focusing his energy on it. Before he knew it he could already feel the essence inside flow into him giving him a sense of euphoria he couldn't feel until this moment, any hunger he felt seconds ago instantly dissipated and is replaced with a sense of satisfaction as he exhales smoothly.

"SO, how does it feel?"

"Like I've eaten enough for my whole life." He slumps back as he felt a little heavy from the meal, his eyes now droopy.

"Good, because you'll be trained harder than ever before, very soon."

Within one of the garages of the Haven colony, a large yellow excavator is raised above a floor, and under it May lays under it with her hands navigating the innards of the machinery of the excavator's underbelly, on the verge of replacing a couple of old components of vehicle, lying next to her is Isabel who is observing the redhead as she removes one of the parts which is a rusted pipe about half the length of her torso. She gently puts it aside despite its weight and grabs the spare part that was laying to her side, lining it up to where the previous one used to be.

"Alright Isabel, grab the bolter gun and insert those bolts in while I hold it. Alright?" May asks.

"Got it." Doing as told the blonde girl grabs a small gun-like tool and a metal bolt and lines them both onto one of the holes where it meant to be. With a loud clap the device drills the bolt in securing that area of the component. With three more spots to go she begins placing the bolts and screwing them in, and with each clap that echoes through the garage the weight on May's arms lessons as they're taken by each bolt.

As the last bolt was placed, she lets go of the part and the two roll out from under the vehicle. Giving a heavy sigh as she leans up, she looks at Isabel who's already up and stretching out her arms while giving an audible groan.

"Welp, that's another one done."

"Yep, there's quite a few more waiting for a routine maintenance so we're going to have a long day." She gets up and wipes her forehead of sweat and heads over towards a nearby table covered in tools and small mechanical parts and begins sifting through it.

"Beats just sitting around and doing nothing."

"Sure does." She continues to search through it but her brow furrows as she doesn't seem to find what she is looking for. "Hey, would you mind looking into the closet for a micro welder, it should look like a smaller version of the bolter with a narrow tip."

"Alrighty." Without hesitation her friend walks towards the door on the adjacent wall leading towards the storage closet of this building and enters the interior.

The reason she needs this tool is that there's been increasing reports of attacks from unknown creatures within the outlying forests, and as a result they keep damaging both cosmetic and functional parts of the vehicles requiring a wielder in order to fix now.

Suddenly a distant alarm blurts out its cries across the area catching her attention and confusing the woman as to what is going one and so walks out to figure out what's going on, only to here distant gunfire echo from afar making her worried now. Her ears catch Isabel's screams of fear above all else making her snap her head towards her direction to barely catch sight of the girl running out of the closet and slamming the door behind her. May ran towards her as she tries to use her body as a barrier for whatever frightened the girl which quickly makes itself present to her.

Something from the other side of the door slams harshly against it nearly causing Isabel to fall over from the shear force from the impact. Suddenly two orange eyes pear over through the single viewport of the door giving the two a piercing glare before letting out mix of a human's scream and animalistic howl before a clawed hand smashes through the glass to try to grab Isabel. The girl narrowly dodges the attack while May franticly tries to find something to barricade the door. Her green eyes quickly land onto a tool shelf next to the door and goes over to pull it down. The monster retracts its arm and bashes the door in repeatedly in an attempt to get free making an ever-bigger dent with each impact.

May however is trying her hardest to pull the shelf down, but it is too heavy for it to lean over. Then an idea comes to her.

"Isabel, switch!" May comes up and quickly takes her friend's place making the blonde run towards the shelf, but she looks up with uncertain eyes.

"I don't know if I can do this." Her voice was full of fear and uncertainty when she turned to lock eyes with her.

"I know you can do it, you just need to foc-" She was cut off by the monster slamming into the door again throwing her over and having the door opening just enough for an arm to seep through, but the woman quickly rebounds back and slams the door onto the limb causing it to retreat back into the room with a sickening scream.

She watch as the girl returns looking at the shelf, and in a moment she raises he arms begins channeling psionic energy into the self. A new clawed limb suddenly sprouts out from the viewport and begins thrashing around to hit her making her duck to be right out of its range, but also giving herself less leverage to hold back the door. She the hears metal creaking before hearing Isabel's voice.

"Move!" Without hesitation she jumps away from the door, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the metal shelf making all of its contents to scatter on the floor and leaving the monster barricaded inside the closet.

Isabel helps her up and the tow look at each other again to see the girl heavily panting much like her due to the stress of moving that shelf, but there's no time to rest.

"Let's go!" She grabs her arm and they begin running out of the garage as the creature in the closet desperately tries to get itself free.

When they arrived outside, they come across a nightmare. Multiple buildings are on fire and dozens of infested are swarming the area, chasing all the colonists trying to escape from their horrors. She watches as one is torn apart by multiple infested before one of them spots the pair and howls loudly alerting all the others around it to fresh prey.

"Run, RUN!" She yells as the two begin to flee for their lives from the incoming horde.

Well that was a lengthy chapter, is this going to be the norm for me?

"Don't know, but let's just get straight to it, there's already enough words here and I really need to attend to a few things."

Knowing you they can't be good.

Emoryjmorrill: Glad you did, hope to see you next time. 😊

Okay, trivia of the day is:

"Asteroids have minerals, and believe it or not, there have been efforts to mine asteroids. Rather than being for profit, this is mostly out of curiosity. Curiosity drives science, and mining is no different." (Duron, 2021) (interestingfacts . org)

I also heard that they contain a bountiful amount of resources too, enough to satiate the world's current needs if established.

"You guys seriously haven't established that yet? I've seen operations like these worked as just menial jobs already."

Well sorrrrry that we're a bit slow on the uptake, we're still trying to resolve some domestic issues here unlike the wider galaxy.

"Well you're taking longer than most actually, some civilizations already resolved their problems by the time you were in the medieval ages."

And how would you know that?

"History books."

Wait, you read? That's new.

"Oh shut up. Let's just get to ending it."

Alright, so thank you all for reading this next chapter, I hope you all have a great day or night wherever you are and stay shaped.

"See ya!" ヾ(•ω•`)o