The Crumbling Orb EPISODE VIII: The Shadow Exchange
Chapter 1:
A few days before the Aparoid Invasion.
In orbit of a desert planet with spotted lakes scattered everywhere was a hyperspace ring with two large ships beside it as defense ships.
The hyperspace ring and the defense ships had the Shadow Exchange logo on them.
Two mercenary starfighters left hyperspeed through the ring and headed to the planet, flying low enough to a rainy city with neon lights on every single roof of the buildings and even scattered on the streets.
The starfighters flew by a building that had a neon light symbol of the Shadow Exchange.
Inside the office sitting on a fur couch was a Moth-Humanoid who was counting credits while two human females laid on his lap with slave collars around their necks.
A human male walked in and waited to be acknowledged.
In two minutes the Moth-Humanoid looked up and cocked an eyebrow behind his red heart-shaped glasses.
"I'm busy." He said.
"Mister, Valentino. Our spies told us that the Tyrant Overlord known as Stolas is no longer a Tyrant Overlord. The other three Tyrants paid us the total sum of twenty million credits to have him assassinated." The man said.
"Excellent!" Valentino said.
Valentino shoved the two slaves to the floor as he got up and walked to his desk typing on the console with a wide grin on his face.
"I will send our top assassins to locate him. The problem is them getting to his homeworld will be tricky, but I'm sure our top assassins will think of something." Valentino said.
"The last Hutt Cartel leader also resigned. His mercenaries are to join up with us." The man said.
"The end of the Cartel, the further rise of the Shadow Exchange." Valentino said with a chuckle.
Valentino clicked the assassinate button.
Back to the present time.
Ken and Eto was sitting at a table in the royal kitchen of Stolas' palace and were playing chess with Hide nearby looking in the refrigerator.
"Raloi sure eat differently than us." Hide said pulling out a strange milk substance and cocked an eyebrow.
Stolas' now ex-wife, Stella, walked in and snatched the milk from Hide and shoved him away before putting it in the refrigerator.
"Hey!" Hide said.
"You locked the door on me yesterday when I was to speak to my unbearable ex-husband over what I get in the divorce!" Stella said.
"Hey listen, you was being a bother." Hide said.
"A bother!" Stella shouted.
She grabbed a random item on the counter and threw it at Hide and as he was ducking she kept throwing things.
"Was I a bother when I bared a fucking kid for my oh so wonderful fucking idiotic husband!" Stella shouted.
"You're nuts!" Hide shouted.
Octavia walked in with a sigh and sat beside Ken and Eto and went onto her phone.
"You!" Stella shouted at her.
"Hi, mom." Octavia said with a regretful noise.
"I'm taking you!" Stella shouted.
"What!? I don't want to be taken away from dad!" Octavia shouted.
"Too bad!" Stella shouted.
Joker walked in.
"What's with the screaming?" Joker asked.
"Shut up!" Stella said to him.
"Bite my head off why don't you..." Joker mumbled.
"What on earth are you doing!?" Stolas asked walking in.
"I'm making sure I get what belongs to me, and one thing being my kid!" Stella shouted while pointing to Octavia.
"You cannot just take our daughter away for yourself!" Stolas said.
"You should have thought about that when you was masturbating to some deceased man's picture!" Stella shouted while throwing two things at him.
Stolas dodged each throw and frowned at her.
"You can have everything, just as long as I see my daughter!" Stolas yelled.
"Hell no!" Stella shouted.
The two walked off into another room and argued some more.
"I'm sorry." Hide said to Octavia.
Octavia had her head down between her knees.
Eto looked to Ken, Hide, and Joker.
"Woman time please?" Eto asked.
The boys left the room and Eto patted Octavia's back.
"It's only one more year till you're eighteen. Then you can make your own decisions." Eto said.
"I don't want to be taken away from my dad." Octavia said weakly.
"Just curious, are they always like this, even before the divorce?" Eto asked.
"They always argue. The reason they didn't divorce is because Dad wanted to help her out, give her a life of royalty." Octavia said.
"Sometimes things change, you know?" Eto said.
"Yeah but I don't want two family's, I wanted one." Octavia said.
"Was your father always a closet homosexual?" Eto asked.
"He's pansexual, but he started looking at men for about six years now. He only opens up about it when he's alone, or with me, or with all of us as you have seen. I just want my dad and mom happy, but it feels like there is nothing I can do." Octavia said putting her hands on her face.
Eto gave her a hug.
"Hey, it will be okay. You just need to have hope." Eto said.
"I've tried to have hope." Octavia said weakly.
"Sometimes hope comes at an unexpected moment." Eto said.
"I just- I just... If I had to choose between crazy and stupid. I'd choose my stupid dad any day. He's always comforted me, always been there to do the things I wanted to do, always buying me things I don't need but it still puts a smile on my face that he tries. I want my dad." Octavia cried.
Eto kept comforting her and speaking to her.
Stolas was looking at them outside through the window with a worried look on his face and then he turned around to see Stella shattering two planted flowers onto the floor while the servants tried to hurry up and clean every mess she was making.
Stolas sighed.
"You can have anything you want, I just want my daughter." Stolas said calmly.
Stella walked by him and pushed him against the wall.
"I will make sure you regret this." Stella said.
Stella walked off while yelling at two servants to follow her.
Stolas sighed and looked up at the sky sadly.
Then he noticed a few strange ships entering the sky.
"Never saw those before." Stolas said to himself.
Three proton torpedos came from one of the ships and flew down wiping out the bridge of a Raloi frigate.
"What the!" Stolas shouted.
Alarms began to go off and he saw even more ships coming down from the sky.
"Invasion alert! This is not Aparoids!" The alarm said in his palace.
Eto and Octavia ran out and looked at the sky seeing two different types of ships flying down while sending down protons to attack nearby Raloi frigates and even engaging a Federation Endurance-class.
"We're under attack by unknowns!" Eto shouted to Ken who was running up.
"They aren't unknowns." Thane said running up behind them.
"Who are they?" Ken asked.
"The Shadow Exchange's private mercenary fleet." Thane said.