Xen'tarza

Renegade

I

Assault

On planet Ujhiri, two women strode together in a busy city. Dressed for business, the couple walked a few blocks east, holding hands until they reached the Infinite Stock Exchange. At the financial district, they stopped at a central fast-food market to grab breakfast and then made their way to a bank called Velletek.

They stepped inside and greeted an officer in the vestibule where they were scanned. Once clear, the couple entered the bank’s atrium. After waving their KLDs at a kiosk, they kissed and parted ways. One of them stood in front of the interior doors, greeting customers while the other joined her fellow tellers behind a pane of votrigon.

It appeared to be a busy morning at the bank. Dozens of people without the luxury of kinetic link devices surged in, depositing and withdrawing reons. Customers sought consultants for purchasing real estate, refinancing, reverse mortgages, and equity lines of credit. Younger people patiently waited for representatives in an attempt to receive student loans. Within just a few hours, the branch was filled to capacity.

An hour before the bank would close for the day, a shuttle parked by Velletek. As it hovered a few feet from the ground, seven aliens jumped out: two humyns, a tyiri, a hevala, a xentari, a ghensoth and a sca’vezi. Donning demon-like masks and clad in heavy black armor, they charged into the bank.

Before the officer could even flinch, the ghensoth shoved a claw through his overgrown belly. The sca’vezi launched a saucer that disrupted all security cameras and weapon detectors while his comrades leaped across the vestibule. Lifting the dead officer, the ghensoth threw his corpse through the interior doors.

Glass shattered. People shrieked. Many of them scrambled to get away. Yet they stopped in their tracks as soon as the hovering saucer played an android-sounding message: Lie down on the floor; do not move; do not scream; do not speak; do not look up. The message replayed itself multiple times while the masked terrorists charged in, shooting security guards around the bank with silenced guns.

As the intruders were busy with their murdering, the receptionist quietly reached for the kiosk’s alarm. Before she managed to activate it, however, the ghensoth seized her extended arm and ripped it off. He then grabbed her by the jaw—crushing it effortlessly—and tossed her halfway across the chamber into a chandelier. Her lover screamed in hysteria, at which point the sca’vezi aimed his pistol at her and put a hole in her head.

From that point on, everyone obeyed the stark message. The masked humyns stood on either side of a sealed vault, using enchanted swords to carve it open. Concurrently, the xentari and tyiri hacked automated teller machines via their KLDs, transferring thousands of reons into their personal accounts. The other aliens paced Velletek, ensuring that the hostages obeyed the saucer’s repeating message.

Once the vault’s door melted off, the masked swordsmen stepped inside a chamber littered with dalikonium ingots. In less than a minute, they digitally ported every ingot into their kinetic link devices and left. When the duo exited the emptied vault, their comrades followed them out of the bank. At that exact moment, their shuttle returned. They rushed inside the craft and immediately took off, leaving the planet before anyone in the bank had the courage to look up and report what had happened.

II

Emptiness

Deep in the outer realm of space, Marauder advanced through a relatively empty star system in the Maga’Dar galaxy. What made Xaglia Zamosus such a famous star system, despite its puny sun and two orbiting planets, was Qyon’tog, a gargantuan asteroid along a belt surrounding the sca’vezi homeworld of Phikon. Approaching the planet’s belt, Vokken slowed down. He then flew the battleship amid asteroids until arriving at Qyon’tog, which glittered like a cross between a midnight metropolis and an excavation site.

Alone in Marauder’s cafeteria, Dojin sat at the bar section and guzzled down a bottle of sequila mequla. He was reaching for another bottle when the vessel came to a full stop. Feeling the battleship rumble, Dojin assumed that Vokken had docked at the notorious asteroid where Xorvaj needed to sell the amulet they had acquired in Jye Xeu Zeikein. Not thinking further on the matter, he started drinking another bottle of alcohol.

While he gulped it down like juice, his KLD vibrated. Glancing at the device, he noticed a message appear on the screen: Dojin! Help me!For a moment, he gazed blankly at the email before realizing that the notification had been sent from an unknown source. Putting his drink down, he shook his head. Then he saw another message appear: Please! Help me!

“Am I drunk already?”

Trying to clear his mind, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the message was gone. Mystified, he immediately checked his email history but didn’t see any recent notifications. Dojin raised an eyebrow, returning to the “new” email tab, which was empty.

“I gotta drink less,” he said to himself, laughing.

Shirakaya and the ghensoth entered the cafeteria from a door across the chamber. The duo approached Dojin who purposely ignored them. Glancing at his liquor, the freelancer couldn’t help but grin. She poured herself a shot and drank it in one quick swig before he could finish the bottle of sequila mequla.

“Last chance to join us,” she said.

“Not interested.”

Shirakaya squinted at him. “It’s scumbag haven. How can you not be interested? Just about every person there is like you.”

“There ain’t no one like me.”

Xorvaj cackled softly.

“All right,” Shirakaya said with a sigh. “Well, whatever business you need to take care of...make sure you’re not drunk when tending to it. And when it’s finished, get your ass back here.”

The renegade didn’t respond.

“Don’t forget about Psychomania,” Xorvaj said, placing a claw on his partner’s shoulder for a moment. “Now that I’ve recovered, we gotta bash more skulls and earn reons.”

Again, he didn’t reply. The ghensoth froze, rather surprised that his comrade remained quiet. Shirakaya shook her head at Xorvaj, gesturing to leave Dojin alone. Not wasting any more time, the pair left and disembarked from their battleship while the renegade continued drinking at the bar.

Dojin had several DP-823 data pads laid out on the counter. Each one contained news on heists that had occurred within the past eight cycles—the last one on Pravura. Despite having all this information, he failed to find a shred of evidence about the thugs who had killed his brigade and caused a rift between him and Zadoya.

With no lead to follow, it was another boring day for Dojin on Marauder. Stumbling upon the same dead end at which he’d always run into in the past, he felt like a total deadbeat. There was nothing for him to do except get drunk. He’d never forget the pain; he would never let it go. The grudge was all he had left to hold himself together. Nevertheless, he needed a break from the emptiness inside him.

“I miss you,” he muttered to the air, drowning in intoxication.

Grabbing a jug of yushkar mugasis, he poured half of its contents into his glass. Before crossing over to the state of being a drunkard, a telecommunications screen turned on above the bar counter. A sports channel about Death Ships appeared but was rapidly switched to UCN, a female anchor revealing gruesome details about a heist on Ujhiri.

The renegade gazed at it, refraining from his cocktail. He listened intently, learning that Velletek’s security guards, a new receptionist, and one teller had been brutally murdered at the branch located in the Infinite Stock Exchange. In addition, sixty-five million reons had been stolen from the bank’s vault and automated teller machines.

“If I did not know any better, I’d say this M.O. is linked to the legendary Extraction,” the AI said via Dojin’s kinetic link.

“Possibly,” the renegade said, putting his drink down. “Why do you care?”

Vokken’s static-like form revealed a frown. “I’ve already explained myself, fleshling. It is my objective to see the Aardanian freelancer and her mercenaries performing at one hundred percent capacity. This kind of past baggage you carry will keep resurfacing, hindering your ability to vanquish the koth’vurians until it is resolved. I am merely assisting you to complete my goal.”

“In other words, you’re turning into some kind of cybernetic guru? Let me pretend you’re not bullshitting me. What’s your game plan?”

The arcane intelligence produced a wicked grin. “We both know Extraction likes to strike three locations in the same month before falling off the radar for a cycle. Considering all the hot spots they have chosen before and the fact that they never return to the same location twice, we can cross out Ujhiri.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, cyberfag.”

“Entertain me for a moment,” the AI said, scowling. “We know that once they target a specific bank, other heists take place at different branches, even if in another star system or galaxy. Since they chose one of Velletek’s most successful branches on Ujhiri, I can easily pinpoint two other possible locations of equal fame: Chovala and Tyuchstelia.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

Vokken maintained a stern visage. “Again, it would be in my best interest to aid you. And perhaps the currency they have stolen can fall into our possession.”

“I don’t give a shit about the money they stole,” the renegade said, no longer looking at his kinetic link device. With his eyes fixated on the anchor interviewing a survivor at the bank, he went on, “I simply want those motherfuckers dead. Now stop wasting my time and get my ass over to one of those planets.”

III

Underworld

In a metropolis located millions of kilometers under the earth of planet Chovala, a spectral passenger train zoomed through a well-lit tunnel. Its semitransparent hull allowed the humyns of the colony to view the pathway that glittered with myriad gems embedded throughout its carved walls and ceiling.

Something else, however, shone brighter than the jewels. In a heartbeat, it caught the passengers’ attention. They gazed upward and saw what looked like a shuttle flash by them. With little room to maneuver, the vessel zoomed past each cart until it was in front of the arcane locomotive. Enveloped in hyirum, it broke away from the train and flew up as soon as another path opened. Masked in liquid mana, state-of-the-art detectors failed to recognize the vehicle flying up a maze-like infrastructure where only engineers were allowed.

The android pilot zigzagged from one narrow passage to another. At maximum speed, it avoided metal walls by mere centimeters until reaching a dead end, at which point the vessel launched a fusion missile. An explosion erupted, causing the metal frame to melt apart as the ship darted through dirt at an unstoppable speed.

A thousand feet above, hard-working citizens and intergalactic traders milled about inside one of the largest banks in all of Ensar. Famous for its subterranean location and vast security network, shrewd business people came here to deposit their fortunes. Although the Velletek branch was so deep and close to the planet’s core, it had never experienced an earthquake. Now, though, the bank trembled for the first time in its history.

People froze, wide-eyed. Even the security guards appeared flustered. Moments later, the center of the bank’s floor blasted apart. Dozens of merchants fell into the sinkhole as a starship rose from the pit, unleashing a stasis field that temporarily disrupted all technology. During that time, a saucer released itself from the craft’s substructure while seven aliens disembarked.

Wielding destructive weapons, each one took command of a direction and fired lethal beams at officers in their line of sight. Guards stationed on the second floor toppled over the marble balustrade and slammed against the lower floor. Those already on the lower level simply dropped to the ground, their bodies riddled with holes.

In tandem, the hovering saucer played an android-sounding message: Lie down on the floor; do not move; do not scream; do not speak; do not look up. The message replayed itself multiple times. Not a single banker or trader resisted, their lips pressing against the ground. Most of them were either crying or too shocked to weep. Only one teller had the guts to charge toward an alarm. Though he managed to press it, the stasis field that had disrupted everything prevented it from going off.

The masked ghensoth galloped across and dug his claw into the teller’s neck, ripping out his backbone. He then flung the bloodied spinal cord across the atrium. It landed near a family of xentari merchants who shrieked and scrambled, at which point the hevala and tyiri gunned them down. More people cried, but none were foolish enough to move.

“One minute before the EMP frequency resets,” the ghensoth announced, his already husky voice sounding even more ominous through the mask.

His humyn comrades acknowledged his warning, using their jetpacks to reach the second-floor vault. Piercing its sealed door with enchanted flame swords, they stepped inside and ported all corporal deposits to their kinetic link devices. Meanwhile, the sca’vezi and xentari robbers hacked into automatic teller machines and stole millions of reons.

In the meantime, the ghensoth bashed open all the teller cash dispensers and took every last reon before galloping back to Velletek’s lobby. Mere seconds remaining, the shuttle returned to the pit. Its side door unsealed, allowing the robbers to get on board. Once inside, their android pilot exited the bank with its saucer counterpart and followed the maze-like path until it returned to the planet’s death-defying atmosphere. The police were not notified of their heist until they had already left Chovala’s star system.

IV

Searching for Satellites

Marauder returned to the Wulga Fein galaxy, accelerating through a star system by means of its arcane engine. Without a mission, it was pointless for Vokken to use the cosmodrive. Conserving fuel and energy, he flew the battleship across space at a normal speed. At this point, Dojin and the archeologist were the only personnel on board. Everybody else had disembarked from Marauder, whether for a vacation or for some other kind of personal matter.

The word vacation did not exist for Dojin. He spent his free time hunting the group Extraction. Sitting in the captain’s chair, he anxiously drummed his fingers along the seat’s arms while daydreaming about slaughtering his adversaries. Only when Marauder came to a halt near Chovala’s star system did he stand up.

“Why in all the hells did you stop?”

Vokken’s cybernetic face appeared on the screen. “It’s too late. They were one step ahead of me.”

“What?”

“See for yourself,” the AI said.

When the windowpane switched to UCN news, Dojin had a sudden urge to smash the telecommunications screen and break every computer terminal on the bridge. He watched an anchor speak at the center of the bank’s atrium; she was explaining the incident and went on to interview a few survivors. The renegade observed Velletek’s background, focusing on the sinkhole.

“It seems they used the residue of a spectral train’s hyirum to pass through the tightest security Chovala has to offer.”

“Liquid mana,” Dojin said, tightening his fists.

The screen changed back to Vokken’s static-like visage. “Correct. It must have enveloped the entire vessel. On another note, I searched the TDE to see if a guild submitted a quest to find these heisters. Alas, there is nothing. And with good reason. I am starting to think you should let go of your past and allow the authorities to handle this one.”

Dojin lowered his head but maintained a wrathful glare as he approached the screen. “You will send me to Velletek’s branch on Tyuchstelia this instant or I swear I’ll find a way to upload the worst possible virus to your mainframe.”

“I am no longer on a single mainframe,” the AI said, glowering at him. “But if you want to die that bad, so be it.”

“Oh, and I don’t wanna get there next month. Use the fucking cosmodrive.”

Even though the arcane intelligence didn’t respond, he initiated FTM and flew Marauder through dimensional space. The chasm was short lived. Within minutes, the ship traversed from Wulga Fein to Syichi Photh-Kos. Arriving near the outskirts of the far-flung galaxy, Vokken disengaged the cosmodrive and utilized Marauder’s arcane engine for the remaining six-minute flight to the tyiri homeworld.

“You’d better be right about Tyuchstelia.”

“Without me, you’d be drunk and nowhere,” the AI said. “Tyuchstelia is another Pravura. Some say this metropolis of a world is more economically efficient than Ujhiri despite its lack of the Infinite Stock Exchange. Believe me, fleshling, Extraction’s next heist will be there.”

The renegade decided to trust him. For the remainder of the flight, he scanned through his kinetic link device’s armor and weapons’ tab. By the time he knew what items he’d use, Vokken was approaching the planet. Its rising star-scrapers stunned Dojin, but not enough to take his mind off what needed to be done. Porting a black-market helmet that resembled a skeletal face covered with blood stains, he donned it and equipped himself with the EX-600 environmental armor Rah’tera had given him a few months ago.

Entering the twilight atmosphere, Marauder descended amid a cluster of star-scrapers that rose to outer space. To the renegade’s surprise, the network of buildings resembled a celestial metropolis built for gods. Lit akin to a circuit, the urban continent that Dojin stared at appeared to flourish well in the midnight expanse.

“I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

“Not necessarily,” the AI said. “Here on Tyuchstelia, businesses are open sixty-three hours, fifteen days a week.

Dojin sat still, slack-jawed. “You serious?”

“I’m afraid you won’t find me to be much of a prankster, fleshling. Velletek is open all day and night. Now, let’s assume Extraction will make their move during twilight when staff is halved. I’ll hack into the bank’s cameras and shall notify you to move in as soon as security is disrupted. A sound plan?”

“The only sound I wanna hear are my bullets piercing their skulls.”

V

Stagger

Stepping into an arcane elevator on the forty-five thousandth floor of a corporate building, a tyiri lawyer selected Velletek. Fueled by hyirum, the glass elevator rose hundreds of levels within just a few seconds. Although alone, he felt strangely crowded despite the obvious fact that he was all by himself.

Attempting to calm himself, he gazed at the windowed capsule and viewed the vista of star-scrapers with appreciation. After three minutes, the pod reached outer space. It stopped on the ninety-three thousandth floor, arriving at Velletek’s most popular branch in all of planet Tyuchstelia.

Entering the vestibule, the lawyer placed a suitcase on a scanner. A guard examined him while another checked the elevator itself, whose doors appeared to be jammed. Meanwhile, the first guard freed the lawyer who grabbed his bag and advanced into the atrium. Encased in several thick panes of votrigon, the bank’s view from every direction revealed Tyuchstelia’s twin moons and distant stars. This was an everyday view for the tyiri, so he paid no mind to the panorama as he approached an automated teller machine.

When he reached the screen, an unknown force smashed his head against the display so hard that his face went through it—his brain frying in an instant. People cringed and shrieked, but they screamed louder when both security officers in the vestibule were blown away. Just then, Extraction deactivated their cloaking devices and spread around the exquisite branch while their saucer announced: Lie down on the floor; do not move; do not scream; do not speak; do not look up.

As usual, while the message played, the heisters targeted and shot at every officer inside the bank. Despite the message explaining otherwise, people screamed in hysteria. Many others cried and attempted to hide. Those who didn’t listen were silenced by the xentari’s rifle. An accountant watching the carnage dared to break into a run toward an arcane elevator, at least until the ghensoth caught his face sidelong with a grappling hook, ripping it off.

Silence descended over Velletek, broken only by the ceiling’s glass shattering. Particles fell like daggers, accompanied by the renegade who aimed his fully charged plasma shotgun at one of the two humyns and blasted his abdomen. The ray disintegrated his waist, at which point his upper body flopped onto the floor, along with his collapsing legs.

“Abort!” the other humyn shouted. “Abort!”

Extraction scrambled and took cover while Dojin made a smooth descent using his boots’ built-in shock-absorbers. The xentari clutched a random teller, aiming at her head. Before he could threaten to shoot the hostage, Dojin purposely shot the teller in the shoulder with a pistol in one hand and unleashed the remaining charge of his scattergun at the xentari. His head splattered, blood oozing onto the marble floor as the lifeless body fell flat beside the wounded teller who shrieked—half in pain and half in response to the gore.

“Payback is like a rotten cunt.”

The hevala removed her demented helmet and approached Dojin from behind, releasing her ever-intoxicating pheromones. This gave the others an opportunity to fall back, returning to the vestibule. Dojin turned, gazing at her as she walked around him in a circle. With one hand, she reached out to stroke his cheek while stealthily pulling out a dagger with the other. Before her delicate fingers could touch him, he seized her leafy wrist and kicked her back.

“You think my dick is gonna move for you, bitch?”

She flinched in disbelief, never having met someone who could resist her. Seizing the chance, Dojin ported a tetrigonium maul and smashed her in the cranium before she could stab him. Dazed with blood leaking from her forehead, she knelt down. Both hands on the maul, he raised it and bashed her scalp again. The hevala croaked, collapsing to the floor. He continued smashing her head until only mashed brains and blood remained.

“That must have been exhilarating,” Vokken said via KLD, “but the others are getting away.”

Sprinting toward the vestibule, Dojin encountered the other humyn.

“Fucker!” he bellowed, swiping at the renegade with an enchanted machete. “You killed my brother!”

Dojin swerved aside and evaded the fiery blade as he responded, “And you broke our deal by murdering my squad, you backstabbing piece of shit!” The renegade kicked the machete out of his foe’s hand. “I’ve been waiting a whole lot of cycles to fuck you assholes up.”

“What are you…some kind of vigilante?” Without waiting for an answer, the thief roared while ramming Dojin against a votrigon wall that cracked. “Die!”

“Not yet,” the renegade said, pushing him back and grabbing the enflamed machete. “I’m just getting started, dickhead.”

Adrenaline pumping, he swiped the blade down, chopping the humyn’s mask in half, blood squirting. Sirens resounded. The renegade turned around, seeing a police officer approach on a hoverbike. Dojin ported a laser rifle and blasted a nearby pane of glass, shattering it. His environmental suit defied the rigidness of space as he hurled a grenade at the officer.

Upon detonation, a stasis materialized and temporarily imprisoned the policeman. It rapidly lifted him off his bike and propelled him to the bank. Snatching the chance, Dojin broke into a run and leapt onto the hoverbike.

“Where did those pussies go?”

“UCN is reporting the tyiri Interpol pursuing a vessel not far from this sector,” Vokken said. “I’m sending the coordinates to your KLD.”

Receiving the directions, Dojin accelerated past a multitude of star-scrapers at full speed. In time, he noticed purple and orange lights flickering ahead. It wasn’t long before he reached a group of police vehicles, passing them with ease. They started to pursue him too as he gradually caught up to the remaining heisters.

After demanding several times for Dojin and the heisters to stop, the police finally opened fire. Wild-eyed, Dojin ported a bazooka while glancing at his rear and launched a fusion missile at the police. The vehicles swerved off course, abruptly colliding into a building. Though wounded, the officers managed to survive.

In the meantime, Dojin launched another missile at the heisters’ vessel. The android pilot performed a last-second maneuver and avoided the missile, which found its way to a star-scraper hotel room where a hevala prostitute was having sex with a tyiri. Eyebrows furrowed, Dojin kept chasing them and ported a plasma gatling gun, opening fire.

“I’m sick of this,” the sca’vezi hissed. “Let’s waste him!”

As soon as the vessel’s sunroof opened, the ghensoth and sca’vezi emerged and countered with their own plasma beams. Dojin veered left to right, firing back. He eventually disrupted their ship’s mana shield, at which point the mechanized pilot changed course and made its way up to the firmament.

When the sca’vezi ducked to reload, the tyiri took his place and shot rays at the renegade who kept gaining on them. Dojin’s force field malfunctioned, his environmental suit denting due to beams hitting him. Needing to reload his weapon with a new cartridge, the tyiri stepped inside the vehicle. As soon as the sca’vezi poked his head out to attack, he received a salvo of Dojin’s beams, forcing him to withdraw.

The ghensoth roared, retreating into the back seat. By now, the ship exited Tyuchstelia’s orbit. Not a moment later, its cosmodrive started. Dojin cursed under his breath and launched a magnetic tracking bullet on the aft. As suspected, the renegade witnessed the interstellar vessel enter dimensional space and vanish from his sight. He came to a complete stop, gazing at the sealing chasm with madness in his eyes.

“Where are those fuckers escaping to?”

Vokken appeared on his KLD’s screen. “Thanks to your tech bullet, I’ll know soon enough. Standby for pickup.”

“Take your sweet time…”

Marauder accelerated from a nearby moon, approaching the renegade. Vokken opened the cargo bay as Dojin ditched the hovercraft and got aboard using his jetpack. Once the hatch sealed, Vokken activated the Marauder’s arcane engine and zoomed out of Tyuchstelia’s star system. Dojin returned to the bridge, sitting on the captain’s chair.

“Any idea why we’re flying like a bunch of sappy tourists?”

“I’m attempting to pinpoint their destination while simultaneously letting them think they escaped. In actuality, their guard will be down. Only then should you initiate a surprise attack against them.”

“Not bad, cyberdouche. In that case, slow speed ahead.”

VI

Ambuscade

The surviving heisters exited dimensional space, entering the atmosphere of Vun’Adith. It was a water world, similar to Creaden. The only difference between the planets was the weather. A multitude of regions throughout the ocean beneath them revealed surges of cyclonic tsunamis that rose as high as the clouds.

“Looks like we’re safe from that vigilante,” the tyiri said.

The sca’vezi couldn’t help but gaze skyward. “How in all the wretched dimensions did he find us?”

“I’m not sure,” the tyiri said. “Perhaps he’s been tracing us for a long time.”

“Inconceivable,” the ghensoth said gruffly. “We strike like ghosts. I must assume he has some kind of AI or oracle as an ally.”

Cursing loudly, the sca’vezi punched and kicked the shuttle.

“Oracles usually serve the military and AIs are nearly impossible to control,” the tyiri said, shaking his head. “Not even we have an artificial intelligence...just this mindless droid.”

“Regardless,” the ghensoth began, “he wasted our brethren. From this point on, we don’t initiate another heist until we find that scum.”

Not a moment too soon, the intercom filled their ears with loud static.

“Your wish is my command, asshole,” Dojin said via the intercom.

The android flew past a cyclone as it responded, “Code R-54T6B-2. Communications have been hacked.”

“No shit,” the ghensoth said, clawing the android in half. Picking up its body, he tossed it out of the shuttle. “I will fly and handle our spacecraft’s weapons. You two get above and finish that parasite off.”

Complying, the duo went up a ladder and rose from the sunroof. As the heisters aimed skyward, they witnessed Dojin burst out of a cyclonic tsunami like a demigod. An expression of lunacy was carved on the renegade’s face as he fired dual pistols at them. Their force fields held up, allowing them to return fire.

Using his jetpack, Dojin landed smoothly atop the ship as it flew amid monstrous waves that reformed into hurricane-like whirlpools. Before his own barrier malfunctioned, he shot the heisters’ guns in order to disable them. They attempted to tackle Dojin and throw him overboard, but he dodged them and counterattacked.

Each punch and kick the renegade managed to land knocked them back. He headbutted the sca’vezi, sending him off the shuttle and into a cloud-rising whirlpool that ripped his body apart. Witnessing his demise, the ghensoth roared. He set the ship to autopilot and climbed up, joining the fight.

“Believe me,” Dojin began, snapping the tyiri’s neck, “I know how it feels to lose your team. Fortunately, your ugly ass will be joining them soon enough.”

Again, the ghensoth bellowed at the top of his lungs. Dojin ported his plasma scattergun, unloading its energy cartridge at him. The last heister’s shield disrupted as he charged toward Dojin, at which point he performed a roll. His shell of a back protected him from the remaining rounds. Reaching the renegade, he clawed the gun to pieces.

Just as Dojin reached for his enflamed machete, the ghensoth bashed him to the ground. Pouncing on top of the renegade, he clobbered him until the EX-600 was damaged beyond repair. Clutching the demented-looking helmet that competed with his, he tore it off—only to see a scrawny, bloodied humyn.

“You? You! I will kill you!”

“Fuck you,” Dojin retorted, unsheathing a hidden blade from his belt and slitting the ghensoth’s throat.

The heister choked and lost his grip on Dojin who swung his machete to finish the job. Yet the ghensoth grabbed his arm and twisted it, disarming him. Although blood was pouring down from his cleanly slit throat, he stood up and lifted Dojin off his feet. For the first time, the renegade appeared surprised.

“Aren’t you glad I have more than one esophagus?” he said, cackling. Approaching the tip of the craft, the heister added, “I can crush your jaw—your entire face—in an instant. Instead, you’ll drown and be forgotten like your pitiful squad.”

Without wasting any more time, he slammed the renegade against the hull of his ship multiple times and then tossed him into the raging water. Bruised and broken-boned, Dojin plunged into the ocean. Long-held tears escaped his eyes as he began to drown. He imagined himself with Zadoya. In fact, he could see her perfectly within his mind. Green hair. Scarred. Halved mask. Ayzentium arm. It didn’t matter how she looked. He smiled, his love for the former lieutenant preserved regardless of what had happened to her.

His vision weakened, blurrier by the second. Zoya…wait for me…I am coming. A bright light embraced him, that much he could make out. The waves grew wild. Shrapnel propelled past him, a few pieces piercing his legs and arms. Body parts joined him—including the ghensoth’s head.

A beam of light dove into the ocean. Dojin thought an angel would have to be stark-raving mad to help him. Engulfed in a radiant sphere that turned out to be a gravitational stasis, Dojin felt himself rise high above the enraged waters. Despite being surrounded by cyclonic tsunamis, he ascended without harm toward Marauder whose cargo bay unsealed.

“Behold!” the AI announced on his kinetic link device. “I am your emperor. I am your lord and savior. I am your god!”

“No,” the renegade managed to utter. “You are my bitch.”

Inner Growth

Birthhood is a sacred nativity. All beings are birthed by mere thought. And you, like each and every other sacred child of mine, exist with purpose. Unravel your mystery and weave your own destiny. Listen not to what the stars might demand. Listen not to what a scriber has deemed fate. Instead, I, your Creator, declare you shall become a master of your choosing. Creation is my own design, yet there is still infinite creativity left for my children. Do not hide what you are capable of becoming. Embrace your innate source of existence. No matter the species, no matter the planet, no matter the moon, no matter the galaxy, no matter the dimension—the multiverse bows before you. Seize control of your existence. Reveal your inner artist, my child, and create a masterpiece. For your life and what you do with it is my gift unto you.

Arcane Proverbs 57:89