-(Sharah Phis)-

 

War Song, bridge 1 hour later

Someone did a thorough job on this ship, the crew was brutally murdered, the commanding officers treated even more savagely. The one we found on the engineering deck near the wreckage of a mech-armor was funny to look at. The face was caved in and has multiple fractures in the body. From the way the body was finished I can feel that the assailant must have taken vicious pleasure in punishing that man. My com rang and took me out of my line of thought. I pushed a button on my wrist.

“Sharah Phis.” I announced in the communication device.

“Ma’am there is a situation with the computer core.”

*Of course there is.* But I didn’t voice my inner thought. “Report.”

“Yes ma’am. The computer core was extracted from its room, we only have recent data from our unit entering and roaming the ship. I have a strong guess that the people on the station did it. We also found the bodies of the bridge officers, they seem to have been executed.” The centurion showed her the bodies on her com, how they were slashed at the throat.

The one who did this is merciless; he or she didn’t want to bother with difficult prisoners and killed them. I can understand there are only three life signals in the housing quarters and five in the security one. We hadn’t seen them before when doing an in depth scan of the entire space station. Walking toward the communication console I enter commands on the mechanical keyboard. It’s an old console, not at all like the holo-key we have on the Sundance. The bridge and Helena Theresa Vice appear on the screen of the console.

“Ah, Sharah. Have you finally discovered what happened?” The Tyrant said with a mirthless smile.

The woman adjusted herself on her command chair, ready to listen to the news.

“Unfortunately, not enough ma’am. The computers were wiped and the whole ship is a tomb, the entire crew was slaughtered.”

Sharah waited patiently for her boss to stop laughing, a tear rolled from her left eye. The woman didn’t calm herself till two minutes passed.

“Aaah, that was a good laugh. Excuse me Sharah, it’s because of how alike the one who did this is similar to her mother. No quarter given.” Helena played with her dark lock of hair by entwining them on her finger.

“Ma’am, it’s not a laughing matter. The person who did this must be neutralized bef…”

“I’m stopping you right here, she’s dangerous. And she did this to protect her mother and the station. But I agree that you should put her in the brig till you can check if everything is alright, there is a possibility she might try to flee this place. If she does use non-lethal means to stop her from doing so.”

*Dangerous?* Yes, killing an entire mercenary crew by yourself put you into that category…

“Yes, ma’am! By your leave, we will now breach the station’s door and put everyone in custody!” I said loudly.

“Good, contact me when it is done.” And the Tyrant disconnected.

 

***

 

On my tablet the data about a certain Fenicia Kranicar unfolded, using my Stargazer connected to it, the file on that female alien showed me someone with a disturbing past. I can understand why the boss told me to put on the kid’s glove, being faced with an extraterrestrial being I cannot simply anthropomorphize her. She has clearly a different ethical code and it seems a Saryan way of dealing with foes. Those always cause trouble in our outposts and we even had to enforce the “no warrior form” on our space stations and colony. But even with that their weird tradition and way of life is well… troubling. They actually believe in seeking trouble and strife!

Instead of leaving the station when they were attacked by the Ares mercenary outfit, this Fenicia girl actually seems to have devised a plan to take them all on. The traces of canon laser fire on the ship and the walls of the hangar show it to me. Floating in zero gravity, I await for my team to breach the hangar doors. Two teams will enter separately from the two docking bays, one will converge toward the housing quarters, and the other to the CIC where the life signals are strong.

“Entry code transmitted.” Said my second in command, Charles.

A man of Nubian origin, he is full of candor and professional. Only letting his hair down when he is not on mission.

“Entering code.”

The red LED showing that the doors are closed shined green and opened with no noise. Everyone wear the Centurion armor and helmeted tight, the first group enter the Airlock guiding to the more civil area of the giant space station, while the second one enter the security quarter’s. I follow the first group and wait for the air to cycle and permit us to pass in the pressurized environment. Everyone is armed with their recoilless rifles at the ready and deploy into position when we gain entry.

On the team com channel I gave orders.

“Jones, Simarin go secure the main computer HUB; Rhaj and Amahle the engineering deck. The rest follow me to the housing quarter.” I said.

And we marched toward the place, the plan of the station guided me. We took lot of corridors and turbo elevators which transported us vertically and horizontally through the turbo shafts between key sections of the station.

The whole station is under the control of the master code of our boss; that is why we are walking unimpeded by the security of this place. But you can never know what kind of tomfoolery someone might pull, so I sent my best men to secure important locations. We finally arrived where the life signal is, we opened the door and surprise found a blonde and blue eyed young woman on her knee with her hands behind her head. She has Asian ancestry for sure and wore a black on green bodysuit.

“You are late, people. I’ve been like this for thirty minute already!” She chirped.

In the Team com I said “Secure the apartment, Ann.” And the first class centurion went. I activated the speakers on my armor.

“Name, occupation. And I will check with the station AI, I would appreciate if you can be forthright.” I said adding steel to my voice.

“Ell Evan, engineered super soldier and ex mercenary. I have been granted VCW (Vice Corp World) citizenship by Director Idunn.” She said calmly, her face was impassive.

It made me raise an eyebrow, so I checked with the AI with my Stargazer. And yes indeed Miss Ell Evan has just joined the family. But I’m not satisfied, so I take my reinforced plastex cuff throw them to the centurion next to me who understood what I wanted.

“Ma’am till we can check if the computer core wasn’t tampered with, you will accompany us to the brig.” The centurion explained.

With a smile the young woman took her hand from behind her head and showed him her hands that the man mechanically cuffed.

“Before you send me there, be careful of my friend Feni. She’s kinda freaking out right now, and it spells trouble.” The young woman said with seriousness.

Oh, if that isn’t reassuring.

 

***

-(Fenicia)-

 

Should I leave? I really want to leave. But while I think about that my eyes found the form of… mom. I weirdly cannot deny it any longer, that bond I felt between us and the way she treat me are what I always wanted in that particular familiar figure that a mother is.

“Fenicia come sit with me.” Idunn said calmly.

“I cannot, I feel trapped.” I continued walking in circle.

A sudden idea comes to mind. “ Mom why don’t we flee? We cou…”

“I can’t let you do that, my dear. My dark friend protects me from known and unseen dangers. Even though you are really strong, you cannot do it. And you have a destiny to accomplish, do you really want to squander it and stay a mediocre mercenary? In fact I don’t want you to leave me, I promised myself to…”

I stopped listening to her when left my pride in tatters and turned toward the door at full speed.

“That’s not what I meant, Fenicia. Please don’t…” She added rapidly, attempting to stop me.

I went through the door, readying my pistol and advancing without stopping. It hurts, that comment she made, but it also hurt to leave her like this. But now that I know where she is, I will keep in contact. Walking toward the secret hatch that will guide me toward the Hyperdrive capable shuttle, my mental state didn’t permit me to sense that stealthed being which put her gun muzzle on my head.

“You move, I shoot.” Said a cold female voice.

Never give in. It is a motto for my race, I guess I am more Saryan than Assurian. My hand blurred to catch the weapon and I kicked the assailant. But that female avoided it by sidestepping the move. It stunned me that she could follow my movements, but I decided to not dawdle and fired a round at her and ran. I ran to fight another day, a human precept that my old friend Alastar taught me and that is contrary to the Saryan one consisting of choosing death over chains. A prisoner can only be a victim or a traitor—never a hero. Concerning humans the two precepts can be mixed, following what I endured in the Ares HQ. Never again.

I was surprised to find the woman gaining on me, and to stop her I fired my pistol at her again. Another form blurred toward me for an instant, time slowed visibly and I could see what is charging at me. An armored person that I promptly deviated from his course with my telekinesis to send him crashing in the wall of the corridor we are in.

“Stop!” The tough female behind me ordered.

I used my power again to do the same to her as the armored man, but somehow avoided it by sticking to the wall.

“!!”

Fuck she has seen it coming, she’s a psionic! And a precog to boots. But whatever, I just have to access the secret turbo elevator. I must leave. I ran in the corridors still pursued by that woman until I entered a cavernous room that could easily contain thousands of people. This must be the central plaza; Electronic shop signs with closed wrote on it in Anglo dotted the place, it also has a park, decorated with potted plants and tree; there was also a holographic skylight. What wasn’t my surprise to find that other armored centurions waited for me. Without stopping I targeted and fired on the weapons pointed at me. And I sent an unfocused Telekinetic wave toward them seconds later.

Their rifles shattered or were knocked back from their hands and the wave slammed them on the ground. My spatial sense reminded me of the stubborn female who is trying to jump me from behind, but I was already in movement with all my speed and strength. My objective is almost there, the hidden elevator is secreted in a dark alley between the closed stores. Moving at breakneck speed I zigzag between pillars, trees, bench in the park. And when I arrived at my destination what wasn’t my surprise to see the armored woman who was behind me earlier. How she passed me is unimportant, she is blocking my way and it means that I don’t have the luxury to let her alive. I walked resolutely toward her then pointed my weapon toward her targeting her center of gravity and fired. She moved and the shot passed harmlessly to her left impacting a light. Then I passed my pistol on automatic and fired again. Three slugs were fired from the weapon, two missed and one caught on a kinetic shield of her armor.

“Shit.” I said, but didn’t lose hope.

Then I sheathed my Peace pistol and took my Freedom recoilless rifle and while prepping it I sent an unfocused wave of TK toward my foe that was sent bowling in a recycling dumpster. Then after unfolding my rifle from its compact form I begin firing into the dumpster for ten seconds with armor piercing slugs. And to be sure I threw in a BOOM grenade that goes off in it with a flash and a strident sound. Fortunately I am protected by my helmet. Without care I run toward the door of the turbo-elevator hidden behind the boxes at the side of the dumpster. I push buttons on the control pad and it opens. Before entering I am stopped by someone grabbing my neck and shoving me out of the entrance and slamming me on the ground. It made me see stars and unfocused my eyes. Her helmet was taken of forcefully from her head and suddenly my attacker pummeled my face with rapid punches. Somehow I got slammed on the ground again and I think I lost consciousness for some time.

“I caught her, bring some restraint with you while you are at it.” I heard a female voice say.

The same female voice I thought was no trouble and incapacitated in the dumpster. I couldn’t see well, only the nearby grey building and false sky. Till a dark skinned face hid it. Her black hair and serious expression were striking and is it anger I see in her dark eyes?

“You have strength, but no method. Brute force is always the solution to your problem.” Said the woman with pitying eyes.

“I’ve read your file, and just had a taste of your way of fighting. Didn’t expect that I would survive the BOOM grenade, right? Didn’t you think that if your armor is protected from its effect mine would be? Arrogance, and brutality. You are more Saryan than Assurian. And you are weak.” And she clocked me in the face with another punch that robbed me of my consciousness for good.

 

***

-(Sharah Phis)-

 

Mission accomplished, I sat near the unconscious alien female who gave me a run for my money. Even with all the bravado I spewed to her, she got good hits on me. I have a slug lodged in my thigh, but the armor with the help of my nanites stopped the bleeding and set my broken ankle. but I have still the lightheadedness Kranicar’s TK wave gave me, limiting my movements.

I shivered.

What if she had been more trained in the use of her Telekinetic powers… I shudder at the different result of our confrontation. I Noticed that Kranicar wanted to avoid killing anyone at first, she just pushed us around. She even must have guessed what type of psionic I am when she noticed that I dodged her powers and weapon fire. Her broad attacks had left me struggling and she almost got me when she threw me in that dumpster! I had to ask permission to activate my Beta enhancements that struggled to keep my shield online until their limit and let an armor piercing round hit my right thigh. Fortunately Kranicar left her guard down and I gave everything to subdue her.

Sigh.

“Ma’am!” Someone screamed on the tactical uplink.

The voice of my second in command, Charles who put his hands on me and used them to scan my armor and my status. The tech in the armor could do that. There were sensors designed to judge the integrity and health of comrades on the field.

“She beat the crap out of you, ma’am.” Charles chuckled.

He must not be at ease with the perp downed next to us, but he still tried to banter with me. I decided to not chew him out for it.

“She was rather difficult to handle.”

“Oh from what she did to the team and you ma’am I believe you.” He answered.

The rest of the team appeared when we mentioned them, they were looked all banged up, like they had a fight with Human marauders or a platoon of Thelian hunters. Centurion second class Bryn came near the body of Kranicar and began to slowly take off her armor. As a woman she couldn’t let a man from her team do the job, it would violate some regulations regarding prisoners in the present settings. When Kranicar was just in a bodysuit and boots, Charles went to cuff her hands and feet. I called for a antigravity stretcher that came five minutes later. The prisoner opened her eyes and fought against her restraint but a good shot of drugs to paralyze her stopped any struggling. I found her looking at me with an intensity that made me step back momentarily; it was like I could feel the hate swell within her. I broke from her gaze first and gave order to march toward the gathering point in the station plaza.

Thirty minutes later, we rendezvoused with the first team which had the ex super soldier Ell Evan under guard. The young woman watched us come in with her friend on the stretcher completely unmoving. Her face showed concern and I saw her bite her lips prettily. She is rather attractive for a super soldier bred for battle and follow orders. Kranicar must have hit me harder than I thought if I have my mind in the gutter this much already.

“I hope for you she won’t get free, or you’ll have a bad time of it. I saw her in action; pray that her mother can calm her down.” Ell Evan said.

“Oh, I don’t think it will be possible my dear.” A voice said to our left.

A petite woman in a white bodysuit strutted toward us, her grim face chilled me. I know this woman, isn’t she Director Idunn? She stepped through us, directly toward the antigravity stretcher and put her hands on Kranicar and then she looked at me hotly.

<You could have gone easier on her, you brute.> She mentally transmitted to me.

*Ma’am, she didn’t want to listen. What was I supposed to do…?* I explained.

<She loathes you now and I don’t think that I can…> She turned her head and looked sharply at Kranicar, stepped back and ran toward Ell Evan to catch her and run with her.

“Sto…” I was about to say.

But the glowing body of Fenicia Kranicar caught my attention, it is hard to describe the phenomenon before me. Her body swelled in mismatched dimension, but second later it was like it tried to correct itself.

“Weapons out!” I screamed.

Damnit, I shouldn’t have antagonized her… and now she’s going through a Saryan change on station! But I thought that she was unable to achieve it, it wasn’t on her fucking file. Like her Telekinesis…

Kranicar’s restraints broke and she was on her feet, her body suit stretched up and got torn up by the change. Her bust swelled and her breast spilled out of the sport bra she had under her suit. The same thing happened to her boots, the only thing left was the lower half of her blue body suit. She was easily 9 feet tall now, but her face and body looked malformed. Kranicar roared and roared. Her screams shook the whole place.

Charles shot her without my order and the slug was deflected by some invisible force, Kranicar crazy eyes found him and she literally disappeared. I heard Charles strangled scream near me. The female alien had him in her hand and suddenly with her other one she took his rifle from his hand and crushed it. I took my own rifle from behind my back and shot at her naked back. They were deflected by the same sort of invisible force field from earlier. The monster turned toward me, her eyes narrowed and grew wide in remembrance.

*OH SHIT.*

She let go of Charles but still crushed his arm and then she slowly advanced toward me predatorily. And that’s when everyone began shooting at her in panic. I stepped back and continued to fire. I think we must have stayed like this for thirty seconds or more shooting at Kranicar.

“Smite!” She roared.

An invisible force slams my teammates who were behind her on the ground, crushing weapon and armor. I heard them cry out on the tactical link.

“Hey!” I cried out. “It’s me that you want, Kranicar!” I shouted, trying my best to divert her attention.

“You. Kill.” And she couldn’t have been clearer on what was going to happen. Her deformed face filled with hate and she charged me. I tried to dodge but some force sucked me into her waiting hand.

Kranicar caught me by my legs and watched me, grinning evilly. She shook me like a ragdoll and finally slammed me on the ground while still having hold of me and she did it again and again. My body ached, my bones were broken. I tenuously kept a hold on life. I didn’t want to die like this. The female monster let go of me and made me look at her by putting me on my back. Took off my helmet and said.

“You. Human. You. Weak.” She smiled crazily showing her teeth.

And I saw it in her eyes, she was about to kill me. Right here, right now. The female monster cocked her arm, preparing to punch my face in. I tried to stand up but I couldn’t move, just twitching.

“FENICIA NO!” I heard someone shout.

Kranicar stopped and watched on the right, running footfalls could be heard.

“Honey, don’t do this.” It sounded like director Idunn.

“Foe. Die.” And was about to continue when Idunn put herself between me and her. “Mom. Back.” Kranicar said.

“No, honey. If you do that I will lose you for good. And I prefer to die than let it happen again. Fenicia, you are no longer Saryan. You are more than what Fenran made you. You have something of me in you too. Will you stop and listen to me? I promise than nothing will happen to you.”

A long moment passed, Fenicia Kranicar caught Idunn and patted her head. She sat her on her thighs and hugged her like a young girl would a doll. The female monster hummed a song and rocked herself. It’s at this moment that everything went dark.

 

***

-(Ell Evan)-

 

Ok, I didn’t see that coming. Tall, gorgeous Fenicia turned into Giant and Ugly, took out a squad of centurions and went to town on Commander Phis. It was rather brutal, I even felt the pain she must be feeling, she sounded tough. Maybe she’s still alive. The plazza was a mess, the broken trees and charred ground showed how violent Fenicia got. And seeing her play doll with Idunn was kinda cute but she was so damn scary… I approached with prudence, hoped she won’t stomp on me or something.

Idunn looked pleased with herself and hummed a song in tandem with the giant woman. Me approaching made them stop, and Fenicia looked at me and smiled.

“Ah. Friend. Come.” And something makes me stumble toward her and she caught me.

My hands were still tied with the electronic cuffs and I could barely do anything. Idunn must have read my mind because she took something from her belt and some light shined and the shining grey cuffs fell out.

“Ah thanks, Id.” I said feeling my blood flowing again.

“You are welcome, young lady.”

“Why were you singing?” I asked her.

“Oh, I am happy you see. This was a song I hummed to her when she was but a babe.” Idunn smiled prettily.

Fenicia sat me on her thighs too.

“She’s not dangerous, right?”

“Of course she is, Ell. She was about to turn Commander Sharah into paste. This Fenicia is rather infantile but still possess such strong instincts and memories. It’s my guess that she had no one to guide her for a perfect Saryan warrior form and this is the result. I will strive to change that; of course it will be difficult.” Idunn said seriously while thinking.

But that bit of information made me freeze, my head turned toward her and I asked.

“Ok. Did you just say that she could get even more dangerous?”

Idunn smiled and looked as if I deserved a cookie or something.

“Smart girl.” She said and patted me on the cheek.

“What the hell, I shouldn’t give a fuck.” I murmured.

I am reassured that Feni, categorized me as “friend” and that I didn’t end up like the centurions on the ground. Hearing multiple someone coming I stayed as I am on Fenicia. She got some kind of forcefield with her telekinetic power going on, so it is the safest place.

“Ah, finally. Helena is here, as always so fashionably late.” The petite woman seemed really happy.

A party of twenty centurions uncloaked and surrounded us, weapons trained on us. It made me almost pee myself. I don’t think, Fenicia would have found this funny. Suddenly a procession walked toward us, Centurions in white and red armor instead of the more common black and blue ones could be seen. They bristled with weaponry that could take us out one hundred times. They suddenly stopped in the perimeter of the uncloaked Centurion surrounding us. I watched how Fenicia reacted and she seemed unaware of anything happening just focusing on hugging her mother.

“Great.”