"I've lost everything" Halfor mumbled under his breath.
His brows forward heavily as he gazed at his reflection on the board screen. A touch on his shoulder made him jolt and turn his head quickly. Nothing. His minds had been playing tricks for the past minutes in silence.
Halfor walked away from the control panel back to his room. He sat heavily on his bed, his hands supporting his face as he curled into them, resting his elbows on his knees. The silence made him sick to his stomach, guilt churning down his guts.
"If I hadn't accepted that mission"
He blamed himself. No reasons given would justify sacrificing his friends…his only family.
"You are making that pouting face again, Hal"
A Sweet voice made him lift his head. Taffy was standing there with a smile. The female Tar'huan was in a more civil dress. Her hair cut in a Bob and her eyes sparkling with that adorable shyness that made her look unique. She spoke once more.
"It's not your fault"
She walked to his bed and sat next to him. Halfor sighed and looked at the window before him, casting his home planet. His voice dragged on the deep lines.
"I messed up Taffy…I should have gone there alone. You guys didn't want to come…I insisted and now…you and Vix…"
His voice cracked near the end. A sturdy hand landed on his shoulder and he rose his eyes to see a bigger man before him. His compression shirt doing efforts to keep his pectoral muscles in check.
"Stop blaming yourself for decisions you didn't make. We chose to follow you, we chose to stay, we chose to do the right thing. Blaming yourself is not going to bring us back, you know that right?"
Halfor looked away at Taffy squeezing his hand then at Vix still holding his shoulder.
"I miss you guys"
His voice echoed in the empty room.
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A scream of pain teared through the throat of Krelm. The captain of the military forces of Ta'rhuan was out of breath. His tears running down his faintly blue blushing cheeks. He had stormed his room, before falling again to his knees. Vilcro, the engine assistant was standing on side of the room. He couldn't bring himself to support the captain, he needed to vent, not to be pampered. He exited the room then remained at the door. Inside, Krelm kept asking the emptiness.
"Why did she die?"
No response got back to him. Silence responded loudly to his please.
He started laughing. His voice cracking as his brows frowned and his hands clenched tightly.
"I will make him pay. I knew I shouldn't have let you go with that bastard...Taffy…"
He cursed at himself as he rose back up, reaching for his bracelet. He slid a finger and screen formed above his wrist. There was small moment of silence then a face appeared on the screen. A hooded man with eyes redder than hell.
"I have a target for you, as usual, you do it properly, and I will pay you"
Krelm spoke, his voice betraying his current anger. The man behind the screen sighed deeply before speaking.
"who is the target?"
Krelm tapped on his bracelet and the picture of Halfor appeared in a corner of the screen.
"Head of technology development, Halfor"
The hooded man suddenly had a glow of surprise in his eyes.
"The Architect protégé? Tell me Krelm, what has gotten into you to try attacking one of the most powerful Ta'rhuan in the system?"
A dry chuckle escaped the hooded figure. Krelm had none of it and frowned as he spoke with anger.
"I pay you to kill! Not to ask questions"
The hooded figure smiled with sharp teeth.
"It's will cost you a lot, Krelm. I don't exactly kill nobility for the same price"
Krelm cursed then slid on his bracelet.
"20 million Kurax"
The hooded figure laughed then spoke.
"you've got yourself a deal, M. Krelm"
The captain was showing a pained mischievous grin.
"We have arrested him for murder on two high commanders. Currently on our way back from a lost system. Security will be light because of his status, so you know when to strike"
With that, the captain closed the screen with a slide of his finger and laughed as he looked at himself in the broken glass of a mirror.
Vilcro held his mouth in horror before running down the hall but fell brutally down. He looked behind him to see a man with a hood and a dark cross emblem on the side. He cursed and tried sliding his bracelet but the man pointed n energy ray gun towards him.
"I wouldn't try that if I were you"
Vilcro got up slowly and raised his hands in submission.
"please don't kill me"
The man lowered his gun.
"I am not a savage. You are free to go, but this stays between us, right?"
Vilcro nodded rapidly and the man smiled.
"Now shoo, any word on what you heard or my presence here and you will be atoms"
Vilcro then nodded and ran away as fast as he could. Before he could even get too far a whistling noise rang across the hallway and in an instant he was pulverized to atoms. Only his bracelet didn't get destroyed. The man slowly walked to the bracelet and wore it then used his other bracelet to type something. His hood soon retracted light in a distortion as he got the appearance of Vilcro. He slid his fingers on the late man bracelet and tried speaking, his voice was now the same. He looked around, not much of an arm length away from a camera range. He smiled at himself then walked nonchalantly towards the control room.
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A beeping sound made Halfor raise his eyes for a second. He looked at his bracelet and a screen appeared. He stared at it and rose up to his feet. The spaceship was about to exit the travel tunnel.
He walked to the control panel and the cosmic windshield showed a bright light then everything stopped.
A bright pinkish atmosphere and purple plant life across a huge planet, brought his nerves back and his anxiety with it. He looked back at the pod in which the human was unconsciously kept and then back at his planet.
A fleet of smaller drones flew towards the large ship. As they began their descent in the atmosphere.
"This is it"
He mumbled to himself, attempting to reassure himself that everything would go smoothly.
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Alenikos, Capital city of Ta'rhuan
The ship landed in large complex of the military forces of the planet. The wind casted from the descent was blowing dust and debris on the landing zone. Several heavily armed units deployed around the spaceship entrance and straightened in a salute. Their helmets hiding their faces and scars. Soon enough, Mex was exiting her ship with her crew and all stood straighter than before. She looked at them then at the ship of Halfor.
"Take him to custody. We will inform the Architect."
Soldiers obeyed and moved to the smaller ship and without a complaint, Halfor followed them out. His wrists tied with magnetic handcuffs. Behind them, another smaller team took the pod out a.d many were astonished at the sight. A being was inside that pod, a being that was not from here.
They walked to Mex with Halfor and he looked at her then away. She patted his shoulder then they moved towards the headquarters.
A large city covered the horizon, skyscrapers pushing past the pink clouds and flying vehicles making their way on various floors of the magnetic streets. The city itself was built on strats level, each designed for a specific class of society. At the bottom were the lesser people, without titles and hence without powers and at the top lived the nobility. Huge towers merged into and arch that dwarfed the whole city. A giant glass window in the middle made it look like a giant lense. The towers were crafted in an elegant way that portrayed the vision of the Architect.
All buildings had a very refractive surface making it shine like a thousand jewels. It also served to cast away the reddish glow of their main sun. The red dwarf was not only the reason their people emerged but also the reason they survived this long. Burning less fuel had allowed life to grow and expand over billions of years.
Halfor was placed in a secured vehicle and transported towards the arched towers. Sitting beside him, some soldiers and Vilcro who insisted to join the convoy. Being a very important asset, he would help understand the pod that was found. He looked at Halfor and smile. The latter didn't even look his way. Vilcro smirked and a slight glitch on his fingers revealed his true hand before stabilizing. It wasn't random. The arched towers emitted enormous waves of magnetic forces as they were the main generator for the underground source. A primal form of energy that the best of engineers had spent millenia to control and harvest. This power allowed incredible feats, like the intergalactic travel beyond the speed of light, or the fast advance of their technology. These towers disrupt most of the foreign equipments, anything not made by the main planet engineers, such as rogue pirates technology. Vilcro smiled as they moved past the waves and entered the building to an intern station where the parked the vehicles. A committee already waiting for them.
Halfor was escorted to a prison cell and the pod was transported to the labs. Mex walked with slight anxiety to a large door made of black meteorite. She exhaled as it opened and revealed a huge empty room and the large glass circle window ahead. Standing there in a red gown, a female was waiting, not turning yet. Her presence alone was making the admiral almost tremble in her boots. Before her was standing the most powerful person on their planet, their leader and the sole holder of authority over the primal energy, the Architect.