"Hm", Hermes said, staring through the window of The New Iron Lung at the still smoking wreckage below him.

  "Either our players are all dead, or it seems a chase is being had. Ishmael?"

  "No signs of life abroad either ship."

  "Just great", Hermes said with a sigh. Though his face was covered, a slight humor crept over him.

  "...and suppose about the robot?"

  "I..I don't kno-"

  Hermes let out a click of the tongue, looking back at the Hartshorns.

  "Hartshorns, likelihood of the android still being aboard the craft?"

  "...it's possible", Hal said after brief contemplation. "After an attack of that scope, it would definitely need to recharge."

  "Solar powered?", Jack said, looking at Hal.

  "Most likely. Lots of the earlier models were, and the oldest were the most powerful."

  "Well', Hermes said, pulling a lever on the wall, the hangar door beginning to open, the floor below him lowering like the jaw of a mouth as hot wind rushed up for him. "Let's go check her out."

  ***

  The interior of The Hefty Bug, such as it was, was still a marvel of technology and engineering. A mixture of Femorian and Fen-Harian architecture and material, its marvel was in its build.

  "Goddamn thing fell from orbit", Hank said, stepping through a half-open circular door, sand leaking in like sunlight from a torn open section up above. "And it's still mostly together."

  "Impressive as it is", Hermes said, studying the ship. "That's enough fawning, where would the droid be?"

  "Weapons roo-", Ishmael began to say, before being cut off by Jack.

  "Embryo chamber", Jack interrupted.

  "Fuck is an embryo chamber", Hermes replied.

  "Ah!", Hank said. "I remember those from the history books. Early android models, they were almost like a baby that could never leave the womb. Legend has it that's how the rebellion even begun. Ben, who circled the star Ikunar, and had broken his orb, or rather prison to him, which was said to be stronger than Ordaxian core times ten, to float outside and feel the warmth of the sun."

  "Mm", Thomas said. "Mostly likely android propaganda. I heard they just hate people."

  "Why would you just hate a group of individuals?", Hank replied, incredulous.

  A deep chuckle departed Thomas's mouth.

  "As if people already don't. But I don't mean like that, more along the lines of faulty programming. But who knows, maybe that's the problem with us, too. Faulty programming from a faulty creator."

  "Enough of the philosophy and theology", Hermes said, kicking down a circular door that was already half torn open. "If it doesn't pay off our debt, there's no use for it. Where would this embryo chamber be? I assume next to the generator storage?"

  "Correct", Hal replied. "They're energy suckers."

  "Where would you reckon that would be, Hank?", Hermes said aloud, though to no one in particular, kicking a piece of debris, a uneven rock, on the floor and watching with almost childlike glee as it rolled more than expected.

  "Most likely the lower deck, sir", Hank replied.

  Hermes paused, looking down at the gaping hole which lead to several floors of destruction below him.

  "Hm. Well, let's go."

  Hermes stood over the hole, bringing his left foot over and dropping.

  ***

  The red and brown landscape of Vindal had taken on sporadic casts of deathly pale blue and obsidian overcast, the storm clouds not relenting and bolts of blue fire coming down as if thrown from the hand of a wrathful god.

  The Lazy Wolf had finally spotted the mesa with the naked eye, rock erect from flat earth.

  "Come on!", Mozzie shouted over raging winds. "Not much longer to go."

  Another bolt rang out from The Hefty Beetle, surely the product of Daniel, and blew by The Lazy Wolf, disappearing into the thundering distance and becoming one with the blue bolts that shot down from black vapor. The mesa became nearer, and nearer, the group tearing across the desert like wolves. Behind them, and gaining ever more ground, more dangerous predators. The sky took on shades of blue, of maroon, of ruddish and red, and of black and occasionally brief white which was hot lighting and the dirt rolled across the plains and pushed like an army against the wind and the only thing any being could see was a tempest of elements which seemed malevolent and confusion which brought man's senses to nothing.

  "I-I can't see!", Peter shouted, though his throat strained, his voice nothing more than a whisper against the winds.

  "Just follow me!", Mozzie shouted.

  And so Peter, as well as the rest of them, did. Steven pulled back his arm, revving the motor as much as it would go, and beyond even that. When his arm jerked back, his elbow was met with cold and metal.

  "Just a little more!", Mozzie shouted, more so screamed. "The mesa, I can almost feel it."

  And so they rode on for roughly several more minutes, nearing the base of the mesa. They rode up the escarpment, bikes jumping from earth and almost flying upwards.

  "The storms stifling it, but I'm starting to get signal!", Peter shouted.

  They reached the top of the mesa, flat ground ahead of them, off in the distance the land scorched with lighting and pale blue thunder. Mozzie quickly tapped on the bike monitor.

  "Okay", she hollered above the wind. "I've sent a message to the Hartshorns."

  "What do we do in the meantime?", Steven yelled.

  "Just hold them off! The Hartshorns will have a backup plan. They have to."

  ***

  The Andar walked down a corridor, the floor flooded with a strange, crimson liquid which smelled of electricity and something burnt.

  "What the fuck is this?", Ishmael said with disdain, lifting his boot from the maroon swamp.

  "Mm...probably genesis fluid, or birthing liquid" Jack responded. "I've never seen it..or smelt it, but I've read about it in books. It's like the umbilical cord for the android and the source of its power."

  "Hm", Hermes replied. "Seems Daniel really does have the whole set up. Amazing he hasn't sold it, I wonder why."

  "Maybe he...views it above a machine", Thomas said. "A friend, perhaps."

  "Well", Hermes said, stopping before a large, circular ashen door. "We'll see if we can use his friend for anything, and if not, at least someone will snag him in the Outer Rims."

  Hank knelt down at the door, opening his belt pouch and removing two, small blue orbs, like marbles, which hummed and levitated into the air, scanning the door.

  "This may be a moment. Or several."

  In the back of the corridor, Jack and Hal standing side by side by side, Jack's interior helmet monitor lit up with rows of code. A message. As if he could sense it, Hal looked over. Jack raised his wrist, a keypad on his gauntlet, and quickly typed. Opposite of the corridor, near Hermes and Hank, Ishmael watched.

  ***

  Atop the mesa, Steven, Peter and Mozzie returned fire with the quickly approaching Hilgreen Gang, shielded partly behind a large boulder which was quickly being chipped away.

  "I've received a message!", Mozzie exclaimed with jubilee.

  "What does it say?", Steven replied.

  "They said just hold on as long as we can, they'll be here soon.

  "Well fuck", Steven scoffed. "I feel so much better now."

  Ric coughed, a mix of blood and black ooze spraying.

  "Set me against the boulder", he said. "Facing the plain."

  "What? No, you're in no con-"

  "You guys can't shoot for shit", Ric said.

  Steven observed Ric a moment, before nodding. He got off his bike, dragging him over to the side of the boulder, a shot blowing by them.

  "Steven?", Mozzie yelled. "What are you doing?"

  "He's improving our odds!", Ric yelled back.

  Ric looked at Mozzie with a grin, Mozzie only staring back blankly. Ric looked across the plains, raising his wrist, his gauntlet opening and the chambers spinning as a hum emitted.

  "And bang", he said.

  Orbs of blue lighting shot out, moving across the desert plains like shadows. Some disappeared into the horizon, some into rocks and boulders, but one into a cliff that lay a little ahead of Daniel, a meteor shower descending upon him. Before they fell upon him, in a splinter of a second, a crackling bolt of hot black obsidian shot out for Ric.

  ***

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The orbs continued to scan the door, Hank studying his monitor.

  "The material, and lock mechanisms for this...it's simply astounding" he said.

  "How much longer, in your estimation that is", Hermes said.

  "Mm..could be another several minutes. Maybe longer honestly. Daniel obviously doesn't want anybody getting in here."

  Hermes sighed.

  "Well", he said, unsheathing his blade Black Star. "I didn't want to have to do this, but-"

  Hermes pushed Hank out of the way.

  "Black Star. N'anean befur."

  The obsidian blade ignited in black flame and smoke, the movement of the smoke almost sounding like hushed and scorned whispers.

  "Fuck", Hank said, backing away.

  Hermes raised the blade up, etching an arc into the door, which soon became a sizzling and sulfuric circle. When at the bottom, the circle now complete, he sheathed his blade and fell to his knees. Tera rushed towards him, kneeling beside him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

  "...are you okay?"

  Hermes nodded his head, his chest heaving and breath jagged.

  "Yes...just open the door. Hank."

  Hank quickly went into action, reaching into his pouch and removing three white strips which he placed around the circle Hermes had carved.

  "Everybody step back", Hank said. He pushed a button on his gauntlet, lines in the white strips igniting blue as a series of beeps began to emit. Several seconds later, a deafening boom and the door blew back.

  Once the ash, smoke and dust had settled, The Andar entered a white room, the walls and ceiling covered in circuitry. From the ceiling, cords to and from his body, hung a pale and nude man.

  An android.

  The pale man was motionless, eyes closed. After a moment, they opened, and pale blue eyes stared at The Andar. Hermes approached.

  "You'll take us to the Hilgreens and the others."

  The android stared at Hermes.

  "Why?", he replied.

  "Because I asked?"

  The android studied Hermes a moment.

  "No."

  Hermes sighed, nodding.

  "I see."

  Hermes turned for The Hartshorns.

  "My blade, our language is telepathic. Like that of the android and the ship. Could you...?"

  "Transfer commands from the ship to you?", Hal said.

  Hermes nodded silently.

  "W-we've never even come close to attempting anything like that", Jack said.

  "Well", Hermes said, looking back at the android. "There's a first time for everything."

  The android stared, though machine, something like dread creeping into his pale eyes.

  ***

  Steven ran to the side of the now mostly destroyed boulder where Ric lay, body parts torn asunder and maroon dirt covered in oil and strange liquid.

  "My", Ric's detached head croaked. "It seems I've come undone."

  "Ric!", Mozzie screamed, leaping off her bike and running for him.

  "Steven", Ric gasped, his voice glitching. "Listen to me. My left eyeball, take it out."

  "Wh-", Steven began.

  "Shut up, just listen. There's a small, triangle chip behind it. My soul, in a way. Take it out.

  Steven grimaced, digging his fingers into Rick's eye socket and removing his eyeball, blood and other liquids spurting and oozing out as Ric groaned in pain. Behind it, a small, ashen triangle chip, which pulsed with power.

  "Don't loose it, please. If you survive this, learn as much about us as you can, you'll know what to do."

  Steven nodded.

  "Okay."

  "Lastly, push me over the cliff after you take it. I don't want Mozzie and Peter to know."

  "What? No. We can still fix y-"

  "I'm ashamed, Steven. Of what I am. I know I shouldn't be, but I am. It's how I've lived my life. Shame, and subterfuge. I-"

  Beads of oil, tears and blood leaked from Ric's eye.

  "If I continue on, in another form, cause that's how it'll be, I hope that variation will be free. God, I wish I could be free."

  Ric turned to Steven.

  "I'll see you down the road."

  Steven stared blankly at Ric, for some reason tears streaming down his cheeks. Finally, he spoke.

  "I'll see you down the road."

  And with those words, Steven removed Ric's chip and pushed him over the cliff edge.

  And with the passing of Ric, Steven holding his chip close to his chest as he began to bawl?Perhaps from sadness, perhaps from stress, perhaps because he could understand what Ric felt; perhaps all of the above, the barely held together body of The Hefty Beetle found itself transported above the mesa.

  ***

  Hermes stood at the window of The Hefty Beetle, gazing down upon the mesa, and the dots that were The Hilgreen Gang.

  "Hm..seems things aren't looking good for the Hilgreens. Or this other group either."

  Tera approached.

  "Your orders?"

  We-", Hermes began, before falling to his knees. He took off his helmet and coughed violently, splatters of blood staining the floor.

  "Jackson!", Tera exclaimed, grabbing him.

  "Don't!", Hermes said bitterly. He stopped, inhaling in and out with breathes that sounded like they had holes in them.

  "Don't...say that name. Ever."

  Tera nodded.

  "Okay..I apologize. A-are you okay?"

  Hermes groaned, wiping his mouth and putting his helmet back on, standing up. He gazed down below.

  "Never been better. Tell the crew to prepare for descent."

  ***

  Barron Dongal, Jeremiah Cartwright, Eve Winters and Sabrina Morrison all gathered around the dust cloud where debris had fallen onto Daniel Hilgreen. Jeremiah observed a pile of rubble where he suspected Daniel lay dead under. He glanced up at the mesa.

  "They'll have to pay for this of course", he said, as if more so fact than opinion. He looked at their craft, The Hefty Beetle, which now housed usurpers. "And them as well."

  Like a undead, an arm shot out of the mound of rock and debris. A moment later, a bloodied and dust enveloped Daniel crawled out with gasps and sputters.

  "Daniel!", Sabrina yelled, running across the plain and over the rocky lake of rubble. She helped hoist Daniel out, the others approaching.

  "Are you okay? I mean, how hurt are you?", Sabrina inquired. These words fell on deaf ears, Daniel's attention focused on the destroyed Hefty Beetle that levitated above.

  "Glaxel."

  ***

  Mozzie and Peter stood around the crimson splotched spot where Ric had laid, after a moment, Mozzie falling to her knees and weeping. Peter outstretched his palm for her shoulder, but pulled it back.

  "T-this...Ric..."

  Mozzie wiped her face, tears streaming like rainwater down her almond cheeks and snot dripping from her nose. She turned to Steven with wrath.

  "You shouldn't have allowed him to do this!"

  "He chose to do this! Don't blame me!", Steven spat back.

  "You motherfuc-", Mozzie began, storming towards Steven.

  "Guys!", Peter interjected, pointing up. "Look!"

  In the thundering air, out of the hangar door of The Hefty Beetle, The Andar slowly descended like falling leaves.

  Daniel gazed up at the lowering usurpers, rage filling his dirt covered and bloodshot eyes.

  "We need to get Glaxel", he said.

  "We know", Barron Dongal replied, stepping forward as he eyed the descending crew. "Ready to engage on your order."

  "No", Daniel said through grit teeth. "Not now, not while they have us."

  Mozzie looked out into the sky and at The Hartshorns, Jack ever so slightly turning his head towards her. He raised his wrist, quickly clacking on his gauntlet keypad. Ishmael looked from behind him.

  "Lot of typing", he said.

  Jack briefly looked back.

  "Scanning the vicinity for any abnormalities, we can't afford any more screw ups."

  A scowl crossed Ishmael's mouth.

  The Andar landing gingerly on the ground, once their feet hit the dirt, turning off their gravity packs. Hermes walked towards Daniel, who was positioned half-knelt, blood inching down his dirt stained face like ink.

  "Daniel", Hermes said. "What's happened?"

  Daniel groaned, rising up, Sabrina attempting to offer him assistance but Daniel pushing her away.

  "What's your game, Hermes? Take the sickle and deliver it to the Zhar clan? Take the credit and the money?"

  Hermes chucked.

  "No...no, nothing as lowbrow, and foolish, as that. We're still under the employe of the Jebaur Clan, and we'll fulfill our duty of delivering the sickle of The Hunter Wolvesbane."

  Daniel's eyes squinted.

  "What'd you do to Glaxel?"

  "Ah!", Hermes exclaimed. "That actually brings me to my next point. We think we'll be taking the android, but fret not, we'll take excellent care of him. Oil him up when he gets all rusty and everything."

  "Hm", Daniel replied with the slightest chuckle.

  Daniel gazed at his broken and undone ship, which croaked and groaned in the air, and at the raging, ashen sky, then at the mesa. Hermes followed his moving gaze.

  "Don't worry about them, they're stuck up there. No way to get out. We'll retrieve the sickle from them in time."

  "Baru baru", Daniel said.

  "...what?", Hermes replied.

  Daniel breathed in deeply, then exhaled.

  "During the Second Galactic War, Nodeann and Anaxian forces raining down like the wrath of god upon the Femorians, though we no there is no such thing, the farmers that emigrated here, and set up homes, and families, eventually began to rebel. As is the nature of the oppressed. And as is the nature of the oppressors, they doubled, nay tripled, down. There arose among them a a certain farmer, a boy really, though of cunning wit and depraved brutality, who through constant success came to spearhead the rebellions. And as is the nature of rebellions, though successful for a short while, there exists a strange, cosmic mystery where injustice is favored. The boy, now the man, was eventually captured and offered a treaty. Surrender, and the fire bombings of the wheat fields they so desperately needed would cease. And the man said, "baru baru."

  Hermes stood silently, observing Daniel.

  "And what does that mean?"

  Daniel took his gaze from Hermes, and from his ship, which ever so slightly sunk through the air, and the ashen and obsidian and pale blue sky, and from the mesa where the sickle lay, and turned it back towards The Hilgreen Gang.

  "Is life not more than wheat."

  The eyes of Hilgreen Gang widened, and after brief moment were filled with somber dread and realization.

  "I don't like this", Ishmael begun, eyes darting as his hand inched down for his pistol.

  "Baru baru", replied Barron Dongal, like lightning, no, something faster, he reached for his pistol and shot Daniel Hilgreen, a bullet grazing his neck. The Hefty Beetle shot out a maroon beam to Daniel, enveloping him as he was raptured up. Seconds later, a shootout between The Andar and The Hilgreen Gang began.

  ***

  "The sky was orange when I saw you, and when I say the sky, I mean the atmosphere, and the space above it. The solar storms had started, the cold obsidian had suddenly become hot, and took on the color of flame. And this mingled with the lighting from the storm, with colors so unnatural I still haven't seen anything similar since, and now never will. The nearby moon, as you remember, was blown up, and space seemed like an endless field of debris, the pieces getting smaller when they got struck by the lightning which came from the storm. Ships had beamed in, from every corner of the galaxy: every empire. They were gigantic; the biggest an exhausted man could mistake for a celestial body. They were immediately ushered into the debris, and into the lighting, and into the fire and torn asunder. Their metal, steel and diamond being torn apart and mixing with the sea of debris. And then I saw it, an Anaxian craft torn apart like from some beast, and soilders being sucked out into obsidian storm, wails that were quickly hushed. And you came out, nothing more than a boy, floating amidst this sea of absurdity. Without meaning. In this sea; no would say "look, look at the boy in the storm? There's a child there, between the lighting, and through the rocks and metal. And as soon as I saw you, I left my job and departed through the airlock. I drifted for a long while, then I took your hand. And your eyes met mine, and I knew, right then and there, that I had done the right thing."

  Daniel sat in an endless pool of black water, the only light strange illuminating reflections in the water which seemly had no source, as everything was black. Next to him, Glaxel, but young. No older than twelve. Glaxel gazed at his reflection in the water.

  "In your minds eye...is this how you always see me?"

  Daniel chuckled.

  "No, well...maybe sometimes. More often than I'd probably like to admit. But I'd imagine this has something to do with the fact that I'm about to die."

  Glaxel gave a pained smile, sitting next to Daniel. They sat silent for several minutes.

  "You shouldn't have used the failsafe. Not for something like this", Glaxel said.

  Daniel laughed.

  "Something like this", he scoffed. "There is no something like this. There's only events, and situations. What's happening. This was important. It was important to me. So I used it."

  Glaxel looked at Daniel, then pointed to his face.

  "You're crying."

  "Mm?", Daniel replied.

  "Your cheeks are all wet", Glaxel said. "Another person may say that's something else, perhaps you're overjoyed, but to me, I'll label this instance as crying."

  "Oh", Daniel simply said, wiping his eyes and face.

  "You do this big talk, but you're still just a man. Albeit a successful one in regard to thievery, espionage and murder, but still a man. And all men yearn for more than the physical."

  Daniel didn't respond. They continued to sit in silence.

  "...what do you think has befallen the rest?", Daniel asked. Glaxel thought a brief moment.

  "They're most likely dead. Save maybe expect The Barron."

  "And The Andar?", Daniel asked.

  "The same fate", Glaxel responded.

  Again, silence consumed them. Blood dropped into the obsidian pool, the source of which was Daniel's nose.

  "Hm", Daniel said. "Seems I'm not long."

  Glaxel looked at him, then back to the water.

  "I...", Daniel began. "I want you to blow up the sun."

  Glaxel turned to Daniel.

  "What?"

  "The nearby sun, Jen-ghar, I want you to channel the last bit of your power and destroy it."

  Glaxel stared at Daniel.

  "...you didn't come here to get healed, did you?"

  Daniel shook his head.

  "No, I just needed to talk to you . Barron shot me, on my orders."

  Glaxel opened his mouth, then closed it. After a moment, he spoke.

  "If I do this...we all die."

  "The situations looking grim regardless, at least this way we go out with a bang. Quite literally."

  Glaxel stared at Daniel a moment before turning his gaze for the black pool.

  "Okay. I'll do it."

  Daniel nodded.

  "Good, good. Take me out of the ego, I want to see you as you are before I go."

  Glaxel slumped.

  "No, I...I don't want you to see me right now. I'm...The Andar, they...I am completely undone."

  Daniel's eyes sank. Glaxel looked at him.

  "I-I'm sorry. You're final wish, and I-"

  "No", Daniel interrupted. "You are your own person, Glaxel. What you want to do, you do, what you don't, don't."

  Daniel brought his palm up to the side of Glaxel's face.

  "Rain down hellfire. Baru baru."

  Daniel let go of Glaxel, Glaxel many things, but for most a solider and having already begun to redirect his energy from Daniel's recovery and to The Hefty Beetle canon. Daniel fell sideways into the obsidian pool, a splash and small wrinkles in the water accompanied.

  "Baru baru", Glaxel said.