As Argenta Runningwind walked side by side with Micha to the war room to introduce her to the other alphas he considered his life up to that point. He had always been the outcast. His eyes had been a tribal omen, one that had been unwanted. From birth the doom of prophecy hung over him. The prophecy one of feline submissive to a master greater than them.
Fear that killing the infant would cause the fulfillment of the dark omen, he was raised on the fringes of his clan, his place made clear by the isolation and lack of emotional care. The arrival of slavers and their subsequent induction into slavery and the galactic empire had been dumped on the young child. Their sins became his shame. Unloved and unwanted, the clan feared him and the misfortune they believed he embodied. The first opportunity that arose he was abandoned in the alien streets. Cold and alone, he wandered into the royal quarter. Stumbling on a small band, he feared what the adults might do.
It was the emperor who ignored his eyes and feared nothing of his misfortune. Ordering the filthy child collected and taken to the royal orphanage, the emperor had saved his life; but the woman was correct he was not happy. There in the palace he was that rescued-boy or he was the odd one.
But, accepting that proffered hand was a risk. If it backfired, what would he do then? Her confidence drew him to her…he wanted… Before he realized he was moving he was almost racing after the chance at something that might be better.
Hope was a funny bedfellow. It appeared in the strangest of ways and at the most unexpected times. Each time it pulled another soul from the edge of despair and igniting the energy needed to take that next step. It feared nothing, never wavered. Even at the darkest hour, Hope stood tall; summoning any who would listen to a better path. It was a source of will that came from seemingly nowhere and had the power to change a nation; if it only listened.
The emperor watched the young feline chase after a glimmer of hope and prayed to the Devine that she would bring more than hope to the forgotten. Her freedom allowing her to do what he could not and allowed him to cling to the small fissure of a chance to save a galaxy. Having had the mess of the previous ruler, Ma’al had had to tread carefully to prevent a war. Now he unleashed the war-maiden onto the unsuspecting and entrusting her with the future of his galaxy. Stepping into the hall he turned to face the stunned room. He will have made enemies that night, but he could not leave the alphas in the dark any longer.
The war room was large enough to seat more than a hundred people. Yet there were less than ten. In fact, with Micha and Runningwind there were eight. What really caught her attention was the way the other six were spred throughout the room. It was as though they were claiming territory. There were three species she recognized: the dragonborn—not full dragon because of a parent being of non-shifter blood, griffon shifter, and avarian. The other three were new to her.
Standing at one end of the room with Runningwind she considered the three races that were unknown to her. By pointing with the flat of his hand, Runningwind started introductions on the left.
“The first of the six alphas and the emperor’s choice is Endaar Etarendi, he is alpha of war pack that serves the emperor directly. He was a member of the Cha’as Ember clan and had been their strongest warrior; which is why he was chosen for the protocol.”
Micha considered the warrior. He reminded her of a giant version of a dwarf. Bald head, stocky frame, beefy arms, thick thighs and an impressive beard the displayed four braids with black jade beads. She gauged his height to be about the same as her; give or take a few inches.
“To his left is Kharmine. His war pack focus’ primarily on hunting extinction level threats; from beasts to nova strikes. Kharmine was part of The Path, a nomadic people that travelled the stars. Stopping to trade for their needs. He wanted a different path. So, he proved he had what it took to join this path.” Runningwind gave a slight bow.
Kharmine was impressive in height, based on the way he was seated, he was likely taller than Ni’yell. His body was that of a warrior, no doubt there; but his species was one she had only seen in myths on earth. His features where similar to a Garuda. On his back was a pair of wings; the feathers in shades of gold. His face and neck were like a hawk and just as golden as his wings. His beak was colored in shades of red and black. The rest of him appeared to be a bodybuilder on steroids.
“Next is Hurley Sparr. His war pack hunts illegal weapons trades. He joined the protocol after his family of three hundred were wiped out because his youngest brother saw a sale he should not have. Hurley was the only survivor of an impromptu display of a rare nova class weapon. Now he hunts down illegal weapon sales with a vengeance.”
Once more earth lore spoke to Micha. Hurley appeared to be a Nue from Japanese lore. Although his frame was humanoid, his face was that a cat, his arms belonged to a monkey and she was guessing from the tiger striped fur that started bellow the ribs that his legs were tiger-like. She had no doubt he was capable of handling himself.
“Then we have Torik Angja, an Altenmear, also known as, void shifters, his pack hunt down anything to do with illegal drugs. Some of the drugs out there are banned because of the danger they pose generationally, others because of addictiveness paired with deadliness.”
Altenmears or void shifters were similar to shawling as the Chinese were similar to the Japanese. Instead of moving through shadows, altenmears were able to slip into the layer between realities. Some thought it was a layer of the astral planes, but no altenmear was willing to give an answer. Torik was not short by any means. In looks, Micha might have mistaken him for an elf except for a few glaring differences. His ears were long and pointed, like an elf, but were more like a winged appendage that translated sound. His eyes had two lids and his skin was pearlessent.
Runningwind pointed to the only two seated on the right side of the table. “On the right we have the Thannovheir brothers; . They came from the Thannovheir cluster where a very unusual system developed. Getting off the planet and out of the cluster is not only dangerous without the right equipment, its borderline suicidal. Traffickers took their sister. They wanted to get her back. They succeeded. Avairlei chose to stay with one of the soldiers that assisted the brothers. the tactical ingenuity of the brothers made it to the emperor’s choice and they were offered a shot at the protocols.
“The older of the two is Isis and the younger is Hotep. They are Anubis; which is very rare. The emperor considers them a part of the Protected Species and Races law, which declares said species or races as under the emperor’s protection.”
The similarities to Earth’s myth, lores and legends was mind bogging. It made her contemplate how her dimention and the one she was now in were connected. There were too many overlaps for there not to be a connection. That, however, was a tomorrow problem.
“Sounds like I have a lot to learn,” Micha muttered.
“Or the need for a good network to go with your team.” Runningwind nodded firmly once.
Micha smiled at Runningwind. Turing to the waiting alphas. She introduced herself. “My name is Micha Bailey, where I come from doesn’t matter since no one can get there. I am the newest member of the protocol. I look forward to getting to know each of you.”
“Pft,” snorted Hotep. “Say that when you’ve passed the trial. Until then you are just another squishy.”
Micha narrowed her eyes. “Respect is not achieved or expected. It is earned. I will become an alpha. It’s that simple. So, we can be compatriots or allies or dust from the multiverse,” she moved down the right side of the table until she was next to Hotep. “But I will brook no disrespect.”
“Bawhawhawhaw,” laughed Torik. “Gonna take more than words to become one of us.”
The urge to roll her eyes was strong, but this was not the first time she was disrespected. No one ever thought her capable on the first pass. Like always she was going to prove them wrong. “Assume for a moment, I succeed. How does this work?”
“What’s to understand,” Isis shrugged. “We are alphas. We enforce the laws by any means necessary. Crossing us is crossing the empire.”
Micha’s eyes went wide. “What about collateral?”
“What about it?” asked Hotep.
Micha tilted her head to the side in thought. “Let me get this straight. The job of an alpha is to enforce the laws of the empire, by any means necessary.”
“Correct,” stated the emperor’s choice.
“Alphas are not responsible for the devastation they cause to man, beast, or property?”
“Exactly.”
Micha looked at Runningwind. “The emperor is okay with this?”
Runningwind looked sad. “The emperor has to weight the good they do against the damage.”
Micha’s brows nearly touched the ceiling. All that power and no real oversight or control and she was about to become one of them. That was not going to fly. She was going to do have to do something about changing that, but first she had to pass the protocol. Whatever that was.
“Things can’t continue this way,” Micha stated. “We are protectors, not monsters that might hit the right target.”
“Listen girlie,” Hurley slammed the table with his ham sized fist. “We don’t answer to you…”
“Yet,” Micha interrupted. “I am not going to watch innocents get caught in the crossfire.”
“I’ll be damned if I listen to you,” growled Kharmine. “You are barely a welp and you think to tell me what to do?” the garuda sneered.
“Listen up meatheads,” Micha snarled. “I’ve taken down bigger ‘n you and I’ll do it again.”
For a second there was silence, then the room erupted in laughter. Micha refused to allow that to continue.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Hand on the table she lept up and launched herself down the long table at the garuda. Before he was able to react she whip kicked Kharmine in the face. His head snapped back hard.
There was silence.
Micha turned to face each of the alphas. The look she gave them dared them to utter a sound. No one moved.
“There is going to be a new alpha,” Micha whispered softly. “And this bitch is gonna put each of you in your place. You will bend to me or I will break you.”
Without another word, Micha strolled to the other end of the table and deftly launched a flip-twist to land facing the alphas. When nothing was said she turned to the exit. Let them consider what she had said. If the galaxy only understood brute strength then she was going to show them just who was top dog.
Somewhere in the Galactic Empire
For a system that had not been used in several centuries it was impressive how quickly it was brought on line. The compound that housed and protected the massive device was maintained by a dedicated crew that claimed to know the AlphaOne protocol inside out and the necessary maintenance routines to ensure the program ran at optimal levels was performed regularly to ensure that it could be run at any time. The longest part of the four month wait was the powering up of the generator that kept the massive machine running.
None of the crew had been prepared for the arrival of the Renshaw or the were-fox. The beautiful were-fox brought everything the dedicated brothers had done into question. He had dug up every system, every command code and investigated the entire AlphaOne protocol. To the brothers amazement the were-fox managed to improve the programs performance and adapt it to better receive the new alpha aspirant.
Max, as the brothers came to know him often muttered about ghost programs and strange duplicate commands. It baffled the brothers, but Max found it a fascinating problem to solve; preferably before the system ran the program on his alpha.
Every time Max thought he had it solved, the ghost was somewhere else. Each time they connected, the were-fox growled about how cunning or cleaver the ghost was at slipping passed his clutches.
Whatever it was, it caused no harm, so the brothers were confident the system worked and the report was forwarded to the emperor.
Micha
Micha did not waste time standing around like some expensive schnoodle. If she was going to run with the big dogs, she needed to prove she was capable of keeping up. She had told the emperor’s aid that Centra 4 was where she was going to build her war pack. There had been some complaining, but in the end it was approved.
The first order of business was the compound where they found Markus. She needed to create a sustainable operation. That meant it needed shelter, security, and food source. So she bullied the aid into approving the transfer of domestic animals that were a sustainable source of food. The soldiers that had gotten a shitty deal and were now under her protection were told they had two choices: join her pack or retun to the emperor and fall on his mercy. Of the two hundred soldiers, thirty chose to take their chances with the emperor. Those that stayed were ordered to manage the arriving animals and the temporary shelters with them until Ni’yll arrived.
Since it was obvious to her core team that there had been another civilization on Centra 4 before the existing defensive structure. The difference in building styles made no sense if all they did was incorporate them into the previously existing. It was faster and in some cases more efficient to either start from scratch or chose one of the two. She decided on the ancient civilization. They were going to have to excavate the tunnels below the compound if they were going to discover anything else that might have been left behind and use the hidden compound as a blueprint for how to build the visible one.
Micha had had to explain to the emperor where they had found the device that repaired Max and the alien ship. Several of his trusted advisors recommended they be taken from her for the good of the empire. She dared them to try. Mitah was willing to take any challenger for the shuttle and Desohta was equally prepared to defend the healing pod. Her words had sparked an argument.
They had two devices that were unknown technology. The emperor wanted to have them reverse engineered then reproduced. To the shock of everyone in the room Micha had refused. There was only one of the medical pods and one shuttle. She was not above engineers examining either of the devices, but it was clear that the creators of both were leagues beyond the current capabilities.
Unless they found a way to determine its functions without taking it apart, there was no room for negotiation. It was not to say that she did not want more. She had no doubt she had the ability to make use of more. That, however, was not the case. What she needed was something to amuse the emperor long enough to find another solution. That was found on Centra 4.
She instructed the second in command to take Neicha and Runningwind and catalogue everything in the hidden compound. It was imperative that they find something for the emperor. To her delight they succeeded. Two items were sent to Micha for her approval.
She read the note that came with the two items. It read.
“Alpha, here are the offerings for the emperor. There was a whole crate of twenty of the orbs; which seems to float and requests information to assess the situation. The second is an unusual rifle. Ni’yell believe it is likely some kind of long range firing system. When he attempted to use it, it auto=linked with his terrain map. He chose not to fire it. It was not the only one. The other is being held for Rennick to examine.”
She picked up the rifle case and the known instructions for the orb and left the guest room she was housed in. after a couple months in the palace she was able to find her way with ease. She knew that he was likely in a closed meeting with his advisors. It was going to irritate them that she just waltzed in as though she owned the place. How else was she supposed to get things done?
The emperor’s secretary started to stand, his hand outstretched as though he was able to stop her. One look from Micha had the vulpine sitting, quietly.
Opening the door she strode in, unconcerned what anyone had to say. The emperor wanted an alpha, she was going to embody the ideal.
Waltzing up to the emperor, she swept the avarian in front of her to the side and set the weapon case on his wide desk and prayed it was sturdy enough to handle the weight. It was not. The desk groaned under the weight and the emperor pushed back as the desk collapsed.
“Huh,” Micha frowned. “Hope it wasn’t too expensive.”
“You disrespectful curr.”
“No one asked you Haf’tal,” Micha dismissed. “You wanted something new to play with,” she looked the emperor in the eye. “I bring you a long range rifle and an orb that assimilates information and assesses the situation,” she held out the orb to the emperor.
For a moment the emperor considered Micha, then he laughed. “And where did you find these?”
“Nowhere that matters. Do you want them?”
“My liege, there is a limit to insolence…”
“Haf’tal, do you know why I want her as an alpha?”
”I…no sire.”
“When I first saw her struggling to survive in a cage, she managed to protect another boy smaller than her. I took Thomas because he needed to be protected. She was a fighter from the start, has proven everyone she is smarter, stronger, faster and more loyal than anyone else,” he leaned forward. “She has shown again and again that power is not all that is needed to survive. Her integrity, sincerity, temerity, grit and compassion are legendary on Keliv III. I doubt there is a warrior there that would not come to her aid given the chance. She is rare and our empire needs that.
Stunned Micha was uncertain what she was supposed to say to that. She knew that there were many on Keliv III that were always pleased to see her, but was the emperor right? Had she made such an impact? She shrugged.
“My Liege,” she started.
“Ma’al,” the emperor interrupted.
Micha nodded once. “Ma’al, here are the instructions for the orb. It was looked at briefly so that might not be all it can do. As for the rifle. It has some kind of adaptive programming. When Ni’yell lifted it to fire, it auto linked with his terrain map. He chose not to fire it since there was nowhere safe to test it.”
“Teydal,” Ma’al commanded.
The vulpine assistant responded. “Yes, sire?”
“Fetch me the head of the engineering department, the grandmaster of the armory and the grandmaster of tactical assessments.”
Teydal disappeared as quickly as he appeared. Micha eyed the exit and weight the odds of getting out of there.
“Alpha Micha,” purred the emperor. “I am certain that your assistance in testing this riffle will be most valuable.”
“Long range weaponry falls in Rennick’s category and, sadly, he is not here,” Micha flipped her shoulders abjectly.
Ma’al’s lip wobbled as he attempted to look stern. “True as that may be, I have seen your score for each weapon you learned to use. I know your skill well.”
Chin to her chest she eyed the emperor over her brows. She had not known he was aware of her. The only soldier with a better score on a sniper was Rennick. He just had a finesse that even she was not able to replicate. Blast it all. She had not intended on getting roped into testing the new rifle. Somehow, she doubted he was going to relent either.
With a sigh, Micha gave in. “When will the testing be?”
“Why not as soon as everyone arrives?” there was glee in the emperor’s expressive eyes.
It seemed that money was the key in any world. Micha followed emperor Ma’al, his five advisors, the grandmaster tactician, grandmaster quartermaster and the master engineers to the emperor’s private shooting range. It was clear the Ma’al enjoyed maintaining a certain level of marksmanship just by examining the space. She doubted there was a weapon that the emperor had not fired at least once.
The first target stated at five hundred feet and went as far as five thousand feet at it maximum. Along the wall there were rack of weapons just waiting to be fired. There were shelves of various types o targets; some still, some moving.
This was a grandmaster marksman’s dream.
There was nothing flashy, nothing wasted. It was a place to maximize the skill of long range death.
Still Micha worried. They were about to fire a weapon they knew nothing about. From the way everyone was behaving, there was reason for concern. It was why she had not wanted to be there. Since she was there, she was going to have to remind them that there was literally no information on the capabilities of the weapon.
“Be easy,” Ma’al stated. “I have you here to ensure this weapon is handled properly.”
Micha sighed. “They are behaving like kids in a candy store.”
“What do goats have to do with candy?” Ma’al looked confused.
“Where I came from kid was also another term for child.”
Ma’al gave a slow nod that might as well have called her an idiot.
“Regardless,” Micha motioned to the weapon being fawned over. “I’d rather not be here all day.”
“Everyone,” Ma’al called. “Let’s begin. Bring the weapon. Alpha Bailey is going to check it and fire it when she is ready.”
“Why does she get to fire it? She is not an alpha yet,” queried a voice Micha had never heard before.
“Maciel, you are here to assess the tactical value of the weapon. Since she is the one who found it and brought it to me, I am allowing her to fire it first. Although,” Ma’al rubbed his chin. “I am not certain why I am explaining myself to you.”
“Forgive me,” Maciel bowed deeply.
Maciel was impressively small. With a lithe frame, Micha had no doubt there was few places the man was unable to infiltrate.
Micha reached for the case and with care set it on the ground before opening it. Inside was a weapon that was longer than she was. The barrel alone was as long as her knees to her head. Fortunately the end of the rifle had a support stand. There was another stand just before the trigger. She spent nearly five minutes searching for where to load the ammunition.
When her finger caressed the trigger the weapon lit up with a soft glow that quickly accessed her terrain map and her ocular scope. Instantly a map of the target ranger was overlaid in 3-D precision. A mark for each person in the room came up as threat level unknown. She was able to feel it searching for something more. She knew it found it that instant she saw the security feeds for the target range flashed across her vision.
Without a word she picked up the weapon. She had to admit it was made to do some damage if its weight was anything to go by. Finding the right spot to secure it she closed her eyes, exhaling and on the instant between heart beats pulled the trigger.
The sound was like the popping of an ear drum when the altitude changed when flying. It was almost unnoticed. The projectile, however, was like lighting with a mind of its own. She had watched a movie where bullets could curve around an impasse to hit the target, but what about an energy projectile? Because she was certain that that was what must have happened. Her eyes had been closed but her target choice had been blocked. She had chosen it to see if the rifle needed clear line of sight to be its most effective.
She knew she had hit the target, but the two obstacles were undamaged.
Silence reigned. No one moved. The emperor approached slowly and touched the rifle.
“This rifle shall be known as the Slayer 5000+,” Ma’al spoke softly. “It will be used for the protection of the royal family. Whoever wields it will hold the lives of my family. I must know they can be trusted absolutely.”
There was no further discussion about tearing it apart to make more. One such weapon was dangerous enough. Micha said nothing about there being one more, she knew with absolute certainty that Rennick was the right person to wield the Slayer’s sister weapon.
