Arthros
Current Psyatic Output = 10,000 Bio-units
Synaptik = Unbound
Arthros didn’t want to waste a trip to Kleth’altho, only to return with another mindless human husk. It was that humans were paratively pathetic to the rest of the se species iar System, but Arthros was determio recruit a suitable spe heless. He admired their spirit, it was their only real redeeming quality. Though, every failed attempt came with a brainless corpse, and shred of doubt in his own instincts. Maybe the era of humans truly was dead, and the old blood that once made them something special had dried up. That thought disturbed him more thamospheric stench waiting for him when he nded, not for any love of their kind, but because he hated to be wrong.
A mental image of Admiral Zludikai popped in his mind, and he scoffed at the disapproving frown knit into her features. He didn’t deserve her frustration, he was the one sacrifig his sanity. How many times had he travelled here, only to pointlessly suffer through the noxious green gas that bhe p’s terrestrial surfabsp;
She would never uand anyways, she actually enjoyed obeying orders and following the rules. Hah! The very thought curled Arthros’ lip in disgust. If he was being ho, the theory behind a human recruit was bred from spite. He wao see the look on the Sty’s faces whe a human in one of their preechs.
He just had to find orong enough first, ohat wouldn’t have their brain matter curdled the moment the iio began.
A sudden preseouched his mind, “Kleth’altho? You didn’t tell me we were ing here.”
“You didn’t ask,” he growled back, the empty except for him.
He g the cle ser, double-cheg for the absence of any Corpos patrols. They wouldn’t dare challenge his presence, but he wasn’t in the mood for a versation.
If they did find his ship, the trademark design of its crest-shaped wings should be enough to dissuade any attempt at taot that they really had a ce of finding him. His ship was as bck as the void, invisible against the backdrop of a starless space. Its non-reflective material gave it the appearance of a formless shadow.
The voice spoke again, “I didn’t ask? How could I? You locked me in The Reckless’ life support system.”
The Reckless, an M-42 Novawolf Cruiser, felt more like Arthros’ home than his ow. If only he could expin that seo the Admiral. Maybe then she would uand his agonizing need for time away. Yet, the desding look on his old friend’s face always soured any willingness he had to be vulnerable.
“Arthros?”
He shouldn’t have to justify his as to her anyways. He was the owner of a ship that catalyzed a cascade of whispered excitement everywhere it travelled. A ship famed for its cargo: the Heavily onized Neural Dragoon, or HWND for short.
To most, that a spelled fear, but to Arthros, it meant joy. The only true source of joy he’d ever had.
“Arthros, I know you hear me.”
He loo climb ihe mech, but he would have to wait a little lohe giant humanoid mae wasn’t known for its subtlety, and if he wao remain inspicuous, he would have to ignore his own burniations.
“Arthros!”
“What?!” he snapped.
He felt the presen his mind recoil, followed by his own immediate regret.
“I missed you.”
His regret vanished, a out an exasperated sigh. He didn’t have time for her nonsense right now.
He checked his mirrored refle in the viewport’s space-tempered gss. His eight-foot Hokkonian frame stared back. His clothes—long strips of white fabric ed horizontally around his limbs—sagged on his hardened muscles. His slitted nostrils fred in distaste at his own disheveled appearance, and he begaightening the fabri his forearms.
“You keep ign me.”
Uniformity in appearance was of personal importance; a stark trast to his disregard of the other rules.
His long spines id ft against his grey skin as he re-wound the cloth to cover them. Often, the spines betrayed his true emotions. He didn’t want to risk the spines reag to his ahough there wasn’t much he could do about the tiny appendages on his scalp. They were too long to be kept hidden with a hat, and he refused to wear a helmet.
“I think you look quite impressive.”
Arthros snorted, “You ’t see me.”
“I know what your mind thinks you look like.”
Arthros sighed.
“Why are we here?”
“You know why.” He tore his white eyes from the makeshift mirror, and g the small holographic copy of the p.
The image floated a few inches above the sole. The name, Kleth’altho, was ed around it in translut text.
Arthros wasn’t in any hurry to desd. He eveed turning back.
“It’s not going to work, Arthros. You succeeded with other species, but humans are useless.”
He muttered a curse, and tried his best to ignore her. How many times had he been there now—a dozen? Two dozehe result never ged, and the Snty’s impatieh his frequent disappearances grew.
He resisted the urge to spit on the floor. Curse the Snty. His insubordination was their own fault.
If it weren’t for their btant and belligerent speciesism, he probably would have been tent to recruit within his own species.
“The Snty is going to punish you for being here.”
“They don’t know,” he growled.
There was little they could do without the Navy’s authority anyway. With Admiral Zludikai’s help, he ractically untouchable. He was the Navy’s best: a prodigy HWND pilot. The Snty wouldn’t risk such a useful tool.
Yet, despite his usual brazen disregard for the rules, this time was different. His instincts told him that this visit to Kleth’altho would probably be his st, and his insubordiint would be ing to an end.
He had noticed something different about the Admiral when she caught him leaving—a strained worry that tightehe skin around her eyes.
She was never worried.
Arthros cursed again and violently pushed into the throttle. He had wasted enough time.
The Reckless lurched forward and began a graceful dest into orbit.
The p expanded, and soon the blurry impressions on the surface took shape. Kleth’altho’s jagged mountains protruded like splintered wood. Ravines gouged the surface like the cw marks of some great celestial beast, while clouds of noxious green gas pooled along the surface of the barren wastends. The only visible sign of civilizatiohe massive refihat dotted the ndscape. The cities were either underground or built at the bottom of the pits, ahey could be protected from the violent winds. The entire p was suffog beh a noxious haze—a sequence of the Corpos establishment, and the industrialized greed that followed.
As The Reckless tis slow dest, Arthros swiped through a long list visible on one of the monitors. Many of the items had been crossed out, and he kept scrolling down until he found the first one unmarked. He copied the o the navigation puter, and the ship adjusted course automatically.
“Does the Admiral know that we’re here?’ Her voice was accusatory.
“I don’t care if she does,” Arthros said.
“I don’t believe you.”
Arthros sighed, “You don’t have to.”
This wasn’t an argument he wao have, but it was an argument he couldn’t avoid. Perhaps if he ignored her for long enough…
“You’d rather waste your time on this phan talk to me, wouldn’t you?”
“For Tril’s sake, I’m not wasting my time!”
If she could roll her eyes, Arthros knew she would have, but the ptuous sigh was enough. He could hardly bme her. She knew better than anyone how futile his other attempts had been.
“If y a human back to Hokku, the High Families will try to execute you on the spot.”
“I have to find oh a feasible synaptik first,” he grunted.
“They belong in s, not a HWND. Their bodies are too small. Their psyatic outputs are abysmally low. You know they have no ce of iing with my kin.”
Arthros’ anger was starting to build. “There’s a reason almost 90% of our sve force is made of humans. They’re hardw and tenacious.”
“So? Tenacity has nothing to do with synaptiks.”
“Enough!” he snarled.
His sudden outburst was enough to silence her, but he could feel another question f like the weight of a cup filling with water.
He spoke before she could, “This versation is over, Zero. I’ll see you when we nd.”
“That’s not very affeate–”
He growled out a curse aally cut the e. He hated whealked that. She was a puter for Tril’s sake.
The nding bay came into view quickly—oval shaped with tall stone walls to shield ships and those inside from the harsh winds.
He guided The Reckless over and brought it down smoothly, hearing it sink into the nding gear with a soft groan. The exodus of pressurized air hissed loudly.
Arthros stared out the viewport, mentally preparing himself for the atmosphere’s stench. Through the space-tempered gss, he saw the nding creroag: two humans and a Sk’reah.
The two humans wreasy jumpsuits, patched at the knees and elbows, with several fresh holes in various pces. On their left breast atch with a logo on it, and the younger of the two wore a faded hat with the same logo.
The Sk’reah, an ioid species from the p Gasaan, wore no clothes, and it didn’t o. Its chitinous exoskeleton did enough to protect it from the elements ae its body temperature. Around the segmeween its head and upper body, a sash hung with the same logo worn by the humans, the only disible feature that tied the ioid to the nding bay.
“Zero–” Arthros stopped himself before she could respond. He didn’t need a psyatic s for these three. They had the collective synaptik of a handful of worms.
Their presence alone was enough to irritate him. He really wasn’t in the mood for versation.
He strode toward the door and grabbed his Skarthkas from the et in the hall. He wasn’t pnning on doing any killing, but just the threat of the infamous Hokkonian gun-bde could be useful.
The on had a curved bde on one end, and a long gun barrel oher. Both ends floated a finger’s breadth away from the circur hilt betweehey were held together by a powerful magic field that emanated from the psma crystal tained in the hilt’s capsule.
It was a on that demanded both strength and finesse. Arthros had it built when he romoted to ander and it had seen little a since. Maybe the on would keep the needless gibbering to a minimal.
The ship’s door folded out of view to better reveal the staff of the nding bay. The you human stared wide-eyed and fearful. He was tall, with shaggy blonde hair and a patchy beard. He stood with the awkwardness of an adolest, not yet grown into his nky limbs.
His fear was normal, expected even. Most were afraid of Hokkonians, which made the expression on the older human all the more fusing.
He stared Arthros down with a challenging gre as he scratched at the stubble on his jowls. Arthros flicked a g the Sk’reah. The ioid’s bulbous eyes looked as lifeless as a corpse, but he k was still breathing by the steady stream of drool oozing from its mandibles.
He eyed them all evenly, “I’m looking to dock my ship here for the couple of rotations. I trust you’ll look after it well.”
“Absolutely sir,” the young one mumbled.
Arthros started to ast them, but the older human stepped in his way.
“Landing fee is 150, but that only gets ya ‘n hour,” the old man said as he wiped his crooked h the back of his hand.
The young one gasped and Arthros s his audacity. What kind of fool would dare to try and charge a HWND pilot anything? The old man didn’t back down and squared his shoulders with a cock-eyed gre. A frown like a dead fish appeared on his gaunt face. He held out his hand, waiting for Arthros to hand over the payment.
“Don’t touch my ship. I don’t know when I’ll be back,” Arthros said dryly.
The old man’s frown deepened as Arthros strode past. He gave his head a violent shake and spat into the dust.
“Where do ya think yoing!”
Arthros ignored him. Surely this man wasn’t ignorant enough to challenge a Hokkonian? Without turning around, he rested his hand on the handle of the Skarthkas. The threat of the on was enough to send the old man’s panions scrambling away, but the a fool ersistent.
Arthros could hear the man’s footsteps getting louder.
“Bloody mank waste! You ’t just walk away!”
Arthros froze at the insult, the spihat usually id ft against his skin rose ever so slightly.
Even little flies bit sometimes.
He whirled around to face the old man. “Do you know who you’re dealing with, small human?”
The color drained from the old man’s face at the sudden attention, but it did little to deter his incessant sputtering. “I–you’re–it doesn’t matter who you are or what you are! This is my nding bay—my rules! I’ve seen your folk around here and they’ve never bothered me, yet now after all these years I’m supposed to just–”
Arthros stepped closer and the man trailed off. His eight-foot frame pletely dwarfed the old human, who cowered in his shadow like a sick dog. Arthros bent low t his face close and curled his lips in pt.
“Why is it that your panioo prehend the dahat you’ve put yourself in, a you remain oblivious? There is a reason the rest of Dromedar thinks so poorly of your species, and it is because of fools like you.” Arthros gently pced a finger on the human’s wrinkled forehead.
The man recoiled from his toud stumbled back as if he had been struck. His fear rapidly turo e, and he collected himself with ched fists. Arthros repressed an annoyed sigh. He could reize that rage-induced defianywhere. The human was about to do something very stupid.
Arthros turned away. Maybe he could just leave before the human forced him to retaliate.
“Don’t walk away from me!” the human grabbed his arm.
Arthros reacted instantly and the air rippled as he swung the gun-bde upward. The massive, curved edge whipped underh the man’s right arm and sheared through his shoulder joint like paper. Before the severed limb could drop, he flicked his wrist, and the on flipped 180 degrees. The crest moon-shaped bde was repced with the polished metal barrel of a psma rifle.
He pulled the trigger, and the energy discharged, blowing a hole the size of his fist through the human’s chest. The body dropped lifelessly into the puddle of blood already thiing with the dust.
Arthros grimaced at the mess and ran his hands down his arms and his head, fttening the raised spines on his skin. He hadn’t wao do that. He flicked the blood from his bde with a jerk of his wrist.
“ this up,” he motioo the corpse.
The Sk’reah was rooted to the ground, its loalks fixated on the body. If it had heard the request, it made no move to obey. The young human took a shaky step forward, careful not to step in the gore.
His eyes were fixed on the corpse while his jaw worked soundlessly.
Arthros narrowed his eyes, “Are you both deaf?”
The sound of his voice startled the human, and the pitiful creature let out a strangled cry. He fell hard on his rear and scrambled back like a wounded animal.
“Please, don’t kill me. I don’t want to die! Please!” he sobbed.
Arthros sighed at the annoying side effect of his overwhelming intimidation.
He sheathed his on and folded his hands across his chest. “Do it, or don’t. I don’t care, but nobody touches my ship. Is that uood?”
His lip curled in disgust as the human moaned, and a trickle of liquid waste muddied the dirt around his legs.
Instead he turo the Sk’reah, “My ship, do you uand?”
The Sk’reah nodded, seemingly ued by the loss of his co-worker.
Arthros paused for a moment, “I’m looking for a Klethonian.”
The Klethoniahe ‘inal’ humans, and Arthros had heard rumors that some possessed synaptiks equal to Hokkonians. Of course, most of them had died out sihe Hokkonian crusades and the resultant genocide, but there were whispers of some surviving bloodlines.
If he were to find a human worthy enough to pilot a mech, it would be oh Klethonian blood.
There ause of silence before the Sk’reah shifted a little and spoke. The ioid’s long and thin wings vibrated. The alien spoke in broken Universal, his voice rasping like paper.
“Pit five kilometers south.” The aliealks extended closer, bck pitted globes on the end of the stalks blinked. “Klethonian there. Sk’reah there too.”
It torted its long, segmented body so it could stand upright, tall enough that the tips of its eyestalks reached Arthros’ chest. “Best fighter ior.”
He shrugged off the discerting gaze. His mind itched to get away from the ioid, but he held his ground a his face passive. “I have no need for a Sk’reah fighter.”
“Sk’reah fight Klethonian soon. Sk’reah kill Klethonian. My Queen, My Queen, My Queen,” he chirped.
Arthros’ mouth twisted with distaste at the chittering. “Impossible. Sk’reah queens don’t leave Gasaan. They don’t even leave their s.”
The Sk’reah wordlessly bobbed its eyestalks, refusing to say anything more. The human had ceased its cries, and now watched Arthros with wary sile was time to leave.
“No oouches my ship,” he said at st.
He had barely takeeps before an arm sounded—a faint wail ing from the small office building oher side of the nding bay. The howling outside the walls intensified, and a fresh wave of the acrid air cascaded into the artificial basin.
The noise spurred the attendants into a, and the human scrambled out of the puddle of urine. Arthros watched him sprint to the small office structure and vanish behind the door.
Moments ter, a transparent dome formed over the nding bay. There was an immediate silence from the wind ohe dome closed. Arthros raised a hairless eyebrow.
Now he was trapped.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Arthros demanded as the human came running back.
The human ged, “There’s a gas storm ing. I–I had to close the dome, it’s protocol. Er– It’s for our safety– your safety! Y-you wouldn’t even make it to the shuttle if you tried to walk out of here.”
Arthros bared his teeth and had to remind himself that the human was just ignorant and stupid. One kill was bad enough. Two before he evehe nding bay was dht eous.
“I should put you in the dirt,” Arthros hissed.
The huma white and tottered on his feet. His eyes rolled like a spooked animal as he stiffened with fear.
Arthros snuffed out his anger with a steady breath and turned his attention back to his ship.
“Zero,” he muttered. “Bring the HWND.”
He re-ected with the AI, expeg the usual warmth that filled his mind. Instead, all he felt was cold and it sat heavy like a stone.
“Enough Zero, e out.” He crossed his arms over his chest, a a mental image of him doing so, along with the frown on his face. “Now.”
The cold dissipated, and the warmth slowly seeped back, “I hate when you cut me off.”
“You’re incapable of hate,” Arthros growled.
“And you’re incapable of being nice,” she said stiffly.
He rubbed the skiween his eyes with a thumb, biting back a respohat could only make things worse.
There was a hiss of esg air from his ship as the hydraulic lock released.
From the back of The Reckless, a massive humanoid shape rose and climbed onto the roof. It was nearly a third of the ship’s size and the weight of it caused the vessel to groan and shift.
The mech stood proud, nearly identical in shape to Arthros, though it was three times his size. It leapt from the ship, nding in a cloud of dust with flexed knees. It strode toward Arthros, walking with the grace of a living creature, but nothing more than a quice was enough to see that it was a mae. Sunlight reflected off the HWND’s polished blue steel. A gold-coloured vislowed on its meoid head.
There was no flesh, muscle, or bone, only Hokkonian steel, graded for space travel aant to any form of onized energy.
Inside was a hollow space, desigo perfectly fit its pilot. It was a suit of armor. A vehicle. A Heavily onized Neural Dragoon.
It was Arthros’ HWND.
The mech powered down and its humanoid form ko one knee in front of Arthros. He ran a hand along the smooth steel of the mech’s thigh, stowing his Skarthkas in a small partment as he walked around.
The mae’s back rotected by twur ptes of steel, simir in shape to the muscles of Arthros’ own body.
As he climbed up, the two ptes swung away to reveal the hollow interior. A mold of himself stood empty in the mech’s cavity, and it beed to him like a lover coaxing him to bed.
He closed his eyes as he stepped in, relishing the way the biosyic material respoo his prese tightened around his body, squeezing like it wao swallow him whole.
Almost instantly he felt a jolt run through him, and his mind lit up with a thousand different senses. When he opened his eyes, he no longer saw through his own, but through the meical optics of the HWND. His anic self no longer existed; he felt what the HW: the warm breeze on his shoulders, and the dust beh his feet. He took a deep breath and recoiled at the stench of the air still trapped within the dome.
“Zero, deactivate olfactory system,” he said.
She didn’t respond, but in an instant the acrid smell was gone, along with any other sts that might have bee. He jumped to his feet and stretched his arms and legs.
The hum of the mech barely reached his ears, as the gears and meisms whirred. Regardless of his meical joints, his movements were smooth and instantaneous. Better even than his own biological body.
“You really think you’ll find a human capable of piloting a mae like this?”
From ihe cockpit, a predatory smirk cracked on Arthros’ encased face. “I really do.”
