Part 3: The Target

  LK-1132-0082 walked into the briefing room 45 minutes after the team had landed. She had a frustrated look on her face as she entered the small room with long rectangle table on the opposite end of the room and a single small round table in the middle. “Sorry maintenance wanted to run some tests,” announced the pilot with and edge of irritation in her voice as the door slammed closed behind her. Her voice caused the other members to glance up at her for a second before returning to what they had been doing. The director that had escorted the rest of the team to the room was not in the room, making it clear the pilot missed the brief. Squad leader AZ-1030-1221 motioned the pilot over to the small round table with a swift gesture of his muscular arm. He, 4423, and 1767 were standing around the elaborate wooden table with a boxy metal holographic device in the middle that was projecting several images, a video, and paragraphs of information several feet into the air at the same time. Walking over to the table the pilot’s eyes grew big as she was able to make out the images of the subject that the holograms were focused on.

Before she could speak 1221 said in his gruff voice, “This is the target, our mission is to capture it.” He then touched the holographic video rewinding it to display a helmet camera video that showed the alien’s brilliant energy attacks disarming of an entire squad of soldiers at once. The image focused on the alien as she approached the soldiers after her attacks had burned through the personal shields and coil rifles the soldiers were using on the eurians.

“She looks almost human,” said the baffled pilot. Just then the alien spoke to the soldiers in the videos making the pilot exclaim, “She can speak terran! Where did she come from?” The pilot leaned in to inspect the image closer, while everyone stared at her silently.

1221 sighed in irritation at 0082’s interest in the alien as 4423 answered her question in his monotone voice, “We do not know where she comes from. This is the first and only encounter with her species.” 4423’s glaze turned from 0082 to their leader, whose hand was covering his face at this point.

The pilot cocked her head to the side as she inspected the images of the alien. She suddenly thought out loud, “She is beautiful in a strange way… she makes me think of one of those creatures of fantasy… one with the long ears.” The pilot then pulled out her PDD and started to use it to look up the name of the fantasy creatures the alien reminded her of.

1221 dropped his hand from his face for as he said with a frustrated voice, “It is dangerous, it effortlessly disarmed an entire security force team, and it could have easily killed them.” The leader then took a deep breathe before continuing in a calm serious tone, “SyCorp doesn’t care how we capture it, as long as the alien isn’t killed or too badly damaged in the process. They made it clear if we kill it, we will never recover from the failure. We are only allowed to use the special issue non-lethal weapons on this mission, “said 1221 motioning over to the rectangular table off to the side of the room that had several compact rifles on it. The team’s sniper, 6132, and heavy weapons expert, 9123, where inspecting the weapons and both of them seemed less than pleased with them.

“Why are we capturing her?” asked 0082 as she glanced up at 1221 for a second before returning to her PDD.

“Research and development wants to study it,” replied 1221 without hesitation.

“To study what makes her able to use those abilities. I would guess that both her unique energy manipulation skills mixed with her human like appearance have peaked the interest of company’s geneticists,” added 1767 confidently, his words dancing off his tongue as he spoke while his arms laid crossed on his chest.

1221 nodded toward 1767 to agree with his assessment and then added, “We are currently on alert status. We need to be able to launch within an hour of an alert if the target is found. Command is hoping the eurian’s semiannual rituals they preform around this time will draw out the target.”

“I still say we set a trap by attacking an eurian village and wait for her to come to their defense like we saw here,” said the cold heartless voice of 6132 as he motioned toward the video.

“That is the backup plan, I would prefer to catch her when she is not ready for a fight,” said 1221 as he glanced over at the sniper who had disassembled one of their dart launching weapons.

“Elf… that is what she kind of looks like… the ears at least,” suddenly added the pilot as she held up her PDD to the hologram to compare the two. 4423 at this point had taken control of the hologram and was slowly going through each frame inspecting the alien’s attack on the soldiers. When 0082 held up her PDD, he glanced at it then the hologram before nodding at 0082 in agreement. He then returned his focus to the slowly playing video.

“Either way the brief is over, I recommend everyone getting some food and rest. We need to be ready to move at any moment,” said the squad’s leader ignoring 0082’s attempts to compare the alien to a creature of fantasy.

9123 nodded her head and walked over to 0082 and put a hand on her shoulder before saying, “Let’s go get some food.” 0082 shook her head as she tried to showed 9123 the PDD. The older woman watched 6132 walk out of the room with his weapon before glancing at the PDD as she asked, “Why are you all so interested in this alien?”

“Studying the target, trying to figure out how it might think so I can try to predict its actions,” said 4423 his dull voice failing to reflect any interest in his self-imposed task.

“It’s an alien, save your time, we will not be able to understand it,” said 1221’s rough voice as he turned toward the door. “If you do happen to discover any interesting information let me know,” ordered the leader as he walked out of the room.  

“What are you trying to figure out exactly?” inquired the team’s medic as he looked over at the team’s second in command. 1767 stared at the other man then the hologram to try in figure out what was interesting the man about this alien.

“Why it did not kill its enemies? Looking at its attack, it could have easily wiped out the squad instead of just destroying their weapons. They were slaughtering its allies, but it still did not kill the soldiers,” said 4423 neither his voice nor his face showing any curiosity, but it was clear he was by the words he spoke.

“Likely she does not like killing,” replied 1767 his voice filled with sincere consideration of the question. “I would not assume she will stick to those beliefs once we try to capture her. Like a cornered animal she will likely lash out in desperate self-protection when we try to take her down. Considering her level of power, I would recommend against making her feel cornered at any time. When we capture her, maybe you should ask her why she did not kill those security guards,” added the man his voice transforming to a casual almost mocking tone as he finished the last sentence.

“Capturing her without cornering her might be tough,” said 0082 looking up at the medic. The medic was looking at the other members of the team as he propped himself up with arms firmly braced against the table.

“Well if those pieces of junk do as advertised and, the drugs work. She will only realize she is cornered when she is drifting off into a drug induced sleep. Can we discuss this over a hot meal? I want to eat something other than a MRE,” added the tall brown haired woman impatiently as she looked toward the door longingly.

“Sure why not,” replied 1767 casually as he stood up straight. 0082 nodded in response as she continued to stare at the alien. 4423 turned off the hologram device by pressing on a small black button on the base of the metal device casing diverting 0082’s attention back toward her friend behind her. The four then left the room in order to search for food while discussing the alien.

As the Acquisition Team waited for the alert to call them into action, they studied the environment, discussed tactics for capturing the target, prepared and trained with their new equipment, and assisted the local SyCorp security forces. Free time was a waste of SyCorp resources, and was not tolerated for any of the company’s clone soldiers so the team kept themselves useful at all times.

In the meantime, SyCorp unmanned drones scoured the skies above the forests of Eur. The thick forest canopies and size of the forest make acquisition of the target difficult. However these drones were in constant patrol in SyCorp controlled territory as their mechanical “eyes” searched the alien surface below at all hours of the day and night.  

Six days and eight hours after landing on Eur, the members of the Acquisition team were alerted and within 37 minutes their Succubus’ quad engines were coming to life as the team loaded up fully equipped for the operation. A drone monitoring a growing Eurian gathering had spotted the target. Its powerful camera allowed spotted the target as it joined the celebrating Eurian.

The hidden landing bay’s doors opened, the roar of engines intensified as the transport, call sign Ghost 09 for this mission, quickly climbed into the air. The team onboard were double checking their equipment when a male command and control agent came over their helmet’s transmitters, “Acquisition Team Nine, your updated SITREP and ROEs are as follows; Target is surrounded by Eurians. You are allowed to engage the Eurians at will, but remember to conserve sleeper darts for the target. If the situation gets hot, GHOST 09 is cleared weapons hot to engage the Eurians, but you will not fire on any hostile within 30 meters of the target or the target itself. Remember killing target will result in complete failure. Good hunting.”  As the transmission ended the noise dampeners kicked in reducing the powerful engine’s whines to murmur as they rotated into forward flight mode in less than a second. The team members tried to commit the situation report and rules of engagement to memory as the transport started forward toward their target. A red timer over the ramp and door spat out in big red numbers that showed they had less than twenty minutes until they would be engaging the target. The hunt was on…

Lynia, Chosen of Eur

I decided to get a commission of Lynia from fusspot @ thefusspot.tumblr.com after I got a refund from a problematic Kickstarter. I am unable to draw well, and I wanted to do Lynia justice so I decided on this route.

Parts 3 and 4 are in the works and I hope to have part 3 up soon.

Part 2: Acquisition Team Nine

One Week Earlier

        A sleek human, now calling themselves terrans, transport swiftly approached the vast assortment of satellite weapon platforms and defense stations that made up the outer defense grid surrounding the planet Eur. The ship’s overall appearance gave it an aggressive look with sharp angles and the craft’s nose narrowing to a sharp nose from the top the hull’s overall shape was like the blade of a broadsword’s blade with the view from the front slowly growing out adding height to the craft with the front being slimmer than the aft. The stealth vessel would remain unseen to the defense grid’s sensors until its pilot transmitted a request to enter the grid’s space.

        "BLADE 765, requesting entry into Eur's orbital defense grid with intentions to land at SyCorp Industries facility 27X," announced the pilot of the Succubus class transport. The craft followed SyCorp’s standard naming convention of using demonic beings from human legend as sources for ship class names. This Succubus was the devoted transport for one of SyCorp’s elite acquisition teams, a Special Forces group that the powerful corporation used to steal or recover technology and information.

        "BLADE 765, you have permission to enter, follow entry corridor seven Oscar Zulu until past atmosphere then proceed direct to destination and descend to 25,000 until directed to begin approach," replied the droning tired voice of the airspace manager.

        "Seven Oscar Zulu to Atmo, direct to destination, 25,000," replied the female pilot in a rapid energetic tone as the craft’s rectangular engines attached to blade like wings increased thrust to send the craft forward at a greater velocity. The ship navigated toward the entry point of the appointed corridor that instantly appeared as various green waypoints that looked like triangles on the ship’s heads up display (HUD). Setting the auto pilot to follow the assigned waypoints, the pilot sat back and monitored the flight systems for a second before looking up over her left shoulder at another woman who had been standing behind the pilot’s chair quietly as the pilot talked to the airspace manager. The tan skinned brown haired woman stood just over 1.9 meters tall, and was bulging with muscles. The amazon of a woman was HS-1342-9124, the team’s heavy weapon expert. The pilot and heavily weapons expert had formed a quick bond, and tended to keep each other company. The dark skinned pilot’s dark brown eyes looked over the other woman’s scared face that was facing the increasingly impressive view of the planet they were approaching, before saying, “I can see why the UTR is considering making this world our new capital.”

       The brunette muscular woman looked down at the sixteen year old black hair, brown skinned pilot, LK-1132-0082, and said in a warm voice, “Yes blue and green, and filled with life. It almost looks like the pictures of Terra. There appears to be a closer land to water ratio on this world and the land formations look vastly different. However it has that familiar beauty found on the pictures of Terra.”

        Looking back at the planet the thin pilot added, “Perhaps after we help liberate Terra, we will be allowed to live here since all the terrans will want to live on Terra. This world could be our reward for stomping the Ascendancy into the ground.” Her voice was filled with optimism as she smiled at the thought of having a home on this world.

        “We are clone warriors and we live only to fight. The war with the Ascendancy will continue long after Terra is freed,” added a monotone voice that showed no hints of emotion. The voice’s owner was a man sitting in a chair off in the back right corner of the small cockpit. This seat usually belonged to the Succubus’ weapon’s officer, but for the entirety of this trip the man had sat silently in that chair staring at his personal data device (PDD). He was the squad’s second in command, CY-0627-4423. The stormy grey eyes of the man added to his reputation as an unemotional and uninteresting individual. He shared some common features like hair color, height, and the slightly wide cheek bones with 9124 indicating the two likely came from the same DNA lot. However the woman’s other facial features were more rounded than 4423’s more rectangular face, and her eyes were a hazel green to his grey. Small variations like this were not too uncommon between members of the same DNA lot.

         Both women looked over at the man as he continued to stare at personal data device that lit up his firm jaw and unemotional rugged face that with a light green hue. The pilot was the first to address the man, her voice a little less energetic than before, “Clones who have performed well are rewarded. Freeing Terra, their home world, should result in a great reward for the survivors such as a planet on which they could retire and call home.”

         The muscular red head listened to the pilot’s words before nodding while adding her own thoughts, “We will be the heroes who kicked the Ascendancy’s ass. Terrans love having heroes to glorify and shower with awards and praise.”

         The man looked up with a blank look on his face. He stared at each woman in turn before giving them a short speech. His voice was dull and matter of fact as he spoke, “We are tools of the terrans. That is why we have serial numbers instead of names. Tools, like this ship, are never rewarded for doing a good job; they are used until they are broken. The promises of rewards for clones are empty lies made to prevent us from giving into despair. If we liberate Terra we will not suddenly be granted peace or glory. The terrans commanding us will receive the honors, not us. Instead we will just be sent off to next war zone. We have no other purpose but to serve terrans until our end.”

         “Bullshit, Ryan or AI-232-1113, and his team was granted full citizenship and even given terran rank and privileges for their actions on Haxyon 3,” snapped the pilot in a defiant voice as she glared daggers at her superior. She was not going to give up her dream.

         “They continued to serve as warriors until they died in combat. Nothing changed for them other than the addition of meaningless titles to give them the sense of being rewarded,” replied the monotone voiced man as he resumed his reading. This clearly angered the pilot and she clenched her jaw as she turned her gaze to outside the ship. The man was trying to crush her dreams, but she would not let him.

         “Remember he is one of the wiped. He is a little messed up in the head. Do not let his pessimistic views get to you. I am sure when we drive the Ascendancy from Terra. The terrans will hail us as heroes and reward us accordingly,” replied the heavy weapons expert with confidence as she looked down at the pilot. The man didn’t reply to this, he had said his opinion and he was not going to continue the debate. Shaking her head at the angry pilot, the older woman looked out the window as the armed transport navigated a maze of defense satellites and construction ships. Shifting her weight onto the back of the pilot’s head rest to the point of almost leaning on it, the brown haired woman asked in a calm tone of voice, “I wonder why SyCorp called us here?”

         “We will find out soon enough,” muttered the pilot’s suppressed voice as she pressed a button on her control stick as the ship took a turn to angle itself for atmosphere penetration. “Attention, we are about to begin entry into Eur’s atmosphere. I recommend taking your seats and buckling in,” snapped the pilot, her voice still showing her anger as she spoke into her headset’s microphone. 4423 checked his seatbelt, while the tall redhead took a hold of the pilot’s seat with one hand, and the side of the cockpit’s frame with the other to brace herself.

          An armored cover slid over the windscreen of the transport, making the cockpit dark other than a few lit up instruments for a second. A slight glow began to intensify lighting up the cockpit as the ship began to shake violently. The shaking was a sign the transport had begun the process of forcing its way through the planet’s atmosphere. The planet’s resistance to the intruding craft would only last a few seconds, and the trembling soon stopped. Once past the natural barrier, the armor plates protecting the windscreen retracted allowing the pilot to see outside. There was still smoke dispersing around the ship and sections of the transport’s energy shielding were flickering as they recovered from the heat and resistance caused by the atmospheric entry.

        Looking out the window after descending for a couple of minutes, the pilot continued the ship’s descent while straining to get a look of the dark forests below. Her view was hindered by the darkness of night, but breaking the void of night were several mysterious blue glowing lights that dotted the vast forest like stars in a clear night sky. The strange lights began to melt the pilot’s anger as she stared at them with a curious gaze. The few other terran controlled worlds were ugly in comparison. Wastelands that required vast self-contained human cities that looked like vast metal bunkers from the outside for humans to live on the surface. The outside worlds were lethal to any that tried to wander them without proper protection. This world in comparison looked both beautiful and welcoming. If she was ever able to make a home for herself this would be the place to build it.

         Suddenly the negative thoughts returned as did her defiant anger. Who was she kidding? The man was right; she would never see her dreams come true. It would be one battle then the next for her. Her frown quickly returned as the man’s realistic words echoed through her head as she guided the sharp edged ship toward a waypoint on her HUD. ‘No, screw that!’ Thought the pilot, she would prove 4423 wrong, she would earn her dream. She wasn’t going to let that miserable wiped drone ruin her hope. A confident smirk crossed her lips, she was not going to give up.  

         9124 looked down at the pilot with a slight frown while putting her strong hand on the younger woman’s shoulder and giving it a firm squeeze. The woman then said in a solemn soft voice, “Don’t let him get to you ace… Hold onto your dreams.” 0082 nodded her head as she continued to focus on the world outside their ship. Frowning, the older woman patted the pilot’s shoulder and said, “I’m going to get all my equipment together and see what the others are up to… see you once we land.” 9123 then turned around and walked through the opened crew compartment door. Climbing down the small set of stairs that led to the cargo hold, 9123 walked over to her nearby fatigue green cot that was part of the living pallet that had been loaded on the transport. There wasn’t much privacy on the transport even the bathroom and “shower” were only shielded from the rest of the cargo compartment by a thin black curtain that could be wrapped around each of the two stations.

          Sitting sideways on the cot next to hers was YH-9911-6132, the lean man with small narrow red artificial eyes carefully examined every part of his disassembled Longbow sniper rifle. He was the team’s sharpshooter and scout, and he was an amazing shot with that rifle. The sleek almost real looking mechanical eyes only enhanced his sharpshooting skills by increasing his vision well beyond that of a normal eye. He preferred to work solo and kept to himself most of the time. He wasn’t as bad as 4423 when it came to being cold and distant, but he was a close second. The man didn’t even look up when 9123 recovered a bag from under her nearby cot and started to cram some of her clothes that had been resting out on the bed into it, without any regard for organization.

         “You will fit more in there if you fold and organized your belongings,” said a smooth voice behind 9123. The woman looked over her shoulder at the naked muscular man that was wiping down his body with a towel. His skin was much darker tan than her own skin, and his shoulder blade length straight hair was jet black.

         Smirking 9123 replied is a soft almost motherly voice, “I do not need to fit more. Unlike you I do not try to fit three bags worth of crap into one.”

        “You know most of my bag is filled with medical equipment I use to save your ass,” replied PL-0320-1767 smiling back as he went to his bag and started to carefully extract a uniform without disturbing the rest of the well-organized clothes and equipment. The man had striking features that made him comparable to a male model one would find in terran advertisements for clothes.

         9123 smirked as she watched him and said, “Well someone needs to fight. Hiding behind cover all the time doesn’t complete the mission.”

        1767 smiled and added in a confident and smooth tone of voice as he put on his underwear and pants, “I fight, I just prefer to do it intelligently, and use cover so I don’t get shot.”

        9123 shook her head and added, “There is a difference in using cover during a fire fight and hiding behind a wall the entire time and waiting for the rest of us to kill the enemy.”

        “1767 can fight better than most out there, but as our medic he needs to stay back more than the rest of us so when we get hit he can administer medical care. Remember he has saved both of us several times,” said a sand paper like voice from the furthest cot on the pallet. The owner of the voice was the squad leader AZ-1030-1221. The man had skin color the same as their pilot. However the leader lacked hair and most of his facial features were ruined by numerous scars and synthetic replacements, including his entire jaw and right cheek bone structure. He started his career as a member of the Acquisition teams, and he had been a member of the high risk unit for over 25 years.

        “If I got seriously wounded none of you would know how to save me, and then everyone is doomed,” added 1767 which invoked an eye roll from 9123. She then shook her head silently while zipping up her bag, and pulled it off her cot before dropping it in front of her feet. She then gave it a swift kick to get it under the cot.

     Unceremoniously dropping her massive frame onto her cot 9123 muttered, “Well you keep hiding while the rest of us get the mission done.” The medic’s response was a smug smile, as he sat on his cot to put on his boots. There was a moment of silence before 9123 asked, “Boss any more information on this mission?”

        “None, which means SyCorp did not want to risk the information leaking to any other organization. Expect a stealth operation and prepare accordingly,” replied the gritty voice of their leader.

         “Awww sounds like someone will have to use a silenced carbine instead of the heavy coil rifle,” teased the now fully dressed medic as he carefully put away his bag and adjusted the collar on his urban grey camouflage fatigues.

        “I do not care what the mission actually is as long there is some action and not some boring “watch people do something” observation mission,” said the woman as she held up her right hand to block out the dim light in the middle of the ceiling.

         “Amen to that, the only thing worse than observation no action missions is babysit the important person mission,” replied the medic as he brushed off his pants like there was something on his thighs.

         “Remember that one high profile meeting where we had to play bodyguard and had to sit in all those briefings?” asked 9123 with a heavy sigh as she let her muscular arm drop to her side.

        “I swear 4423’s face almost twisted into one of sheer boredom by the second third. I do not understand how the corporates could actually like those bore fests,” replied 1767 shaking his head then stretching his long arms out.

        9123 and 1767 continued their discussion on the boring body guard mission from the year prior, where they had to sit through five days of meetings and business discussions. The conversation then started to transform into one discussing how terrible it would be to just be a garrison troop on some central world that never saw any real threats. Their conversation continued until the mechanical sound of the engines rotating into vertical mode for landing.

        Upon landing, the rear of the craft’s ramp and door opened slowly revealing they had landed in a vast underground hanger. At the bottom of the ramp, an elderly woman stood patiently in her sharp business attire. The suit she wore was a three button blazer with fancy gold embroidered collar and cuffs of the sleeve. Once the engines had cut off completely the woman finally spoke in a firm commanding voice, “Good to see you all here earlier than expected Acquisition Team Nine, leave your equipment on the Succubus. We need to brief you immediately on your mission as we do not know when your target will be spotted again, and once she reappears we need to launch your team immediately.” The squad leader nodded and turned his head toward the back of the ship as 4423 climbed down from the crew compartment. Once 4423 was standing next to their leader, the group started down the ramp after the woman who had swiftly turned around and started to walk toward the double doors that led out of the hanger. 0082 would join them once she finished her post flight duties.

Part 1: The Chase

Reaching out Lynia grabbed the tree limb above her as she jumped, and used it to fling herself toward a branch on a neighboring tree. Her legs found their calculated mark as she dropped to a kneeling position to absorb some of the shock of her landing. Her long pointed ears pointing out of the side of her head twitched up and down as she listened for her pursuers making chase on the ground below her. Her breathe was heavy from fleeing her relentless hunters, and her mind was filled with fear. Why were they hunting her? They were the monsters who murdered innocent miztan! Despite these atrocities, she had spared them and in return they now hunted her.   

This confrontation occurred many sun cycles ago, when they had encroached on a nearby miztan settlement in the outer perimeter of the Nitareri, or Luminous in the terran’s language, Forest. The terrans had claimed the land as theirs, when it had belonged to a miztan treetop village for many generations. The miztan offered to show them different lands along with tribute to allow the miztan to keep their village in its current location, but terrans were not interested in negotiating. The taller terrans told the miztan’s elders they had a single sun cycle to relocate, or their village would be destroyed with them in it. The chief miztan elder had grown impatient with the invaders and told the terrans to leave, and that the miztan would not forsake their homes. The terrans’ response was brutal, the group of ten soldiers immediately began to opened fire with their powerful weapons on the miztan.

Lynia arrived just in time to witness the terran’s beginning their massacre. Solid metal spikes launched at supersonic speeds had torn through the miztan with ease as they tried to flee. Lynia was shocked by the ruthlessness of the invaders, but she did not allow the shock to prevent her from acting. Focusing her spiritual energy, Lynia had quickly conjured ten darts of fiery energy, and launched them toward the murderous terrans by flinging out her arm toward the targets. The small seven centimeter bolts of pure energy danced among the heartless soldiers, but not a single soldier was harmed by them. Under Lynia’s careful guidance these power bolts of energy burned through their weapons, rendering them useless. Walking toward the murderers her eyes ignited in power she demanded they leave and she would not be so merciful if they tried to harm anymore miztan. The shocked terrans did as she commanded, and retreated with haste to their ground crawling vehicle. That was the last and only interaction with the terrans until now.

By leaping from branch to branch in the upper regions of forest, the nature attuned faelin afforded to keep ahead of her hunters. Her swift movements among the canopies of the trees were unhindered by the thick underbrush and roots that slowed her hunters. However their flying machine was impossible to outrun. The whine of its engines could be heard as it passed overhead once again, and hovered ahead of her. Thankfully the thick canopy hid her from that metal beast, but the canopy also blocked her view so she could not see that it had dropped off another terran soldier.

As Lynia started to leap to a nearby branch the air was filled with the sounds of an electrical crack from one of the terran’s weapons. Suddenly a sharp pain drove through her right leg as a metal projectile drove straight into it. Yelping in pain, she continued forward faster her adrenaline allowing her to ignore the quickly fading pain. Lynia did not realize that her leg was quickly beginning to numb as she continued to flee. She would soon realize it when the leg lacked the control for her to make a simple jump. Her three fingers and thumb reached out in a desperate attempt to grab the branch she had leaped for when she realized her jump had been short. She was barely able to grab a hold of the branch, but her grip quickly failed. Feeling the smooth branch slip from her fingers, her mind quickly turned to fear as she realized she was falling toward the hard ground below. Closing her eyes she focused the best she could as her body pummeled from the vast height of the forest’s great tree that stood almost a 100 meters in height.

Summoning a field of invisible energy below her faelin attempted to shield her body from the hard impact with the ground, it was the same technique she used to levitate, but she didn’t have time or focus to form a levitation field. When she slammed into the hard forest floor, the field dampened most of the impact saving her from death. However the shield was not enough to completely protect her, the faelin’s left arm was the first part of her body to strike the ground as she reached out with to break her fall and it broke like a twig, the severed bone jutting out of her skin. Following her arm her left side struck the ground, and the impact instantly cracked four ribs. Tears formed in her eyes as she gasped in pain, but she would not give up now. Using her still good right arm she half crawled across the ground toward a tall thick patch of blue and purple La-La flowers that stood a little over a meter tall with their long elegant stems. These flower stood next to the remains of a fallen tree, whose large trunk and the uneven earth created a small crevice she could hide in. Crawling under the tree and behind the thick cluster of flowers, Lynia wrapped her purple hair covered fox like tail around her tan skin with elaborate emerald green patterns on it. Looking down at the leg that had lost all feeling she saw a metal device sticking out of it. She grabbed the metal object and pulled it out of her skin revealing the point of it was like a needle. She inspected it as the drugs contained in the projectile spread into her torso causing a numbing sensation that creeped across her torso. She tossed the object as far as she could away from herself as she curled up the best she could in order to hide.

                Lynia took her still good right hand and began to summon energies to heal her shattered left arm. A soothing blue light slowly repaired the broken arm. Lycia was focused on her healing and fighting the numbness that was slowly encroaching on her mind, to notice the approaching terran. Suddenly the sound of a branch breaking made her look up. One of her pursuers was looking at the dart she had tossed aside. The figure’s armored right boot stood on top of a broken branch that had announced its arrival. The figure’s helmet hid its face and made it look like a faceless monster. Holding her breath, Lynia pulled away her right hand slowly as she transformed the healing energy into powerful burning energy. Fear gripped her mind as the helmet suddenly turned and faced her. She realized her energy change had caught its attention.

Lynia’s fear and anger mixed the haziness caused by her drugs made her act without thinking. Her right hand dart up as the terran’s weapon turned toward her. Time seemed to slow to Lynia unleashed five magical darts of searing light, at the same time she heard the electrical crack of the figure’s weapon discharging. Horror suddenly gripped Lynia’s mind as she realized she was about to take a life. A sharp pain stabbed her shoulder as the terran’s weapon struck her and the additional drugs began to cloud her senses even further as her energy projectiles surged toward their target. No, she could not do it, she would not turn into a killer. She would not be like these heartless terrans. Closing her grip all the darts converged together forming a burning orb that hovered a few centimeters away from her attacker before slowly fading away. The figure just stood there staring at the dangerous yet beautiful orb until it had completely faded. Right before the darkness swallowed Lynia’s mind she afforded to whisper a single word, “Mercy.”