CHAPTER 4
Planet Bigot
FREKIM COULD ALMOST TASTES it. The recognition from the Emperor for the completion of his duty. He licked his craggy lips when he imagined what part of the Veerian’s body he would skin first. Stomach then to the arms and legs. He shivered with excitement at the thought.
The Death Parade. The name of the infamous fleet led by the notorious Frekim Mondragon. At its full power it contains hundred thousand ships, with its flagship, the Devourer at its core. They were tasked with important missions that could greatly affect the empire.
“Sir, five ships had diverged and warped away from Tellaveer.”
“What?” Frekim asked. He wondered what the captain of The Tellaveer is thinking. It could be a ploy to divide my troops to chase those bogeys, Frekim thought. “Set 10 Ferosa Strike ships for each ship that escaped and go after them. Rules of Engagement: Engage only when fired upon. I want whoever, whatever in those ships to be caught and brought back here-” Frekim licked his lips again. “Alive.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Sir, we are being hailed by The Bloodspawn.”
“Get it up in the screen.” Frekim ordered.
The image of a thinner and astute looking Frekim Mondragon appeared in the screen, it was like staring into younger version of Frekim, less intimidating of course, without the scar in his left cheek, but he could go there, give it a year or two. He has square jaw, with less wrinkles in his red forehead. He looked creepy with his massive, distinct and slightly protruding red cheekbones.
If there’s one thing Frekim Mondragon loved beside the Emperor himself, it was his sons. Nine of them, in fact. He valued them so much that each of them is leading a Battleship class ships and held high positions in the Death Parade.
“Father, let me go after one of those ships.”
Frekim sighed. “You’re too eager Fraxim. It could be a decoy.”
“Or they hid something valuable on one of those, father.”
Of course, Frekim knows that. That’s why he send ships after them. He looked at the five sectors in which the ships from Tellaveer had warped. “Ok, pursue and retrieve, avoid destroying whatever is in it. Track the one that went into Sector 17-AC.”
“Thank you, father.”
. . .
The ship, for the past hour or so he thought, have been quiet. Justy wished he could hear the purring of the ship’s engine, but there was none. Even the ship was a marvel of Science and engineering, Justy thought, and much more the concept of ‘warping’ still boggled his mind.
“Hello, Crabtree are you there?” Justy asked while sitting in a metal throne-like chair.
“Damn, human. Why do have to talk to me?”
“Uh, well. It’s only two of us here.” Justy realized something. “Could it be you were programmed to respond to me?”
“Duh? Of course. Get on with it, what do you want?”
“That’s why you were not talking since the entire time I have been on this suit.” Justy nodded, as if he realized something big. “Where we going?”
“Sector 17-AC.”
Justy shook his head. “Where is that?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Not really, but I wanna know why we are going there?”
“That’s not our destination. After we get there, were going to warp again, three more times.”
Justy grimaced. He realized that such precautions usually mean they might have been followed. He doesn’t know the dynamics of space travel, but the fact that the enemy got too close to the Tellaveer means the enemy has marked them. Or, worse, someone tipped them off.
“This mission, who else knew this? Excluding myself.” Justy asked.
“Oh please, you didn’t even know this mission to begin with.”
Fair point. Justy thought.
“Only four. Chief Engineer Drykkon, Chief Scientist Mu, Captain Ga’lek , and me of course. I am that important, it’d be best for you to remember that.”
Only three key personnel in Tellaveer. It was worse than he thought. How could I trust them, when they couldn’t even trust their own people? Justy asked himself.
“Crabtree, what is your prime directive?”
Crabtree sighed. “As much as I hate it, I have to help whoever stinking being is piloting the suit with the best of my faculties. But that doesn’t mean I have to like them.”
“What’s mine?”
“Dr. Mu didn’t tell you?”
Justy shook his head.
“I can’t tell if you shook your head or just looked around aimlessly, you idiot.”
Justy shrugged. He felt silly being scolded by an A.I. “No, she didn’t tell me anything about it. She only told me about the Frennins and their planet.”
“She should’ve told you.”
“That?”
“Gather allies.” Crabtree said. “It’s a futile mission. Basically, they wanted whoever in this suit to gather allies to fight back the Frennin’s regime.”
“Why it’s futile?”
“Frennin Galactic Empire is currently the master of Universe. They have millions of ships in their arsenal, they have stolen unbelievable technology from various civilizations. They have slaved countless planets and harvested their resources and amassed a fortune so great that they could literally do everything they want.”
“Like destroying Earth?”
“Yes, and much worse.”
“I reckon the time of doing whatever they want will come to an end.” Justy looked past the window, but he only saw flickering lights, he reasoned it was the result of the ship being warped. “I will make sure of it.”
. . .
The cold breeze, the chimes of the bell, the overly decorated Christmas tree. It was the season almost every children loved. Well, who wouldn’t? To a child, this is the day they will receive some present from their parents –or santa.
“Justy, open your present now. Your father and I picked it for you.” A woman in her early thirties said. She has curly dark hair, a little chubby but not too fat.
“Oh, thank you, mom.” Justy said.
Justy couldn’t hide his excitement and ripped the wrapping.
“Now, now. Careful, son.” His father said. He was a thin man. He was in his thirties also, but he looked older because of his bony physique.
It was a box with the logo of his favorite cartoon character printed on the cover. “So cool, a jigsaw puzzle!” Justy loved the present.
“Not just jigsaw, Justy. It was a thousand piece Jigsaw puzzle.” His mom exclaimed. They knew Justy loved puzzles, in truth, loved every kind of puzzles he could get his hands on.
“Pop, how long do you think I could finish this?” Justy asked.
“Well, considering it took you almost a day to finish that 500 piece jigsaw before, I’d say two days son.”
“I’ll finish it in a day and a half then.”
His father laughed. “Oh, you’re on, young man.”
Justy looked at the box and couldn’t help but smile. He then looked back to his parents to say his thanks. But their faces was gone. Literally, blank. Their body was still there but they gave the impression that they were shrinking or possibly the distance between them is getting longer.
“Mum, pop?”
“Wake up.” Justy heard. But the sound didn’t came from his parents. “Hey skinny, wake up! You have elevated heartbeat. You were having nightmares.”
Justy jerked out of sleep . He didn’t even remembered when he had fallen asleep. “How long was I out?”
“82 standard minutes and 20 seconds. You were out during the second jump. We’re getting close to our destination. I suggests you eat something.”
“Ok, is there any food here?” Justy asks.
Then something opened in his armchair. It looked like a green sugar cube with the same rough texture but different color. The other is a red pill. “What’s this?”
“Calories, nutrients, multivitamins and water. Everything an earthling would need to survive for weeks.”
He gulped down the provisions. He was skeptical at first, but it sated his hunger quite fast. In a matter of seconds, he felt satisfied.
“And… we’re here.”
It was a spectacle. The planet was surrounded by two moons. The slightly smaller moon has dull shade of yellow. The other has mahogany-like features. The planet itself, which is probably hundred times bigger than its two moons combined, bathed in green, with touch of the color of the sand and occasional magma color. Nevertheless, it was beautiful.
Justy stood and went for a closer look. “Where are we?”
“Planet Bigot, D521 galaxy, Sardon Supercluster, 4.5 billion light-years away from earth.”
“What are we doing here? Are there any potential allies here to recuit?”
“That’s one of the prerogative, but mostly we are here to train. If you are thinking of toppling the Frennin’s regime, then you need power. If you think at your current state you could made the strongest faction in the universe collapse, then you are in a world of pain, you scrawny earthling.”
“…Commencing landing procedure…” The ship computer voice said. It was from a woman. Justy liked how soothing the voice was.
“…Atmospheric condition: 51.2901% Oxygen, 10.8771% Nitrogen, 23.1010% Phosporus, Argon 8.5101%, Helium 3.2221%, 1.1119% Hydrogen, 1.2511% Carbon dioxide and 0.636% Methane...”
“…Gravity at an average of 12g...”
“That’s a lot of oxygen, Crabtree. Are you sure I could survive down there, with such atmosphere?”
“Oh, trust me, that’s the least of your worries.”
“Instead of foreshadowing, you could just tell me what I might encounter down there.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Shit, you’re no fun. The planet is hostile, that much is obvious, since I told you we’re here to train.”
“Is there any… you know…scary aliens out there?”
“Yeah and most likely they are very hungry right now and they have a taste for earthlings”
Bam* Justy got thrown away and hit the floor. “What was that?”
“Some greetings from the locals. We’re under attack, brace yourselves.” Crabtree said.
“…Power Coupling took major damage…”
The ship took another hit and it shook violently thrashing Justy everywhere. The ship was now crashing rapidly. “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahh.” Justy shouted. He remembered the time when he rode the Drop tower with his friends. But this time, the feeling is hundred times worse.
Justy continued shouting at the top of his lungs. I am gonna die, he thought fervently.
The ship stopped abruptly. The safety mechanism for crash landing had successfully kept the ship from blowing into pieces. Justy hit the roof of the ship but he felt no pain.
A message appeared in the upper corner of his HUD.
Your suit had suffered damages by poorly absorbing the natural inertia. Would you like to learn a skill to better counter the effects of Inertia?
[Y / N]
“Yes, thank you.” Justy panted.
You have learned Inertial DampenerLevel 0 | 0.00%
You have been shouting a lot. Would you like to register this action as a skill? By doing so, different aspects of the specific action could improve.
[Y / N]
Seriously? Justy thought. “ok, yes.”
You have learned Roar.Level 0 | 0.00%
“Stand up, scrawny. We have crash landed in a more hostile location than the original plan.”
Justy feeling groggy took his time to stand. “What do you mean more hostile location?”
“Just bring out your weapon.”
“Release Rache.”
Dimensional Storage have leveled up by 1.
-Energy consumed in doing the action decreased by 2%.
-Time to complete the action decreased by 1.5%.
Justy held his rifle just like how his character in his favorite Tactical shooting game did. “What now?”
“Accessed map functions. Activate All-detect mode.” Crabtree said.
Then a small map appeared in the lower right corner of his HUD. He saw two objects coming towards the center. “Be warned, your map has now limited capacity. We could only see bogeys from a kilometer radius. Go out and meet the one who brought the ship down.”
The door opened partially. Justy had to crouch to get out. He took a step and realized based on the wet ground he just stepped on that they might’ve landed on a swamp. The surrounding was covered in a thick miasma. Justy could barely see anything.
“Use enhanced vision. It’s one of the Suit’s innate abilities.”
Justy obeyed Crabtree suggestions. He ordered in his mind to activate it. The entire surrounding changed into a bluish like screen. But this time, he could somehow looked past through the mists. It was a swamp, with thick and tall grass in some part of it.
Justy looked carefully on his map. The details of the locations of the bogeys were placed below them. He saw, Dist: 450m | Elev: 200m∠23.96o |∠21o , below the nearest bogey in his map. Justy understood what it meant, or rather it could only mean one thing, and that is the enemies are airborne. He looked around to find some cover, but he could only saw the ship.
He ran away from the ship, on the off chance they would attack the ship instead of him. Though, he couldn’t ran that fast in a 15g environment, and the mud didn’t help either. But he was a lot faster when he ran under 20g back in the Tellaveer.
He slouched and point his rifle to the ship.
“Incoming.” Crabtree said.
The warning was redundant. One, Justy could see it on his map. Two, he could hear the buzzing getting stronger. Much like he predicted, two green bugs, flew around the ship. They were massive than any flying living animal on earth. They sort of look like a mosquito because of the tube elongating on their head.
Just like in a video game. A cross-hair appeared in his HUD when he pointed at one of them. Justy put on his game face. He still looked the same, you couldn’t even tell if he is serious. But one thing his friends knew from experience playing alongside Justy was that, he could create miracles when he's dead serious.
Justy took the shot. He used the incendiary rounds. A rapid burst came out of his rifle. He liked that his rifle let out only a minimal recoil. The bug took most of the hit. But the bullet that strayed on its wings made it stumbled to the ground. The other bug started to flew higher. Then, it lunged at him. Justy opened fire, but the bug continued his approach to him. Justy rolled to the ground to avoid the incoming attack. He quickly get up and eyed the bug. It was fast for his size, but not fast enough for Justy to lose sight of it.
Justy followed the movement of the bug with his rifle. One thing that would differentiate a newbie from an experienced gamer is that, they usually aimed to where the target is, instead of aiming it to where it will be. But Justy was no beginner.
In a few seconds and a burst of incendiary rounds. The bug went down as it left a trail of smoke before it hit the ground.
“Beginner’s luck.” Crabtree said.
Justy clasped his rifle. He looked badass. He feels like a badass. “What now?” he said in the most badass manner he thought.
“Normally, I would suggest for you to harvest some materials in their body. But, it's entirely up to you if you want to have picnic here, after all, this is not the planned location for you to train.”
Justy nodded and noticed the sarcasm. “Ok, where to then?”
“Restore map function.”
Justy saw his map zoomed out. “Did you just increased the range of the map?”
“No, I just restored it back to normal. This time though, you might not be able to detect some creatures with natural stealth capability, like the one you just killed. Look at the map, I just marked your next destination on it.”
. . .
The Bloodspawn arrived at sectory 17 AC but there was no sign of any ships but only distant stars. Fraxim roared in frustration. They were fast. But the Scrotum was faster. Justy’s ship, unbeknown to him, was equipped with one of the fastest engine in the universe. It could go to 60 Million light years in just under 32 minutes. Twelve minutes faster than the Bloodspawn.
“Find them, use that device.” Fraxim shouted.
“Aye sir. But the device says our target had warped three more times. It would take us days before the device could figure out their exact location, sir”
“How long?”
“Three or four days, sir.”
Fraxim bellowed. “Dammit. How could we let them escape?”
“Their ship was faster than us, sir.”
Fraxim stood up. He eyed to the array of his personnel. “Who said that?”
The room fell silent. Fraxim drew his blaster from the holster in his hip. “Who said that? I’m not gonna ask again.”
One of the guy raised his hands reluctantly. “I-I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to?”
Fraxim walked to get closer to the poor, and terrified sod. “Are you saying, we are slow?”
“u-um… n-no sir.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“N-nothing sir.”
Fraxim aimed his blaster to the guy’s head. “Are you saying I’m a liar? Because I did hear you say something.”
“Their… s-ship was faster than us sir…” The guy stammered.
“Then are you saying, our ships is slower than them?”
“I-in a way, sir. Y-yes.” The guy shivered in terror.
Fraxim withdrew his blaster. “Contact my father and asked them if they had caught the others. If that ship is indeed faster than us, then we may be after something big.”
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Chapter 3Armor of JustyNEXT CHAPTER
Chapter 5
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