Skaarg watched through the window of his shuttle as he descended upon Displincia. Flames licked the atmosphere-proof glass as the stabilisers kicked in. This was the wildest experience of his life. This place was nothing like Nort. Displincia was once a utopia, with cities built by a culture he had only read about.

Buildings made of pristine glass had billows of smoke pouring into the orange-tinted sky. Syntheticons which would usually be serving the area lay scattered along the floor. The great technology of the Vaxorian race, reduced to nothing but ash and dust.

Thousands of Vaxorians hurried around like a busy set of ants, but these weren't mere insects. They were a sentient civilization brought to the ground by the might of his own species. There was something quite awesome about the power the High Leader commanded. To bring an entire planet to its knees within a few hours. Skaarg felt sick at the thought of it.

Traarg said this had to happen. The Engen'ozus would be able to make an impact upon the universe if they had a set of planets to call their own. The species had been homeless for longer than any of them could remember and now, it was their time.

It was no secret to Skaarg that the Vaxorians were no better than the red-shades. They kept humans as slaves and didn't even fight with their own fire power during the wars.

Steam hissed and the concrete street below cracked in two as the shuttle smashed into the ground. Skaarg picked up his two laser-based pistols and tucked them into his belt. Then threw his Fusion-64, laser based assault rifle, over his shoulder. His leather boots hit the ground and he took a deep breath as he admired the moment.

The second alien planet he had ever visited. The smell of fire and brimstone hung in the air. Skaarg wondered what the organic smell of the planet was. How did it all feel before they had come in for the attack? None of that would matter now. When the High Leader won, he would shape the place into his own design. Traarg was always speaking about these plans. The ones that they intended to stop.

But before they started their civil war, they needed to gain the trust of the people. According to the Commander, the way to do that was to show them proof their plan was better than the High Leader's.

Skaarg couldn't help but grin as he looked around at the utter chaos. The Vaxorians had become complacent since the peace treaty. He laughed at the idea of them scrambling to figure out what had hit them. The High Leader wasn't his favourite person but Skaarg had to give him credit. The execution of the invasion was well thought out. How do you fight an enemy you didn't even know existed?

They'd be up there terraforming the planet right now. Preparing it for an onslaught of Sabre Zoones; pets of the red-shades. Disgusting creatures who acted as the penultimate phase of the attack. They’d ravage and destroy everything in their path. The Engen'ozus had been developing over the years. Even Skaarg had the ability to adapt his breathing but the Zoones still required a shift in the atmosphere. Nothing massive. The change was barely noticeable. But enough to allow the monsters to breathe.

He walked down a back alley and his gaze fixed upon a family of Vaxorians. Two of them couldn't have been older than five or six years in age. An adult Vaxorian hurried out of his house.

"You never listen!" he shouted, a tint of red running through his multicoloured fins. "Get back inside now!"

"But Papa, look up in the sky," said one of the little ones.

The adult scowled. "We don't have time for your games," he snapped and pulled the boy up by his collar.

Skaarg felt his fingers twitch, a memory shot through his mind of his own father. A pitiful orange-shade who had resigned to be exactly what the Engen'ozus had deemed them. Weak and pathetic. Skaarg ran a finger over his left arm. A faded scar of a time when his father had taken that lack of control out on him.

While his father didn't have any power in the community of the Engen'ozus, he did have it over his own son. He never forgot the first time he realised how pathetic his father truly was. Skaarg had brought home a gun he'd managed to steal from one of the green-shades. He'd been practising the ability to shoot for weeks when his father had found him. An expression of fear had shot across his face. Skaarg could almost hear him now, so close the tinge of his breath felt hot on his nostrils. You're going to get us killed. Face it boy, you're a blue-shade. It was cruel of us to keep you, you'll never be anything.

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Skaarg's anger brought him back to reality. He didn't think twice before pulling out his pistol and shooting the Vaxorian adult straight through the head. The children cried out as black Vaxorian blood splattered across their terrified faces. They looked over to Skaarg who gave them a cheeky smile. "Now go and make something of yourselves," he said, then turned on his heel and walked away.

He flicked up the coordinates Traarg had given him, then sighed. The shuttle had brought him to the city but this place looked to be on the outskirts of the forest. He thanked his lucky stars that Displincia was a city-based planet. There were plenty of vehicles for him to choose from.

It didn't take him long to spot the huge line up of deadlocked traffic that littered the main road. The vehicles had clearly been abandoned by Vaxorians during the attacks.

Skaarg yanked open a pod on one of the Loop Cars. A large vehicle in the shape of a wheel. It housed a pod in the middle where the driver would sit. A dead Vaxorian body fell out. "Going to need your vehicle, big guy."

Skaarg unstrapped him and pulled him out. He checked there was enough fuel, brought up his coordinates on the map, then climbed into the pod and lit the bad boy up. He took a hard right over the pavement and weaved into an alleyway. The place he was meant to be going wasn't in the city. He was going to have to break through to the forest that surrounded it. He swerved into another alley and narrowly missed a Vaxorian walking down it.

"Watch where you're going!" Skaarg shouted with glee on his face. He rolled the Loop Car over a fence and onto the grass. Brown leaves stuck to the wheels as it continued to move towards its destination.

What interested Skaarg the most about this plight was the fact his target wasn't even a Vaxorian. He was on the search for a human. Not just anyone though. This old man was one of the few humans on the planet who wasn’t a slave. How he'd managed to achieve such a status was unknown. He was a key member who helped bring peace to Valaxoria/ Ivarozza space. Though the history books didn't say much about him. It could be the reason why he lived so far away from society.

Skaarg manoeuvred his way through the trees, careful not to ditch the Loop Car. Finally, he spotted what he was here for. Skaarg pulled to a stop by one of the trees then jumped out of the pod. He traced the floor with his eye and smiled. A long metal chain lay hidden beneath the leaves. If he were a green-shade, he would have pushed his way through and tripped over it. The chain would likely trigger some kind of trap.

Skaarg pulled up his AR-60 and shot it on either side.

With the connection broken he was free to venture forward. He stepped over it and walked towards the wooden house ahead. It was three stories high. It wasn't as high tech as the buildings that were burning in the city. That didn't take away from how impressive it was. Black tiles lined its slanted roof panels. A round stained glass window looked over a long yard of clean glass.

The place was in pristine condition. The person who owned it took a lot of pride in it. All kinds of robotic tech devices hooked up to the walls. Skaarg took a blast at them. They exploded with one shot of his laser. They were clever devices designed to shock any potential attackers. Skaarg grinned. He'd have to be a lot smarter than that to fool him.

He crept over to the house and took a peek through the window. The living quarters were beautiful. Bookshelves lined the walls but the floor was littered with scraps of metal. A toolbox sprawled out along the ground. It was hard to say if anyone was in there.

"I don't know who you are but you better get off my land," said a voice. Skaarg turned to find the human target he was after, his hands shook as he pointed a pistol in Skaarg's direction.

He'd seen pictures of this guy before. The old man had slicked back silver hair, his eyes were deep and shined with the light of a life gone by. His long brown trench coat wafted in the wind. Thick dirt stuck to the bottom of it and the sleeves had patches that had been sown on several times over. His grey moustache twitched as he held his ground with a gruff glare.

Skaarg smiled. "Hyke, isn't it?"

"Who's asking?" the human replied.

Skaarg saw no harm in telling the truth. "My name is Skaarg. I'm here to take you for Commander Traarg. He needs to speak to you urgently."

Hyke looked him up and down, nodded. "Surprised they sent you of all people. Aren't blue-shades redundant to your kind?

Skaarg felt a flash of anger, his hand twitched over his pistol then curiosity took over. "Care to tell me how you know that?"

Hyke smirked. "You lot aren't as clever as you think you are."

"Just as well that we will soon have your intelligence then, old man," Skaarg said. He put his right hand in his back pocket and circled it around a grenade. "Now then, are you going to jump in my car willingly or am I going to have to draw this thing out?"

"Last I checked, I had the gun trained on you," Hyke replied.

Skaarg sighed. "That's disappointing."

He pressed a button on the grenade and threw it into the window of the house. Hyke's eyes widened as the blast knocked out the walls of the living quarters. Skaarg smiled. "Relax, they're not strong enough to do a lot of damage."

He used Hyke's hesitation to pull another grenade from his pocket. "This, on the other hand, will take us all out. Not sure how you want to approach this, old man," Skaarg said. The brief had reported Hyke had a daughter. There was a chance she was hidden somewhere in the house and, if that was true, there was no way the old man would risk it.

As predicted, Hyke threw his gun to the floor and held his hands up. "Let's get this over with," he mumbled.