Fluur stood and stared up at the hole in the ceiling, impatiently waiting, feeling useless and stuck. Amander had told him to wait, Amander had said the safest place to be was in this room, that help would presumably be on their way.

A pained canine scream echoed once again through the research station’s PA system, the sound of flesh being cut and bones cracking once again.

But how could he just sit here, sit here while Spot was being tortured by some sick slaving asshole? No matter how little, he could help. Fluur’s body literally felt like new, the genetic treatment having not only healed his injuries, but made him feel years younger.

He couldn’t find a weapon, so settled for a rather solid lump of metal that had once been a chair leg. Since Spot had told him he could now use the stuff, the Zorthian also took a moment to grab a pack of Medigel, shoving it into his pockets. He climbed up onto the chair he’d seen Amander use and poked his head into the hole left in the ceiling.

Panic.

Absolute.

Panic.

Tight, too small. Like it had been too small and too dark back on the Raha prince’s ship. He couldn’t breathe, there was no air up here, he couldn’t breathe!

Fluur felt himself slam into the floor as he lost balance when his legs gave way, feeling the wind knocked out of him as he lay gasping for air as the panic attack remained. The treatment hadn’t healed all the wounds from his time as a prisoner.

Another howl of pain from the uplift echoed through the room as he lay on the floor.

Useless.

—-------------------------

Lut’har gave a grumble as he searched through the nearby rooms, looking for another red box that would contain more Medigel. The Raha had to admit that the stuff was impressive, heck, the stuff was fun. Normally when you broke a plaything, you had to stop playing, you could only cut skin and break bones once.

But these Terrans… Medigel changed all that. If you had an infinite supply of the stuff theoretically you could enjoy your new toys forever. He would have to make that suggestion to the Raha royal house: There’s no way the Terran government would notice a handful of their people go missing, no government ever did.

However Lut’har didn’t have an infinite supply of the stuff, so he returned empty handed back to where he’d been waiting for his quarry to arrive. Where he’d been “enjoying” the strange fur covered Terran. Over the past 20 minutes he’d already used two bags of Medigel to keep his bait alive, to get a few more joyous howls of pain out of the canine. He couldn’t find a third, so the uplift would have to remain in its current grievously wounded half conscious state.

Lut’har was frankly disappointed by Amander. The Terran who had supposedly single-handedly taken out an entire royal barge had instead chosen to hide, even as he tortured what was assumed to be a friend of some kind. Even worse, the sensors on the screens in front of him showed two incoming Terran warships. He’d have to leave soon in order to avoid being caught by them.

It really wasn’t what he wanted to do, but he guessed that what he’d done so far would be considered enough retribution for the death of prince Hakthas. Still, leaving the murderer alive left a terrible tingle down his antenna. Not that there was anything he could do if the Terran decided to just hide, and there was no point getting caught for no-

He heard the slight movement, giving him a fraction of a second to drop to the floor, watching the screen behind where he had been standing explode into a thousand pieces as a bullet blew through it. He didn’t even need to check to know who it was, it was the only other person on this station who he cared about: His target, Amander.

“So you finally came!”

He fired his own grouping of shots back in the direction the initial attack had come from, moving low and quick between cover, changing position rather than sticking with some forlorn hope that anything in this room could stop the kinetic power of Terran made bullets. He spotted a glimpse of Amander moving from corridor to corridor, letting Lut’har fire back his own lethal shots, blowing holes in the walls as the Raha tried to predict the Terran’s movement.

“I’ve got to ask Amander, why here? With the lead you had, you could have been deep inside Terran territory by now.”

Lut’har had lost track of the Terran, keeping low and looking for the next location she would attack from. The console he had been hiding behind mere seconds ago exploded into shards of metal and electronics, leaving the Raha chasing ghosts as he tried to find where the second set of shots had come from.

“Why did you make it easier for me to kill you?”

Stolen novel; please report.

The pillar Lut’har was ducked behind exploded as three bullets missed the Raha by inches, spraying him with shards of metal. Cuts and grooves were carved into his exoskeleton and white blood splashed into the floor. Yet he still didn’t have a single clear shot on Amander.

Something had to change, or Lut’har would be killed without ever even seeing his target. But the Raha had his own set of tricks. He dropped to the floor as loudly as he could and gave a fake scream of pain, tensing up and waiting to pounce as soon as the Terran came into view.

Which she did, of course she did. What kind of soldier wouldn’t try to push the advantage in such a situation? For the first time in the weeks Lut’har had been chasing that phantom, the Raha could finally see Amander Blake in the flesh.

He charged at her. Amander had one shot, one chance to hit the target before the insect would be upon her. She missed.

They both went tumbling to the ground as Lut’har tackled her, both entwined together as they fought each other for advantage, Amander’s weapon spinning out of her hand as she impacted the floor. Lut’har brought around his own gun, attempting to get a shot off before screeching in an agony as Terran hands wrapped around the Raha’s antenna and twisted in vicious movements. He dropped his own weapon as Lut’har desperately punched and flailed around, his senses spinning and no longer making sense as his antenna were assaulted, both fighters eventually breaking free of each other.

For a moment both combatants lay there,regaining their composure before they both drew their knives and charged back at each other, insectoid mandibles screeching and primate shouting through gritted teeth. There were no quips, no back and forth banter, no declarations of victory. Both sides just wanted to kill each other, nice and simple.

Amander had been part of the assault on the Mars city Midgard, where humanity had demanded revenge on those who had rained death down upon the Earth and her children.

Amander dove forward, driving her opponent back with aggressive slice after slice, each one threatening to split the Raha’s thorax open and forcing him off balance, a heel kick to a leg joint causing the insect to stumble.

Lut’har had fought his way through the fight pits, through hordes of other damned souls who had been born away from Int’ch’s loving light, fighting through the darkness over years to eventually break free into the sun’s loving guiding embrace.

Lut’har stabbed viciously with his own blade, causing the Terran to stop her attack or get a knife to the gut, taking this moment to press his momentum. Lut’har got back to his feet as his knife knicked the Terran, the flesh wound appearing on the side of the Terran’s torso: inches away from disembowelling her.

Amander had been the soul who had broken into the Council of One’s chambers during the Sagittarius anarchy. She had been the one to put a bullet in each of the 12’s sick twisted minds.

Amander ducked and dodged, batting another lethal attack to the side, using the blade this time to force the insect to repeatedly take strikes from her fists and feet, wearing down the Raha until eventually using these gaps in its defense to drive the blade deep into its shoulder, giving a sickening twisting crunch as she twisted the blade.

Lut’har had been the one to stand against the Ranthas conspiracy. He had been the one to protect the sanctity of the Raha royal line, to project Int’ch’s will. He had been the one to stand against so many, against such odds… and return victorious.

Lut’har didn’t care about the blade stuck in his shoulder, taking the moment that the Terran was occupied with its own weapon to strike the primate in the face, eventually just grabbing onto her shoulders and headbutting the Terran repeatedly over and over until they both separated, stumbling back a few steps. Red blood now coated the exoskeleton of his faceplates, his opponents nose and several teeth clearly broken and bleeding heavily.

Both continued to dance back and forth, seconds turning to minutes, movements starting to slow as both quickly found their initial energy supplies depleted as small wounds and nicks were caught and caused on both sides. Red and white blood was splattered along the floor, Terran and Raha alike.

Then they both saw it. A moment. A strike to end the battle.

Amander went first, finding a gap that hadn’t been there before. The blade sliced through the air, then straight through the left arm of the Raha, removing it from its joint before eventually burying deep into its side.

Lut’har, however, did one better. He didn’t care about the Terran’s attack, he didn’t care about the pain and agony now coursing through where his now severed limb used to be, instead just focusing on one thing only: driving the blade straight and true… deep into the top of Amander’s chest.

Both combatants collapsed.

The room fell silent, the sounds of fighting replaced with only the smallest hum and buzz of machinery, or the occasional gurgle from a half conscious Spot. Time for a moment stood still, as everyone remained silent, a calm after the storm.

Then Lut’har got up. Slowly, painfully, blood dripped from his severed limb. This was bad, in this state we was going to quickly bleed to death. Maybe if the Raha made it back to his ship he could stop the bleeding there and then-

A scratching fumbling sound caught Lut’har’s attention, looking across to see Amander riffling bloody fingers through her pockets, pulling out one of the bags of Medigel and starting to attempt to apply it, each breath gurgling and wet as the Terran struggled.

Staggering, Raha walked over to his now fallen opponent, taking the moment to rip the bag out of her hands. Amander only offered momentary resistance as Lut’har found and retrieved both bags of the medical supply.

“How… Are…. You… Still…. Alive?”

The Terran should have bled out, or at least be bleeding out, confusion entering his mind until Lut’har took a closer look. It seems that the knife itself was stopping the flow of blood. He took the moment to tear open both bags of Medigel, dumping its contents uselessly on the floor. Then he reached over to retrieve his knife, to finally end this entire endeavour, before Lut’har spotted something even better.

He hobbled over slowly to the dropped weapon, to where Amander had been forced to leave it when Lut’har had tackled her. He picked it up with his one remaining hand, giving a small click of laughter. The weapon that had started all of this, one that had fired the shot that caused all this to happen. It was perfectly ironic that this would also be the one to end it.

“Amander Blake. I, Lut’har of the Int’ch royal guard, find you guilty of the murder of prince Hakthas, long may he be remembered.”

Lut’har took a moment to check the weapon was in a proper working state, before pointing it down at the Terran on the ground.

“Your sentence is death.”