Hapthus smashed the communicator in front of him in a fit of rage, sending some of his more skittish beastkin followers scattering, whereas Bratak, the orc prick, chuckled at his expense, Hapthus glared at him to shut up. He had just received the reports that the entire Void Reavers fleet, alongside its allies, had been destroyed by that accursed Ryser clan. A fleet of 13 ships had been taken down in a prepared ambush of two ships and a large array of weapon emplacements. They had been following the tracker one of his operatives planted on the Kaiakos for weeks, and nothing had indicated that they had been noticed. The only thing that stood out was that the demon they used to get close to the Kaiakos had acted a little strange. They had failed to assassinate him, but Hapthus had ascribed it to his operative doing a poor job at luring the demon into their disposal trap. The Pirate fleet had even scouted ahead to ensure they wouldn't fall into any traps just for the bloodthirsty orcs and arrogant Grandarian human pricks to be lured into a false sense of security when the Kaiakos seemed to struggle to put their scout ship down.
Hapthus kicked a chair aside, his rage still boiling over as he paced in a circle. He never should have accepted the open contract posted by the Blackmarket Syndicate. It was supposed to be an easy job to cause as much damage as possible to the Ryser Clan, with a hefty bonus for killing any of their leaders or destroying their two known spacecraft. He had outsourced the job to the Voidreevers, paying them a significant sum, confident that their fleet could easily take down two ships and potentially eliminate some of the leadership. At the very least, they should have been able to strand them in a star system.
Hiring the pirates had drained nearly all of his funds, and now it would cost him even more in standing within the syndicate. He had sent a not-insignificant fleet to their doom in this budding universe, based on what would now be seen as a faulty lead. He faced the prospect of becoming a laughing stock or, worse, being assassinated for his failure. Laying low was his only option now, especially since the rest of the syndicate had already learned of the Bloodreevers' demise from their desperate screams into the void, calling for reinforcements, calls that no one would be able to answer in time.
"Idiots, all of them," he muttered bitterly.
In his rage, Hapthus hadn't noticed Bratak's approach. The towering orc bodyguard loomed over him, his gaze intensifying Hapthus' fury.
"What do you want, Bratak? Can't you see I'm busy?!" he spat, but his words were cut off as the orc's hand wrapped around his throat, crushing his windpipe. He felt space magic locking down around him, trapping him in place.
"Sorry, but I jus' got a new job offer wiv a bonus if I brings 'em yer 'ead," Bratak grunted, his foul breath washing over Hapthus before everything went dark.
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Frixbis cursed under her breath. Her contract to deal with the Ryser Clan had been completly taken off the Blackmarket contracting board. It had initially been claimed by a promising individual who had dispatched a small pirate armada to destroy the clan's precious ships and strand them in whatever system they ended up in. The mission had been a miserable failure. The bastards at the Blackmarket had even claimed the bond she had put up for the contract, arguing that the pirates had fulfilled the terms by attacking the Ryser Clan and inflicting some damage. They refused to pursue the contract further but assured her she wouldn't need to pay out the full reward.
They also reassured her that the Ryser Clan had been noted and would eventually be dealt with. They had provided images of the Kaiakos returning to a hostile planet called Earth as evidence of the completion of their end of the contract. The ship showed light to moderate damage at best, with burn marks across its surface and a few destroyed weapon emplacements, but it was still operational. How could they call this a completed contract? They had failed to kill Nessyra or her sister. Not even that arrogant human lover of hers had died. She hadn't even received confirmation that anyone was killed in the attack.
She sent another inquiry about the Ryser Clan and what they knew of this planet called Earth and paid the fee the local syndicate network demanded. Frixbis fumed as she read over the lackluster information package. All she could gather from it was that it was a Human planet and the origin planet of the ascendant Alistair Ryser and countless others. The planet was under the control of a tricky Natural god called Sol, and the Kaiakos had already left again and had not been spotted since.
Sol had apparently at first made the Blackmarket syndicates believe he would tolerate their presence in exchange for a cut of their trade exiting his system. Just to expose their outposts and send his fanatics to attack almost all of their members who failed to leave the planet or hide within the ranks of other emerging factions. There were multiple standing contracts to extract their members from the planet, but browsing the topic showed that nobody was dumb enough to take them, as Sol had the planets in the system patrolled thoroughly by his ever-growing fleet.
She growled as her tail swished back and forth in agitation. If she wanted something to be done right, it had to be done by herself. She would eventually sniff out that damn Clan and have her revenge for the disrespect they had shown her. That bitch Nessyra had undermined all of her business, and almost everyone she tried to acquire ran to that Demon harlot where they knew Frixbis couldn't pressure them.
She bit her tongue at the thought of forming her golden core without first resolving these heart demons. Perhaps she should redirect her efforts, channeling her rage into an even sharper weapon. Revenge would come inevitably, and the taste of bittersweet success would be hers.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
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Alistair joined the rest of the team in the cockpit, sensing the growing excitement as Braxik read out the sensor data.
"I think we got the big payout," Braxik began. "We found a habitable temperate planet with a livable moon orbiting it. The readings indicate the moon is on the warmer side, and the main planet's mana density is the second highest we've encountered."
Alistair's smile widened as he joined them. "What kind of environments and terrain are we looking at?"
Braxik and Riseth, both examining the readouts, let out simultaneous groans. "The majority of the moon appears to be covered in oceans, and we have signs of habitation," Riseth reported.
"But the main planet is a Gaian variant, more specifically, a river world," Braxik continued. "It's slightly colder and lacks seasons due to its axial tilt being almost perpendicular, but more importantly, it shows no signs of habitation."
Alistair sucked in air through his teeth. Signs of habitation in the nebulas were almost exclusively recently emerging species that had not been part of the trial. Fortunately, they weren't on the planet they were aiming for, but depending on the disposition of the inhabitants, they had either a trading partner and friend or a potential nuisance at their hands, and Alistair prayed it was the former. Even If the planet they were approaching wasn't the one knowing of other civilizations and trading with them could be incredibly valuable, they would have to visit the people living on the moon. The readouts got more detailed as they grew closer, and Alistair waited intently for Riseth or Braxik to keep them appraised. He and the others waited with bated breath.
"Yes!" Riseth exclaimed, pumping her fist into the air before hugging Alistair, while Braxik let out an appreciative whistle.
"We've confirmed multiple mountain ranges with dragon veins strong enough to be detected even from this distance," Braxik said. "And it doesn't look like there's a significant monster infestation; the monster populations seem on the low to moderate end and not as concentrated like Riddickulus,"
"What about the moon?" Simon asked.
After a short pause, switching the readouts, "We should come into visual range shortly, but based on the planetary index we put together, it's an Archipelago planet," After furrowing his brows and stroking his beard, he added, "Weird. The infrastructure seems to be on the bottom of the oceans, not the islands,"
"An aquatic species?" Simon probed.
"Looks like it," Braxik said as multiple screens came alive, showing the planet and moon in question.
Alistair let out an appreciative whistle, with Riseth still clinging to his side, his arm wrapped around her. The moon's oceans were a beautiful, delicate shade of jade, and the small continents had a mix of dense jungles surrounded by white sand beaches and overgrown grasslands with mostly warm orange and occasional green vegetation. They could see storms moving across the surface, but it didn't detract from the beauty. Alistair thought the moon would put many island resorts on Earth to shame as he caught a glimpse of its beaches and coves. The terrain was mostly flat, with only the larger continents having any mountains, and even those weren't very big.
What really impressed him, though, was the Lake planet. It matched the moon's beauty with its varied landscapes. It had one huge, deep, sapphire-blue ocean connecting most of the planet, taking up a third of the surface. Countless rivers and lakes flowed from the mountains into beautiful valleys dotted with colorful fields of flowers, spreading lush green and streaks of blue and pink vegetation across the globe, with dense pockets of spirit soil grass that had a teal sheen. The planet's vegetation was of the most common type, similar to Earth and Neshan, yet still alien and interspersed with occasional megaflora. Near the equator, small deserts were crisscrossed by rivers, bringing life to the harsh environment. He wondered if some of the larger plants were world trees. As the resolution increased, he felt in his gut that this was it. They had found their new home.
He only half-listened to the crew's excited chatter about the planets. He heard Simon's silent prayer, hoping the planet had no bad hidden surprises. Braxik mentioned that if the ocean had been any larger, the planet would have been categorized as a Water World, as both rivers and lakes seemed to be extremely frequent on the rocky planet. When Desily asked about the megaflora, he said there wasn't enough to classify it as a megaflora World, unlike the jungle planet they had found a few jumps back. He perked up more when Riseth added her own knowledge to his conjecture.
"The fact that there is civilization on that moon means this system has undergone far above average time dilation and is bound to be brimming with aged and mana-infused treasures," Riseth remarked, her greedy little smile making Alistair chuckle.
He watched as Simon sent out a drone to place a beacon on the Lagrange point between the planet and the moon; his mind was already racing with ideas on how to name the planet, though he would most likely accept whichever names the inhabitants of the moon had given their home planet and closest neighbor. Their being aquatic made it less likely to clash over territorial claims as they both had different environments they aimed for, and they had found plenty of other planets in the local cluster with large oceans they had skipped out on as the landmass was too small for their demands. However, that might fall apart if they had overly aggressive fish people or enlightened sea monsters to negotiate with.
Alistair took a seat as they started to orbit the planet, keenly watching the camera feeds. Unlike the other potential planets, this one looked much more promising from the get-go. They planned to do extensive scans of its surface, hoping to find ideal spots for a settlement and potential large natural treasures or formations and terrain features that could influence their decision. He hoped they wouldn't discover another underground network filled with wendigos or similar pests.
He knew Nessyra was about to finish picking up their scattered members. He decided to send a long-range message to the Kaiakos, instructing them to jump to the freshly deployed beacon once their tour was complete. He had to keep the message short and vague, as it could be intercepted and decoded. It was unlikely, but he didn't want to take any chances. Even if they found major issues with the planet and had to leave, Nessyra could at least establish diplomatic relations with the moon's inhabitants while they continued their search. After sending the message, he stood behind Riseth, who had taken out a chair to sit beside Braxik on the Sensor station. He massaged her shoulders, hoping she had more good news to share.