I hefted the bag on my back in an attempt to adjust its weight more comfortably as I maintained my fastest speed down the corridors and stairs on my way to the all important shielding that kept the star's everything contained.

"So," I gasped for air as I tried to run, speak, and not bite my tongue, "how did they make this planet? Did they have that in the blueprints?"

"The Rif'nay'fex constructed a superstructure similar to a Dyson Sphere around the star and implanted shielding construction with it as well as gravity drives that would allow them to move it as needed before they began to construct the support structures that would eventually become the surface of the false planet," Cai explained.

"Cool," I said. "What's that mean exactly?"

"This was a project that likely spanned upwards of a millenia, perhaps ten," he told me. "It is a marvel of the engineering and construction capability that the Rif'nay'fex are capable of accessing even when their civilization is on a decline."

"Think Humans or Deva will ever get that far?" I gasped. Running and talking was difficult, who knew?

"Undoubtedly," Cai said. "Especially if your actions today guarantee their survival."

"This isn't the part where you tell me that the Rif'nay'fex have more places like this one, is it?" I asked as I looked at the stairs in front of me. Bane of my existence.

"I was able to access their greater database," he told me, "this was the ultimate hiding place for them. One that they would use to move their people to a different star system or galaxy to hide and replenish their numbers while waiting for the Scourge to either destroy those they ran from or until they were strong enough to face them openly."

"So no secret second base?" I confirmed as I made my way down the stairs. My timer was reading thirty minutes until we were out of range of our ships and I still had something to say. Hopefully, I'd make it to the shielding in time to catch my breath before that.

"Indeed," Cai answered.

"Whoever designed this damn place should have used more elevators," I griped.

"That was a design flaw that would have resulted in many deaths amongst the Rif'nay'fex engineers and technicians," Cai told me. "The gravitational forces as you approach the star go into a fluctuating state as a result of the star's rotation and the gravity drive plating that allows the structure to withstand the star's pull. Using elevators for movement would alternate pulling with the gravitational force of a dwarf star to attempting movement against a lack of gravity. This would cause any elevator car to crumple and explode while also forcing all occupants to withstand the forces of close proximity to the star. The stairs are safer and more stable due to the shielding that lines their walls and the constant speed that one will move at."

Stolen story; please report.

"Does that shielding mean I can use my Seraph Drive?" I asked hopefully. That bag on my back was digging into my shoulders and making me contemplate murder of the maker of all backpacks.

"No, activating the gravity drives that make up your Seraph Drive would cause you to be caught by the forces outside the shielding," Cai shot my hopes down and stepped on them. "That exposure would send you careening into the walls and stairwell until you were dead or the drives were broken. The gravity drives that make up the Seraph Drive were built with extreme abuse in mind."

"I'll break before they do," I muttered as I came to the last landing. A door waited in front on me. "Well we're here now, right?"

"Almost," Cai said. "We will have to move approximately twenty-five feet into the corridor beyond before we set the explosive charges."

"Why only twenty-five?" I asked as I jogged through the door and toward the helpful 'x' he left on the helmet's display.

"It is the closest that the shielding comes to an accessible area," he answered. "You will have to use your laser torch to move through the wall and directly next to the shielding."

"Best get to work," I said lifting my hand and activating the laser torch according to the guidelines that Cai showed me.

Finally, as the portion of the wall I'd been cutting into fell away, I was through.

I checked the timer, I still had fifteen minutes.

"How do I do this?" I asked Cai as I pulled myself and the bag into the empty space between the wall and shielding.

"The explosive's timer is already going," Cai told me. "I activated it when you were beginning your last cut on the wall."

"Anywhere in particular I should put this?" I asked.

"At your feet will do fine." he answered.

"Cai I want you to lock yourself out of the activation mechanism," I told him as I pulled myself back into the corridor and began to run back the way I'd come. Maybe I'd have a miracle happen and I'd make it out.

"Done," he said. "Will there be anything else?"

"Open a line to the Phoenix's bridge. That's probably where she is," I said as I began to climb those damn stairs again.

"You'd better be calling to ask for some sort of rescue!" Carrie's voice screamed over the comm line. "I have had it, Rickshaw James! You do not get to run off and get yourself killed for whatever noble reasons you're trying to come up with now!"

"Carrie Applewood," I ignored her screaming as she tried to get the Cybers back on the ships to get closer to the soon to be gone not-planet. "Listen to your Demigod."

"What the hell is this about?" she asked as I continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"I have seen you as a Cadet, learning to fight the Scourge and protect your home. I have watched you surpass all expectations of a Knight and a Paladin to become the first Wing of the Nephilim Army. I was there when your choices elevated from a Wing to the Principality you became. I have been beside you as you struggled to reach Horseman and lead your people across the stars. Now, I see how you have achieved all tasks I've set before you and so, I order you one last time. Go to Earth, to the home of our ancestors among the Humans. To the heart of why we choose to fight. Face their ghosts and swear yourself to uphold the safety and prosperity of their children and finally, take up your shield and arise as Demigod of the Nephilim Army. You're ready for this."

"I'm not ready," she said quietly. "We aren't ready to say goodbye to you."

"It's time," I told her. "I wanted to be there and to watch you grow further but I'll settle for this. I'll be watching you from beyond. Goodbye, sister."

As I spoke, the starships were finally left behind and I stopped running. Sighing to myself, I sat on the stairs I'd been climbing and looked upward at the flights still to climb.

"Just one last thing I wanted to say to her before the fireworks," I said to Cai.

"Of course," he said as I watched the explosives timer that he'd placed on the display cross ten seconds.

"Goodbye Cai," I whispered. "Thanks for being with me to the end."