As Micheal and I stepped into the fading sunlight of the planet's red star, I signalled to Sarah and Bunny before making my way to the house of worship to grab Carrie and Benjamin. Micheal took a watchpost by the door and waited for Sarah and Bunny to catch up while I moved deeper into the buiding searching for Carrie. Eventually I found her.

"Find anything?" I asked her.

"Nope," she answered. "Not a thing except the Gospel of the Father Hyn'bel. Want a read?"

"I'll pass," I declined. "I've already got a weird relationship with whatever gods we worshipped when we were Human; no need to add another to that list."

"For the best," she nodded. "According to the stuff I read, Hyn'bel hates you and would send you to the Abyssal Fields to toil for the good of those in the Paradise Islands where all return to his glory. Or so the books say."

"Sounds like those books are fun to read," I said as I lead her and Benjamin out of the darkened building and toward where Micheal was left.

"Oh lot's!" Carrie agreed with false energy. "There was a whole section on how the Grand Creation was above everything in this life but they'll serve and protect in the next one."

"So this isn't over even if we die?" I asked jokingly. "Good, I was afraid I'd spend the eternal afterlife twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do."

"Just remember if you try to drag me into that, then we're going to have issues," she said seriously. "I've got plans and they don't involve fighting against Scourge forever."

"Let me guess, margarittas and bikinis with massages from muscular men with exotic names?" I said.

"How did you know?" Carrie asked with false shock. "Did you read my diary? You know that's a breach of privacy and girls don't like that."

"I don't have to read your diary," I told her as we passed Micheal and he joined our group. "Sarah tells me all."

"I knew it," Carrie said. "I'll have to find a better hiding place than my room."

"What are we talking about?" Sarah asked as she and Bunny walked up to us.

"Carrie's plans for hiding her diary and the hope for the afterlife," I said.

"Try the underwear drawer," Bunny said helpfully to her. "Guys don't go in there unless they're perving out, and then they tend to get distracted by finding it and when you walk in on them reading it, you've got an excuse to kick ass."

"Sounds like you speak from experience," Carrie said.

"Oh I do," Bunny nodded. "Back on Eden there was this one creep at the Academy that wouldn't leave me alone; long story short, I ended up rupturing one of his testicles and crushing an orbital socket before he got the message that I wanted to be left alone."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"You were only at Eden for ten months," I pointed out.

"Yeah and that was still enough time for him to break into my room and steal my underwear," she said. "What's a girl to do in that situation anyway? Find an instructor? Did that, they told me to beat the hell out of him if I ever caught him and they'd take it all from there."

"Which instructor?" I asked. Sounded like someone needed a minor bonus.

"There's the shuttle," Benjamin said, pointing to the shape that was descending in the nearly gone light.

"We'll finish this on the Phoenix," I told Bunny. "Cai, any Scourge creeping up on us?"

"No," he answered promptly.

"Okay we're good, so when we get back on the ship, I'm sending word to the fleet to load up the Galaxy-Jumpers again and we're going to the other planet before we go after where the people on this went to," I told my squad. "Best to grab some showers and hit the bunks when we get back."

"No arguments here," Sarah said. "The armor tends to seal everything in so I always stink after five minutes."

"If you would make sure the bodysuit we wear under the armor was on right, then you wouldn't sweat so much," Carrie admonished her.

As the two sisters began to argue with one another, I watched the shuttle touch down in front of us and waved the squad on before following after them, once I'd taken a look for anything that might be trying to sneak up on us.

I stepped onto the bridge, trying to rub sleep from my eyes. It wasn't working.

"Demigod, we're approaching the second planet," one of the Paladins on duty helpfully said as I finally stopped beside the captain's chair.

"Send word out to all Galaxy-Jumpers and starships that I want full scans of the planet before we do anything else," I said before yawning. We'd ended our jump when I was asleep so I'd been scrambling and trying to wake up since we'd shown up here. "Where's Horseman Applewood?"

"She's asleep," the Wing that had been in charge while we slept told me. "Should I send word to wake her up?"

"No," I told her as I tried to not fall asleep standing up. "Let her sleep, this will all be here when she wakes up. I'm going to my office to try and finish sleeping myself, send word if anything shows up and attacks us."

As I walked away, I heard the Paladins begin to whisper to each other while they began to carry out my orders.

"Cai that alarm had better be localized to my office," I groaned as I pulled myself off the floor I'd fallen onto in my dreams.

"It is," he assured me as I rose to my feet and stretched with another groan. Really needed to stop sleeping in my office, it's murder on my back.

"Can you stop the alarm?" I asked. Like magic, as soon as I finished speaking, the alarms ended and I stood in blessed silence for a moment.

"What's the trouble?" I asked as I exited my office and began to make my way to the bridge.

"No trouble, you had merely reached your normal wake up time," he told me.

"I hate you," I said, changing direction to the shower in my quarters so I could change into something less rumpled and slept in.

"Too bad you are stuck with me," Cai said in his best approximation of sass despite his neutral monotone.

"Did the scans find anything?" I asked to change the subject.

"Nothing. Much like the previous Rif'nay'fex planet, this one is empty of all population and shows signs of Scourge infestation," he told me.

"Let's send a team of about five squads down there to search for answers," I said. "If they get attacked, there's enough of them there that they'll be able to hold out until more people show up."

"Sending word," Cai said.

"And I'm getting in the shower," I said. "Be sure to direct all calls and letters to Carrie until I'm done."

"Horseman Applewood hates when you do that," Cai said as I entered my quarters and began to undo the buttons on my clothes.

"Oh well," I said, making my way to the shower. "Perks of being the boss."