Sethis Melser

I thought by staying in this colony my problems would all go away. Guess I was wrong.

A Saukaur was never supposed to live their whole life in a cramped and pressured colony. We were a reptilian race of hunters; life on a planet with atmosphere was better, even if it was more dangerous. However, this time, it wasn't the case.

We moved to the nearby colony of Arkari simply because we felt the Lekan colony stuffy and boring. Even if Arkari was a desert planet and scarce in surface resources, it was an open colony with many other races besides Vyrnian, even if it was built by the Vyrnians. Ever since I settled a couple of days ago, I've met several Saukauri refugees who ran away from their colonies due to the Saukaur-Felinian war.

However, Emthor's luck seemed to be beyond our reach. I know we were taught that life was the hardest hunt we ever faced and that's right, but sometimes I needed some help or...well, something to make things easier. It could help with my own anxiety problem.

It all started when I was helping with one of the Saukaurs move in. I noticed a Vyrnian acting strangely and seemed to be rather out of place. His eyes weren't focused, his scales seemed old and flaking, and he even walk like he had just got the worst hangover in his life. Of course, I wasn't the only one who noticed this. Others, especially Vyrnians, seemed to notice, too. But, unlike me, they knew this Vyrnian, and they thought it was normal.

He was apparently stressed out and depressed, much like me back on Lekan. Sympathizing with him, I wanted to help and approached him, but before I could get to him, he walked away. But the real problem was his state. I only realized later that this Vyrnian was dead, apparently for a while. It started when I became suspicious and asked the authorities to check his residence to make sure he was okay. That's when they reported that his apartment was in a very bad state. Fresh foods were rotten and there were many dried Vyrnian blood everywhere. The volume of the blood suggested someone was fatally injured and even killed. However, there was no body, or any other missing Vyrnians in Arkari. The only one that was missing, as it turned out, was the suspicious Vyrnian himself, along with the evidence that said Vyrnian apparently committed suicide or maybe killed.

Then it happened. Barely hours before I realized what happened, pirate ships and marauders were detected orbiting the planet over the colony. At the same time, the defense system was revealed to be inoperative. Someone sabotaged it. I did not know what happened next because I quickly realize that this was yet another moment where things went bad.

The attack came as soon as they realized how defenseless we were. Vyrnians and other space-faring aliens alike scrambled for safety, including me and a couple of other Saukaurs I knew. It was easy for me to get away and get to safety, but this time, I couldn't. I was not playing the role of a hunter anymore: I was playing the role of a leader. I did this back on Aurelis Three and I would do so again.

Only like on Aurelis Three, this job was easier said that done, especially if you happened to have a bad anxiety problem coupled with a traumatic experience you had not completely moved on yet. The only thing that prevented me from breaking down and having a panic attack was Astha's assurance that I could do it, and that it was never a job for one Saukaur. I needed to trust the others in this, and I did.

Astha did say that no one from the Aurelis Three survivors considered me as a leader, so I did not feel burdened by it. I helped anyone I came across along with several Saukaurs. Each of us coordinated an effort for defense. Along with several capable Saukaurs, we looked around the colony to find survivors.

I was the first to think that we needed to get message out somehow. I was aware that they could've done this, but I also knew there was a chance of the signal being jammed. To be sure, I walked towards the colony's main communication center, braving the chaos (or made use of it) to reach the building while saving people along the way, Vyrnians and other races alike. I once stumbled upon a rather burly-looking pirate menacing a young Saukaur girl who tried to fight back. Knowing this might not end well, I approached this pirate stealthily. I felt that reasoning with him would not work, so I did something drastic. I killed him with a hidden wrist blade I had with me. It sprung out and stabbed through his skull, killing him almost instantly.

The young Saukaur was clearly horrified of what I did, but I nonchalantly wipe off the brain matter from my blade and calmly told her, "Get to safety."

The girl quickly obliged and ran away. It felt like she looked at me like some sort of a murderer, but it was already done. Part of me felt like this was not what I supposed to show to a child, but the other part of me felt it was necessary. Those conflicting thoughts were, as someone later pointed out, to be the source of my anxiety problem. I was internally indecisive after doing the deed, contemplating whether what I did was right or wrong. In the end, I chose not to answer that because I still had something else in mind.

The communication center was rather easy to reach since it was practically the heart of the colony's communication. The trading center and communication operators were found here, and it was usually used as the way the colony could communicate anything, including emergency calls. I went to this center once to try and open a link for a Saukauri trading post here on Arkari after finding out that no one bothered to do so. But, I changed my mind after thinking that no one would even bother coming here if an open trading post mean drawing the attention of the coalition rebels.

Just as I reached the communication center from the south, there was an explosion that rocked the place. I could pirates coming from the other side, claiming the place as their own. Realizing that I was a couple seconds too late, I hastily moved in, but still staying out of sight. I would not stand a chance fighting against that many pirates, especially since they were mostly Saukaurs and Orians. I could handle the Orians, but the Saukaurs, given our race's very strong survival skills, would be a problem. The best way to get in was to stay out of sight. Of course, it was still necessary to dispatch several lone pirates to make things easier. I, of course, chose to knock out a Felinian grunt after remembering what happened to Sel Kylas during our escape from Aurelis Three. I wouldn't want this Felinian to return to life and attack me when I least expected it.

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I did not wear my wrist gun with me due to Arkari's strict gun policy, energy-based or otherwise. I quickly armed myself with the energy rifle carried by the Felinian. I quickly ran to a nearby stairs, trying my best to stay out of sight while dispatching several who's isolated. I had no time to hide the bodies so I needed to find the main operator's room and get my request going.

As I turned to a corner, I met a Saukaur who did not seem to be wearing rags and tatters over her armor. In the current state of urgency, I almost regarded her as an enemy and rushed at her. She turned and noticed me just in time. She quickly raised her hands and said, "Whoa, Seth, wait! Friendly!"

I stopped just before I grabbed her and saw her face. To my relief, she was a familiar face.

"Shen? What in Ap's name are you doing in here?"

"I was visiting this place when the pirates attacked," said Shen. Shen was part of my surviving command from Aurelis Three. She was one of the 17 survivors.

"What are you doing, then?"

"Trying to get a message home, to tell my family that I'm safe."

"Well, I guess you're out of luck."

"I know, right? Anyway, you're here, so what's the word?"

"We need to get a message out before this place is compromised," I said. "I know they might've tried so, but I could specify. Do you know where there operator's room was?"

"Follow me."

Shennesi was part of the radio team from the surviving 17 Saukaurs and frequented the communication center for a couple of days. She seemed to know her way around the second floor where the communication booths were, given that she was trying to contact her family back home.

Shen directed me to a door, just as some pirates got there. We quickly took cover as they started shooting at us. I looked at Shen and said, "Ready?"

"One movement," said Shen. "On three. One, two, three!"

We rolled amidst energy shots. One of them grazed the tip of my tail, close to my rattle. The door automatically opened and after it closed, Shen locked the mechanism. I turned to find the Vyrnians looking at us in shock.

"We've been breached!" shouted one of the Vyrnians. "Sound the alarm!"

One of them managed to reach the alarm button before I could stop him, but I quickly found it beneficial, given the imminent breach. Of course, I still have to talk to them that we were not one of the Saukauri pirates, especially when one of them reached an emergency gun and pointed it at me.

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "I am not one of them!"

"That's what they usually said!" said the Vyrnian pointing the gun at me.

"My name is Sethis Melser. I commanded the 17 Saukaurs currently in this colony. Her name is Shennesi Helsik. You might've seen her around this center."

"Shennesi Helsik? Oh, you're the frequent caller," said the Vyrnian.

"She might be calling those pirates here," said another.

"No, I checked her calls. They're directed towards the Saukaur's home planet," said the first Vyrnian. As far as I can tell, their home planet's not a pirate's den."

"That makes a lot of sense, right?" she said. "And as you know, we are currently in a hurry."

"What's the status of off-world communication?" I asked.

"The dishes are mostly crippled, and the anti-jammers are not working," said a Vyrnian working the control. "We still have worldwide comm, and the other colony is coming here to help us in two hours. They are on the other side of the planet."

"Is there anyway we can contact someone out there?"

The controller shook his head, but then one of them said, "We can boost the signal of one dish to one designated receptor. That way, we can use it to signal an emergency."

"But that will burn out the remaining dishes!" said the controller. "As of now, we only have three small receptors and even if they are combined, there is still the signal delay we need to contend with. I suggest we keep the worldwide band to communicate with the other colony."

"We need more than just colony security," said another. "The other colony won't be enough against these raiders. We need off-world backup to ward them off."

"But the delay!"

"We just have to risk it, Rion."

Rion, the controller, was still conflicted about it, but he said, "Ah, fuck it!" and operated the controls.

"Where do you want to point it?" he asked.

"The closest colony we could find," said the other Vyrnian. He quickly accessed the nearby computer to check the signal range and quickly found one, "Orlonel of planet Amurlun."

"Which have heightened security due to the alien they had in custody," said another. "It's going to be a stretch, but I hope they know our plight."

Right after he said that, there was a bang on the door. Realizing that this control room was a dead end, I said, "Do whatever you need to do, and quick. Set it on auto and find a way to get out."

"How the hell are we going to escape from a dead end?" said Rion.

One of them snapped his fingers. "Cable maintenance corridor!" he exclaimed. "It's right behind the controller."

"Welfer, right?" said one of the Vyrnians. "You know the way?"

"All the way out," said Welfer. "We need to glide to another building, but it won't not be a problem if no one sees us."

There was another bang on the door and a loud explosion noise from the other side that caused the door to bent inward. Realizing we were out of time, I turned and said, "Get out of here. I'll hold them off."

"Wait, come with us," said Welfer. "You don't need to do this."

"Don't argue. Go, now!"

I was hoping that the pirates did not know about the maintenance corridor. The corridor was designed to fit the Vyrnians, so smaller aliens like us would access it much easier than them, which would cause more problems. We could follow them, but then there was not enough time, because just as they started getting into the corridor, the door was breached. We had no time to prepare, so both me and Shen quickly took cover while shooting them based on what we could see among the smoke.

My aim was good, but it was only a matter of time before the charge went out. It quickly dawned to both me and Shen that we must retreat because we were clearly outnumbered. However, I remembered what the Vyrnian named Welfer about us needing to glide across to properly escape, which was something we Saukaurs could not do due to our lack of wings. We could climb down or ride the Vyrnians, of course, but we had no time to do that.

Just as we got on a decision, one of the Saukaurs got through and attacked us. I managed to dodge and counter by grabbing his arm and throw him over me as another came. This was when Shen quickly took a nearby sword and stabbed through my attacker. We both quickly pushed forward to try and get them away from the control room and to give the Vyrnians time to escape, which we did.

One of them struck my head with a shield, putting me in a daze. I managed to open my own folded shield (hidden within my other gauntlet) to block an incoming shot, but my reaction was impaired. I barely dodged another attack, but with my impaired reaction, I could not react when one of them pulled my tail and yanked me off the ground.

I do not remember what happened afterwards. I think one of them knocked me out while I was stunned by the tail snap, the one thing that was nasty enough to be considered very rude, an equivalent to a mammalian term of being 'kicked in the balls', something I learned from George Atmell later.

And that was the start of everything that was wrong in my life. It is hard to describe, for every time I looked back, all I could see was everything bad. It was the worst part of my life other than my anxiety problem and the traumatic ordeal on Aurelis Three.

Because unlike those, this experience almost broke me.