Kruhur
The shuttle flew from the Venom’s small landing bay and across the gap between the Venom and the Prophet’s Flame. When they left the Venom the Prophets Flame looked very large, but after ten minutes of traveling through open space the Kruhur battleship only got larger and larger, until it seemed to fill the vast horizon with its mass. The shuttle’s windows were completely filled with the sight of the Prophets Flame and Ah’ared began to feel a little nervous. But he forced back his fear as he thought of his vengeance, Astarte’s prized ship would be the jewel of his new fleet. Her home would be burned to the ground, and all her allies would be ashes on the wind. And the word of what Ah’ared had done would draw new recruits to his fleet by the thousands. His reign would be glorious, and all he had to do was carefully navigate this meeting.
The shuttle approached one of the ship’s cavernous docking bays and slid through the atmospheric retention field and landed on an empty space within the massive hanger. The door to the shuttle opened and Ah’ared held himself high as he walked through. However, for all the pride and poise he had, the moment he took one step Ah’ared felt a great weight settle on his bones, as the higher Kruhur native gravity overwhelmed the lesser gravity in the shuttle. He felt his breathing become more and more constrained, which paired poorly with the much thicker artificial atmosphere within the ship. His proudly raised head was pulled low as he struggled with the normally comfortable weight of his crown.
There was raucous laughter just ahead of him, and Ah’ared struggled to look at the source of the sound. A group of red skinned Kruhur were laughing at him. “Oh look, the lesser wretch has enough strength to just barely raise its head. What’s wrong mulka, the gravity too high for your brittle bones and stringy flesh.” The lead one jeered.
Ah’ared lifted and tilted his head just enough to let the crown slip off his head so that he could raise his head, the crown smacked into the floor with a loud ringing sound and bounced a few times incongruously.
The lead Kruhur looked smug as it stared at Ah’areds fallen crown “Good. A mulka who can’t even raise his head doesn’t deserve to wear a crown in our presence.”
Beside Ah’ared, Sk’tharc stepped out of the ship cautiously, careful not to accidently snap her frail stick like legs. “We are the representatives of the Aunviry marauders here to meet with your leader.” She cawed imperiously.
The Kruhur looked confused. “What did the little mulka say, I can’t understand clicks and wistles, speak properly.” It ordered.
“Thee thaid that we are the reprthentivth of the Aunviry mauraderth, bring ud to you’re leader.” Ah’ared interpreted for the barbaric creature.
The lead Kruhur stared at Ah’ared before it laughed “this one can’t speak properly either, you mulka invented a language to talk to other races, and you can’t even speak it properly. Everything you mulka do is inferior. Yes, come, we have arranged transportation so that you don’t run of energy halfway to the Vicar’s holy chambers.” It said gesturing to floating cargo palette it had prepared.
Ah’ared hated to be mocked like this, but he had to suck up his pride until this meeting and their partnership was over. With great effort he and Sk’tharc made their way to the cargo pallet, once they were aboard the pallet rose and was pulled forward by the lead Kruhur. The other Kruhur didn’t speak to them during the long journey, and only occasionally glared at them. Ah’ared busied himself by scanning the halls they were led through, the opulence on display was lacking when compared to Kazlum’s lavish furnishing aboard the Igrathoth, but intriguing all the same. Their were occasional portraits of Kruhur in ceremonial vestiges, and a few important scenes to Kruhur history, though how in their thousand years of failure and exile they found anything to venerate was beyond Ah’ared. He saw still frames of climactic battles, and some Kruhur heroes standing triumphantly over the corpse of some poor Union species.
Eventually they were led to some very impressive looking doors that slid open silently as soon as they were before them. Over the journey Ah’ared had slowly got accustomed to the thicker air, but the higher gravity was becoming more and more exhausting by the second. Sk’tharc didn’t look much better.
The previously rude Kruhur put on an air of respect and vernation as they passed through the door. The room within was like the supreme court of the confederacy, a round central stage fulled with rows of stadium style seating. At the center Ah’ared saw a Gelid male strapped to a dark metal frame, and was in the process of being whipped endlessly. The poor Gelid had long since died from blood loss, but the large Kruhur didn’t stop beating its dead body. Ah’ared was a cold-hearted person by nature, the only thing he really cared for was credits, but even he felt a shred of sympathy for the Gelid.
The Kruhur continued whipping the dead body without turning their way once, not until he had flayed all the way through its body with his tasseled whip. When the lower half of the body finally fell away the large Kruhur turned away from its work and looked to Ah’ared and Sk’tharc. “You’re request has interrupted my holy work, speak quickly before I strap you to the alter and continue.”
“What pothible readon could you have for beating a dead body?” Ah’ared said before he could stop himself.
“To banish weakness from myself” the Kruhur answered with a hint of disdain. “We greater beings are all born with the sin of sympathy for you mulka, it takes countless hours to banish it from our hearts. And I as the High Vicar of the natural order must not only banish it from myself, but also cultivate myself to draw pleasure from it. Now, I once had a deal with your former master; Kazlum, but I will not tolerate impertinence from mulka a second time.” The High Vicar growled lowly in the back of his throat.
“We come theeking an alliance, a mutually benefigthial one” Ah’ared said coolly.
“You think mulka like yourself have the right to negotiate with me like equals.” The High Vicar growled softly before stepping forward. Ah’ared was naturally shorter height wise than most species and was used to having to look up at people. But this Kruhur was tall and menacing with all its muscles and the gelid blood on his shirtless torso, and Ah’ared almost took a step back in fear. “What could you possibly offer me?” the High Vicar asked with a growl.
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“Our mutual enemy” Sk’tharc answered for Ah’ared, “the one who killed Kazlum, destroyed the fleet of Vicar Kalden, and even wiped out your colony station within the Femeri sector. She grows stronger and stronger by the day, but right now she is weakened and is licking her wounds.”
The High Vicar’s eyes flashed with hate, “and who is this mulka who dared to be a thorn in my side?”
“She is no mulka, she is a deathworlder like you, in fact she is a higher class deathworlder than you” Sk’tharc answered smoothly, not even phased by the predatory presence of the Kruhur before them.
The High Vicar looked intrigued “Which world does she hail from?”
“Terra.” Sk’tharc answered.
The High Vicar looked thoughtful “yes, I know these creatures. They’re weaker than us naturally despite being birthed by such a vengeful world, and yet I have seen many untrained Terrans beat my hardened warriors in the pits by being more resourceful and outlasting them in stamina. What is the name of this vexing female?”
Ah’ared knew that they had his full attention now. The Kruhur placed a great amount of social significance on names, it was why no one had asked Ah’areds name or offered to tell their own. For him to ask her name signified that he viewed her as an equal.
“They call her Astarte. A human deity of love, sex, and war.” Sk’tharc answered.
The High Vicar pulled away and began to pace back and forth. “this creature dare calls herself a goddess, and then dares to destroy true believers. A heretic like this must be destroyed swiftly. Tell me where she hides.” He ordered without glancing towards them.
“No” Ah’ared said finding his voice.
The High Vicar turned on Ah’ared with hate burning in his eyes “No, you would dare refuse me?”
“I came here to barter, not throw away my one chanthe at vengenth.” Ah’ared.
“Barter, and what would you barter for?”
“Her thip, the Athtaroth. I can lead you to her and her thip when thee leaveg her allieg to go hunting, you can have her and her whole crew, but that thip is mine. And to enthure that you don’t betray ug, we wont tell you where the rethd of her fleet ith until that thip ig mine.” He said coolly, his earlier fear forgotten.
The High Vicar stood taller as it glared at Ah’ared “and how can you be so confident that when the time comes you will be able to lead us to her.”
“I have many alleig, and thome of my freindth in the Guthulu cartel hate her enough to have one of there men hide a tracker on her thip. One that only I know the frequiethy to. When thee leaveg the thafty of her hideout I can lead you right to her.”
The High Vicar considered Ah’areds proposal “And all you want in return is her ship?”
“Fully intact.”
It thought for a second longer “Alright mulka, we have ourselves a deal. My forces will find their way to the Femeri sector and wait for you summons, do not fail us.”
“Of courthe not” Ah’ared answered.
The Kruhur cracked his whip hard against the ground, and the doors opened once more for the previous Kruhur to guide them back their shuttle. Despite the strangeness of the meeting Ah’ared felt very pleased with how it went. Now he just had to wait for Astarte to leave the safety of her port so that they could spring the trap around them.
~~~*~~~
A strap of the overalls fell off Brian’s slim shoulders, and the heavy tool belt felt awkward around his waist. But no one seemed to notice as he stepped aboard the weird looking spaceship, the one named Astaroth. He wasn’t a religious person, but even he knew that the names of devils never meant anything good. And judging from the size of the main cannons and the swords at everyone’s hips he guessed that this was likely a pirate ship. His heart raced a little quicker as he realized that his bosses had just sent him onto a fucking pirate ship to plant something in one of their reactors. He was just a low-level peddler, he sold drugs to collage kids at parties and clubs, this was way above his paygrade. But they wouldn’t take no for an answer, not without taking one of his fingers first.
He walked down the wide clean looking hall and followed the basic directions the bosses had given him, desperately hoping he didn’t make a wrong turn anywhere. Eventually he found himself in the ship’s engineering bay where everything became noticeably grimier, nothing at all like the cool engine rooms he normally saw on television. Those engine rooms had pretty blinking lights that were fun to watch when he shot up. None of the engineers present gave him a second glance as he strolled towards the little hatchway that said ‘reactors’. He walked until he found the one they had described to him, found the pipe they had told him about, loosened it with a pipe wrench, and slid the little palm sized device into it before putting the pipe back into place.
He then walked around to the control panel, popped open the cover, and plugged in a small device like he had been instructed to.
He stood up, urging his heart to stop beating so wildly, and left the engineering bay. He was partially on his way out of the ship when someone put a hand on his shoulder “Hey you little guttershit snipe. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He turned and stared the grizzled man “What?” he asked dumbly.
The man got noticeably redder “I said what the hell do you think you’re doing; you’re supposed to take your boots off when you leave engineering. Look at all the goddamned grease you tracked everywhere. Do you know what the Bosun will do to us when he sees this?” the man asked, noticeably getting angrier by the second.
Brian looked at the man stupidly “you’re mad about my boot prints?” he asked before he could stop himself.
“Of course I’m fucking mad, look at this mess you trekked across our clean floors.”
Brian felt his heart lift as he realized he wasn’t caught “Look, I’m just an installation guy, just doing some work on your new reactor. I’m sorry I messed up your floors.” He said apologizing.
“Oh I’ll make you sorry when I mop the floor with your face you little-“
At that moment, as if sent by the lord himself to save Brian a violet skinned humanoid women put a hand on the angry mans shoulder. “You might want to think about what your about to do, the Bosun will be less happy if he finds you beating up some contractor rather than cleaning.” She said coolly, give Brian the most angelic smile.
The angry man paled, “oh fuck, where’s the nearest mop?”
“Down dea corner and too yer left” a gruff voice said as a beastly man emerged from around the corner with the thickest Scottish accent Brian had ever heard. “An when yer don cam see me.” He growled.
The angry man who had been harassing Brian only seconds earlier turned white as a sheet of paper before turning to sprint at full speed.
“An yoo.” The big man said turning on Brian “next time I won’ be so merciful on ye. Now git goin”
Brian, never one to snub good fortune turned to swiftly walk away.
“Oy! Take yer bloomin boots aff ye idjit!” the big man roared, and Brian obeyed. Hastily removing his dirty boots before leaving the strange pirate ship as fast as he could.
~~~*~~~
Alwen watched the skinny and gaunt looking human man leave the Bosun’s presence as fast as he could, and felt a tingle crawl up her spine. If he had been a crew member she would have dragged him into the med-bay to examine him immediately to see if he were sick or indulging in illicit substances, but he was clearly wearing the overalls of a contractor so she had no jurisdiction over his health and safety.
“Watch ye starin at lass” the Bosun called impatiently as she lagged behind.
“That man, he didn’t look too healthy” she said absent mindedly.
“Oh aye, back’en my day we hired proper technicians for reactors an’ such. But now dea’ll hire any’wan.”
“Hmm,” Alwen hummed. Something about him didn’t feel right. They had just returned from hiking the Hellas Pont and a weeklong stay at a ski resort, and while it had been fun Alwen felt very exhausted. So exhausted that she hadn’t really been thinking when she intervened in that man’s altercation with a pissed off ‘ape. And she didn’t really give him a closer look until she saw how relieved he was to leave the ship. “he said he was installing a new reactor?” she asked.
“Ay, mast of ben number ‘tree. Kevin’s always bellyaching about tha wan. Strange though, I taught dea’d be done by now?”
“Maybe it was some last-minute stuff” Alwen offered. “well I need to start doing inventory before we ship off again. Its always such a pain to go through Union security checks when we’re out.”
“Ay, don’ ferget to rest yer legs.” He said as he stalked off to ruin that poor ‘apes day.