Faux Realm Ch. 10

Yim sneered, "I want them blown up YOU HEAR ME!" He screamed at his men which in turn cheered even louder.

"What is he doing now?" Amon asked making everyone on the bridge slowly quiet down.

As the ship weaved through space. Slowly banking and judging the distance of its attacker's weapons. As the 'One for All' Crew did this they established the effective range of Re-Engineered freighter. They established that the bigger ships arc was only effective from its sides making it quite susceptive to damage from it its front.

As Yim watched the ship slowly move to its position wave of emotions washed over him. Anger at the ship's dodging capabilities, surprise since it started to slowly slowdown in speed and finally the basest of emotions started to climb up his spine. Fear. The eventual realization of where the ship was going to stop and what was its aim.

"Fuck." Yim said feeling the finality of that word hit home, after countless of his own planned ambushes went as he wanted. Now this one failed so badly.

'One for All' slowly drifted to a stop, it was facing their front, close enough to see the hairs on Yim's neck stand, as fear rushed through his body. Air of calm was around him while he waited, but in reality they just fired from what it seemed every pore on the ships surface.

There were several holders for guns on rails that moved and effectively protected its master, the ship. Sounds of crackling and blaring alarm took everyone by surprise. They lost their shields and in moment's notice there was explosions to the front of their vessel, at which both Yim and Amon hopped that there was not much damage, but they couldn't be more wrong.

Amon saw first bullet whiz through the bridge so close that he could feel its heat coating crumble while it first hit a patch of air, the rest was a blur. Finding himself on the ground with lights off, he could feel air currents slowly speeding up through newly acquired holes in their ship.

"We're hit!" Yim's voice said.

*No shit!* Amon thought.

He started feeling more and more unease as the air started to get sucked. They have minutes to patch the holes before they were left for dead.

"Lights on!" Amon screamed.

He felt his limbs move. *Good!* He thought *Nothing missing.* He stood, slowly waiting while his mind was evaluating his frame's damage.

Nothing happened for few moments, but slowly he could see few ceiling lights responding. He ran towards the glue gun that was mounted on the wall. For all of their shortcomings he was glad that their captain at least was clever enough to mount some safeties, at least on their ship.

He picked up the device that he was about to use to patch the tiny holes. As he turned bracing himself for a grueling search for a tiny bullet hole; he was left reeling on his feet while he saw the damage done to their ship. A huge gash on the front arc of their ship reached almost across to their bridge. A giant mark of 'V' went across the room engulfing, whipping and making every living thing inside that area disappear. He looked for the remnants of his crew but apart from few discarded limbs there was none that was alive.

Yim was twitching on the floor.

Amon came near him and saw his guts sprawled across the floor. His friend, his captain, desperately tried to collect his intestines. Raking his fingers across the hard metal floor, Amon retched all over the floor when he saw the man was not entirely there.

Yim's mind was lost in mix of agonizing pain and fear. He was breathing for air, irregularly his mouth would cough out blood, and Amon looked at the carnage before him and saw the ship outside poised to strike. Finally he noticed his breath was shallow, his mind started to go black and he fell to his knees; in his eyes a figure of black. Bird waiting to pounce on her prey while it bled out. Amon started seeing his father's face and remember his words.

"Protect those weaker than you." He smiled.

Grabbing his captain by the collar he started to drag him away, away from all the devastation. Before another round of bullets came down on them he'll have to escape. He dragged bleeding and battered body of his captain until they reached escape pods. Placing him first inside he hoped that Yim had enough time to live.

It took too much time for the coordinates to register in the dilapidated state of these pods but eventually they unclamped, started moving briefly and went into Drive.

Away from all the devastation.

As he watched the tiny ship give its final burst of fire, moments away from engulfing his escape vehicle, "We'll come back." He said as the area disappeared from his view and he was thrown in Drive.

***

Not even five minutes into the attack; Lucian was left wondering what had just happened in front of him. What had his eyes just witnessed?

Ericha, who was looking quite grim during their attack, giving orders and taking precaution after they got hit by an unexpected laser shot coming from much bigger ship, was now sitting in her chair looking relatively at ease.

Glancing her eyes towards Lucian she held his gaze and just shrugged. "Told you this ship was amazing."

Lucian nodded, he could only silently say "Damn." After what happened in front of him.

Lucian expected a fight, a damn hard fight when they destroyed the Cloaking device, revealing the bigger ship, but he was not prepared to see this amount of carnage. "They did not have a chance."

Suddenly Lucian clutched his Pad, "I shouldn't have meddled with their systems."

Ericha stood up when she saw the doubt emerging in his eyes, "You did what I told you, nothing more."

"This was my plan." His eyes watched the carnage before him.

"Yes, it was." Ericha said finally.

What else could she say? She wondered while looking at his desperate need for absolution. She was never made to recollect people after her orders, while they were learned to take them without question. But he was a civilian, essentially thrown into the hyperspace game where big boys now played. Looking at Lucian's face she saw how conflicted he was even though they were about to ambush them he felt sad for them.

Lucian hopped her words would help him, but for some reason they did not and the silence was even more damaging, as he was left with his thoughts about what he had done. Help killing countless souls.

He strolled out the door but pink body stopped him and he drifted towards its buxom. Liza with her kind heart now stood cradling his head and machining purring sounds. Or was the purring in his mind?

Doesn't matter. She was here and started leading him out the door. Making sure to grab Ericha's arm as she was right behind him running to catch up to him and make him feel fine. "I'll take care of the ship." They heard Lindsay's voice behind them.

Lucian seemed devastated. She led him to their bedroom and words just kept disappearing from her mouth. He heard nothing that she had said. Moments before he would, but he now he was a monster responsible for killing countless lives.

Then he remembered husks of metal, drifting, flashing lights; some were alive, they might have even suffered. Liza saw his face and recognized his need to understand to be absolved of his sins.

"Now let me tell you about these people that we killed. Countless of lives had been lost while they have been free, drifting from system to system." She said quietly.

Lucian and Ericha were sitting on their bed while Liza was sitting in a chair, facing them. Ericha still did not know what to say or how to approach this topic, so hearing Liza start to talk made her heart flutter for this woman.

"They are pirates! Pure and simple. I do not know how your world handled drifting criminals and monsters, but here people do not bat an eye if they kill one of them." Liza started.

Looking in Ericha's eyes Liza nodded and the woman understood what she needed to do, "They have gangs, some territory they might claim, but the galaxy is far too large to find them all. Easy pickings for those on the other side of the law."

Ericha continued, "While they swoop down and get their pillaging, until the law comes they just move away and we never see them again, until they strike again that is. GP suspects they are getting paid handsomely by some of the enemy races that sometimes attack us, since they can afford Drive buffers, nets and scramblers."

"Do not feel anything about them. They would board us, rape the women, and kill the men. If we're lucky we would get sold off to their highest bidder, but frequently they leave their captured women to themselves." Ericha shook as she explained.

"I've seen what they do to their captured women. It's not pretty." Liza added.

Ericha saw Lucian's eyes start to focus, she managed to continue, "Be happy that we destroyed every one of them. I'm actually glad I crushed some bugs today."

Lucian shook as his emotions got better of him. Leaving him in a dazed state. Two women carefully and finally guided his back towards the bed, lifting his shaky body and resting Lucian's head on one of the pillows. Both of them wrapped their arms around him, gently rocking his body until he faded to sleep.

***

The shadow disappeared, leaving Lineas alone with his crumbling emotions. Every time that thing would visit him, Lineas would shake with terror. Primal sort of fear that kept him on the edge through their conversation. Right now he was feeling the weight of the conversation that he just had with that THING. He spun in place and sat in the chair behind his desk.

Noise of chattering teeth and loud skittering was pretty hard to decipher but through their connection he eventually managed to grasp on what the monstrosity was saying. "The hunt was on." Whatever that meant.

He closed his eyes and started to gather his thoughts into one giant pool of shit. A storm was about to hit this corner of the galaxy and he wanted out. But his masters had other ideas for him. He inspected the room he was currently in.

The room was empty. No one heard or saw the conversation that happened between himself and a shadow of death. Lineas was slowly becoming unhinged as he thought about his next actions. He could not escape this deal that he had, "Far too risky to run around." He silently said.

"Maybe I could ask Pirate association -." He begun.

An idea, a life raft as he was thinking of taking, but quickly he shook his head. Recent events made that option unlikely. After they lost two of their top commanders they were about to look for anyone that was responsible and he was about to avoid that storm.

There was no other option, but to wait and hope that his new masters had his rescue in their plans. If not he was fucked.

"Fuck." He silently said.

But he remembered their gift. They wouldn't give him an exotic beauty if they did not think about his wellbeing. Again he found something to smile about. Cackling to himself, at his good fortune. Quickly he started his personal and quite private link with some of his connections through Star Republic. Maybe, just maybe, what was about to happen here was in his best interest.

***

There was just darkness. He felt his face burning. His arms and legs were immobile, his face ached with pain, and he could feel someone just in front of him slowly moving their hands across his face. White teeth visible. Imposing, terrifying and the only thing that he could see. Slowly the nausea came and he vomited all over himself. The pain was too much.

He was screaming now, unable to hold his voice in, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Wave of fear and uncertainty washed over him, he wanted all of it to stop. He wanted home.

"STOOOOP!" Terrifying screams echoed in the empty room.

His eyes focused. Long enough to see the instruments of his torture. The subject holding them still in the dark. Only white teeth visible, smiling, cackling, enjoying his terror. Like the figure was drinking from his cup of raw emotions.

Dark, white, dingy room that only had a door, a table filled with menacing instruments and the bed he was strapped onto. The figure moved, eclipsing the door with its dark silhouette, making the background blurry and exposing its white gnaw for his eyes. He tried to avert his eyes. Lucian tried to think about his mother and father, but their empty faces scared him more than this torture.

"What secrets do you keep?!" The figure said his voice seemed broken with static.

Sudden noise behind the blur made his heart beat faster. The door opened and another figure entered, he wanted to scream, yell in terror, to warn the incoming party of this figure, but it just turned to him and gently pressed its dark finger to his lips, "Shhhhh." He could hear its breath releasing, washing over Lucian's face.

Panic attack took over as he realized that it was not his mind playing tricks but this was actually real.

He started to shake while the figure slowly crept nearer, dark finger now on his temple as it silently whispered, "Soon!" A grin of white fangs crept closer and closer as it opened its big maw and swallowed him whole.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA" Lucian screamed in terror.

Jumping from a bed to his feet, the dark dingy white room was slowly rippling and being replaced by his own bedroom and bed on board his ship. He shook in fear while two women on the bed looked on in fear.

Every muscle in his body was primed and ready.

He felt faint coming so he had to kneel on the ground bracing for the inevitable. The corner of his eyes slowly dimmed, he felt his consciousness slipping and finally he felt hands on his back and front when eventually his consciousness faded.

Both women looked at Lucian. Their worried faces now had tears streaming down their cheeks. They were concerned for Lucian's wellbeing and with great care took him down to bed making sure he was safe in their hands.

"What was that?" Liza asked. Her eyes worriedly looked at Lucian.

Ericha took her time answering her question as she was not sure. They heard him squirm and yell, but until the end they were unsure what would happen. Finally she looked into Liza's eyes while holding one of the Lucian's hands, "I think it's his mind trying to cope with the stress. Maybe old memories resurfacing?"

Liza wondered, she never heard of permanent memory loss, but also she was not aware of anyone that her unit could not trace. Or at least were sure of their origins. Lucian was a mystery. Complete and utter mystery.

Five hours later Lucian moved, finally his mind and body were rested enough and he started to wake his tired mind. He felt restless and tired. He stared at the ceiling. He could almost feel the figures scent, its breath, and presence. As he watched the small light above him it became brighter and brighter. Suddenly there was nothing but light.

Slowly he became accustomed to brightness of this lamp. Right after that thought, he realized he was staring at incredibly bright lamp that was pointed right into his face. He could feel its heat emanating from it.

His arms and legs were pinned in place. He was breathing rapidly afraid of what will happen next, afraid of that figures reappearance.

He looked around. He was in the middle of the room, the bright light was hurting his eyes but he could still see someone. Out of reach. He tried to call out but nothing was coming out from his mouth. As if they were glued shut.

He looked down and the straps went around his body. He noticed sinister instruments of torture on the same table. Waiting for someone to use them

Lucian saw that he was getting injected with something, but for now he did not care. He heard woman's voice, screaming somewhere. His male instinct wanted him to jump up to go to her rescue, but again he was bound. Unable to do anything.

He sat up looking around the room, not knowing where his girls are but feeling incredible sense of familiarity. A déjà vu. This was happened before.

He felt uneasy as he waited for what was about to come. He was worried, afraid, pleaded with anyone to let this nightmare end. Then it happened.

A door was slammed open, a figure he dreaded stood right in front of it, smiling its white open maw at him. Then everything went black. Lucian tightly closed his eyes, hoping that he would awaken from this dream.

Slowly opening his eyes he saw the light above him, Lucian felt the bed spread under him and he smelt the familiar scent in the air. Just then he noticed the pounding of his heart in his chest. Slowly it returned to normal but for a time it threatened to burst out of his chest.

It took quite a while to relax, calm down and note everything that he saw. It felt real.

Lucian managed to file away his fears. He slowly repeated the process of closing his eyes and trying to repeat what happened, but no strange visions appeared in his mind. There was nothing. He filed it as an incredibly vivid nightmare and kept trying to forget about it, but again something deep down said that its very important to remember this.

Standing up to stretch his body, realizing slowly that he hand no kinks to stretch in the first place. It felt oddly satisfying. What to do? Should he tell Ericha and Liza about his nightmare?

He decided that there was no reason to bring any more stress into their lives. He wanted to see them, feel them. Be with them.

"Let's do that." He said to himself while starting to walk. He wanted to talk to his lovers, his wives. His sibling. Lucian smiled as he started to imagine the conversation they could have.

Moving his feet he left the bedroom. Finally Liza and Ericha were in front of him talking with someone on their crystal screen in the middle of the room.

He heard strange clicks and beeps coming from somewhere. Unusually louder than before, for a moment he was certain that it came from a wall mounted piece of tech that he never asked the purpose of, but soon he realized that it was coming from the crystalline creature on the screen.

"Scrtzchhhh." Again the noises it made reminded him of static feedback sometimes he'd hear on radio. But apparently this was coming from a being, a creature that did not look that much different than a crystal.

Lucian had to tilt his head, but he saw Liza move her fingers on her Pad and nod her head while Ericha said, "Good. We've agreed then."

Lucian approached silently while another set of clicks and beeps came from the creature. "Hmm?" Said Liza.

She turned her head and smiled while she saw Lucian's figure near her, "Ah this is our husband. Lucian Deca."

Crystal creature had no facial features that Lucian could get acquainted to, so he just nodded. Liza however was busy reading her next set of words that the creature spoke, "YES!" She exclaimed smiling.

There was a moment of silence where the creature glowed brightly, "Thank you very much." Ericha said and the screen went blank. She clicked several times and it revealed sector map which now had few more markers added to it, reluctantly she sighed.

"We'll need to visit them." She told Lucian.

"Why?" Lucian asked.

"That was our potential client and it or he in this case, wanted to meet us in the near future after we deal with our current request." Ericha said.

+++++

Thank you for reading until now. I hope I can continue working on this series. I'm sucked dry to be honest in these past few months. I thought of writing few chapters to see where things went. Many people came, read my stories, left different comments.

I love you all.

Thank you for inspiring me.

Thank you for taking this journey with me.