The dunes of the desert planet were up to an acre tall in places. Often bottoming out into flatter sandstone pits or crag-stone ridges between them. The surface was a variable maze of stacked light brown stone and colossal piles of sand.

  Nothing grew here. A seemingly waterless, dry, hot planet. Perhaps there was life here once... Long ago.

  Building-sized chunks of the caasiok and the battle-frigate lied strewn across the planets surface for many kilometers. Like two gods who died fighting one another. Sections of the metallic battle-frigate were impaled into the ground. Sparking and sending up pillars of smoke.

  The caasiok's destruction stood in stark contrast. It was organic bone and carapace, flesh and blood. Massive intestinal tracts lied exposed. Sections of carapace tunnels laid exposed. Leaking their contents onto the ground around. Steaming the moment the fluid dripped onto the sun baked sands.

  Beams of sunlight shined around these giant fragments casting dark shadows along the planets surface.

  All was quiet besides the occasional sounds of combat. There were survivors of either craft. And they would battle one another when they encountered each other.

  The Sequester parked itself a fair distance away from the wreckage.

  Dr. Bryant sent out the ships tiny drones. Small, grey, buzzing spheres. Their propellers are kept in a gyro-like mechanism hidden within them. A bulbous camera lens was embedded in the center of each. Four of them dropped from a panel on the ship and flew about quickly surveying the area.

  Once their purpose was to hunt down telepaths.

  And it still was, ironically enough.

  They had to find Selene and escape the planet. Immediately.

  Zephyr looked out the windows at the distant smoldering wreckage in front of Dr. Bryant. Danny and Raymond joined her a moment after.

  "Selene... Survived this?" she muttered.

  "We need to retrieve her as soon as possible. This planet will be a warzone soon when reinforcements from the Protectorate and Zykra arrive. I'll need-"

  He had stopped mid sentence because of what he saw.

  They all watched as a tiny green scantid ran away from the ship leaving little footprints into the distance. It disappeared over the top of a sand dune.

  "Do you think it's looking for Selene?" Raymond asked.

  "Undoubtedly. It likely senses her distress. I will send a drone after it."

  Selene groaned as she awoke. The many spider-legs she grew were sore and in pain, so she disconnected them. Instantly they went limp and released whatever grips they once held.

  And with them—Selene found herself in free fall.

  The piece of wreckage they were in was at an angle embedded into the side of a large dune many meters high.

  A wounded soldier, Evo, and herself all went tumbling down the carapace floor of the caasiok down onto the soft sand of the dune. They rolled until they hit the bottom.

  Selene had sand in places she would rather not have sand in. Her bleeding arm stubs that is. They hadn't grown back.

  "Ow." she said flatly as she looked up at the bright blue sky. She couldn't move. Not really. She's never felt this tired in her life, much less after her Zykra transformation. For a long while the once human—turned Zykra queen had believed fatigue was a thing of the past.

  But not any longer. The urge to sleep pulled at her constantly. Though given her situation she was not inclined to allow it to overcome her. Her helmet wouldn't even come out. She laid there exposed in the sun.

  "..Hot." she said after a minute. "Evo! Soldier guy!" she called out weakly.

  "...Help!" she licked her lips. Which were beginning to crack from dehydration.

  "Injured. Not optimal."

  She heard Evos deep voice in the distance and turned her head to see him leaning against the dune in the shade of a broken wall of carapace.

  He saw her looking at him.

  "Green queen too large to move. I am too small."

  One of his fuzzy antenna's were bent, and his winged cape seemed ripped up. He was bleeding in places.

  A shadow passed over Selene then. Cooling her.

  "You're speaking english... What are you? Why didn't you kill me?"

  The voice of a man asked. Selene looked up at him and squinted. His form was shadowed black but his psionic signature stated exactly who he was. This was the man she spared from the caasiok's ground team.

  "...I'm human. How else would I talk?"

  The silhouette of the figure looked down to her bleeding arm-stubs. Blue flesh was bleeding purple blood with pale green bone sticking out.

  "...Part human. Listen, I saved you—so could you do me a favor and drag me over to that shade next to the mothman?"

  She heard the man sigh. And his shoulders slumped as he gave another quick look at their surroundings.

  They were at the bottom of a dune that went on for what seemed like kilometers. Ripples of dunes just like it went on across from them into the horizon. Littered with chunks of caasiok wreckage.

  "Do it." she said again, this time using her powers. The man turned his head at her; "You don't seem like you're in a position to be giving me orders."

  What? Why wasn't he listening? Did he have one of those anti-telepath implants like those human traffickers had? A distant deep voice answered her confused thoughts.

  "Process to create praetorian drained green queens essence. Survival priority. Can not use psionic abilities."

  "Fuck." she said quickly.

  The guy scoffed somewhat humorously; "I should kill you, you know? You killed my friends. Well, coworkers anyway."

  Selene gave him a warning glare then.

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  "Try it. Stomp my head in. Strangle me—you're not strong enough to kill me... Even like this you could drop a truck on me and I wouldn't die."

  The soldier seemed like he just might take her up on that offer. But sighed again. Then he reached down and grabbed her ankle before dragging her towards Evo.

  "Smart choice."

  Commander Desuran emerged from the command decks panic room.

  They actually had procedures for things like this. Much of the ships infantry was killed on impact—but anyone of significant rank were always within reach of life saving measures like this. Specialized rooms for weathering traumatic events like unplanned landings.

  The ship around the room was cracked and broken. Streams of sunlight poured in. Bodies of operators were draped over their consoles and laid impaled by broken sections of ship.

  Sparks rained down periodically. And all the systems were down. No consoles, no alarms. A few moans of pain. Dying gasps.

  "How long until reinforcements arrive." Desuran stated, not so much as a question.

  Agent Weasley stepped out of the contained panic roomed next to him. Into the broken remnants of the command deck. She looked down at her tablet for a moment.

  "Two days." she said. "And that's the VIP retrieval team. Not real reinforcements. That'll take longer. Like four days."

  "Mother fuck." Agent Riddick said—still within the panic room. He was struggling with the straps that held him snug to a chair inside. "How do these things work? Goddamn booster seat!"

  They ignored him.

  Commander Desuran stepped towards a dead soldier off to the side and picked up his rifle. He racked it and checked the ammo count.

  "Seems we're in a bit of a survival situation. Hopefully the Zykra are worse off than we are. Is the asset still alive?" he asked her.

  Leslie Weasley checked her psionic connection to Selene Carrington. It went off for miles in one direction.

  "Yes. She is."

  "Well that's that. Hopefully the encephalon died in the crash, but I'll be safe and assume it survived. It took a railgun to the chest after all."

  The sounds of Riddick falling to the floor after cutting the straps of his chair with a combat knife echoed behind them.

  "We need to get away from the crash site. Collect what survivors and supplies we can. Find shelter, maybe a cave somewhere." he said.

  It's been awhile since he had to micromanage so much. He was a general for Christ's sake. But the situation demanded it. He'd served on the frontlines before and this wasn't so different. He'd collect what survivors he could and get the hell out of the ship before the Zykra came knocking.

  Zephyr hid herself away in her bunkroom. Given everything—she was no longer confined. Raymond and Dr. Bryant were too distracted for that.

  She needed power. And the device must've been capable of something. How did Elias describe it? —What it was capable of? It could enhance her natural telepathic ability—create a bigger shield.. Or a sword... Turn her invisible.

  But what else?

  "Come on you stupid thing!" she waved it around and bopped it with her hand. "You worthless piece of jewelry!"

  Outside was sweltering hot. Without a proper suit, like enforcer armor- she'd fry. That's what she really needed. Something like Selene's Zykra form.

  There must be some 'combat setting' on it.

  She clutched the side of it—wriggling her fingers through the silver bracelets and pulling at it. She grit her teeth as her frustration built.

  "Please... Let me help. I need to protect us!" she sobbed.

  Just then, as if responding to a verbal command—the sapphire gem in the gauntlet pulsed with light.

  And an electric hum began to fill the air. Zephyr felt static travel across her skin from the gauntlet as a pure white surface appeared over her like a second layer of skin. Smooth and featureless.

  Her clothes disappeared into blue flecks of particles that flew out from her and faded away.

  Rounded plates of silver armor appeared on her shoulders, a breastplate, abominable layers, vambraces, kneepads, the entire set.

  She gave a shuttered breath as a silver helmet with a light blue visor went over her head. The sides had 3 sharp points on either end like metallic elf ears.

  It happened so fast. Her hands were like normal- she could feel the air on her skin. Though it wasn't her skin. This white material clung to her as if it might as well be. It left little to the imagination but Zephyr never had a problem with wearing stuff like that.

  "Well.. Finally. You could've done that earlier... I'm still mad." she clutched a fist. The back of her hand and knuckles were plated in the same metallic material. She punched the wall. No pain. Hardly felt an impact at all actually. But it left an indent in the reinforced metal.

  "Oh.. Okay." she brought up a hand to wipe her face and was surprised when the visor automatically evaporated into blue mist allowing her hand to reach her face.

  She hesitated a moment. Then wiped the tear.

  "Thanks." she said under her breath and went to tell the others that she found a way to help Selene.

  "I have my own caasiok on the way." Selene said as the soldier leaned her up against the dune next to Evo.

  "Redundant. Need healing compound now. Can retrieve from destroyed caasiok. Send servant. Find white fluid."

  "Whoa there—let's not jump to assumptions. I'm not anybody's servant. 'Cept maybe my wifes. And pucks. And my commanding officer..." the soldier grumbled as he took a few steps away.

  "Sure." Selene chortled painfully, tilting her head against the shaded sand of the dune. Closing her eyes solemnly.

  "What's your name anyways?" she asked.

  "Ben. Ben Constantine... What the hell is this situation? I never imagined—I should've never took this job offer. I knew the raise was too good to be true."

  Selene still had her eyes closed. Fighting the urge to sleep.

  "I... I get it Ben. Been there. Just stick around okay? Our odds of survival are higher together. Speaking of survival... Evo. How is Aboleth doing? Did the cocoon survive the crash?"

  "Yes. Is contained above. Rooted to cassiok remains. Should grow now. Will hatch soon." he looked up at this planets sun. "By sunrise."

  "Good... Good." she said relieved.

  "CHEKCHEKCHEK!"

  They all were startled as a scantid hoped onto Selene and turned to face Ben. It angrily mashed it's mandibles and wiggled it's butt. Ready to pounce.

  "Pipsqueak!" Selene said painfully. It had pretty much tackled her and she had no arms to move it. "Stop! He's a friend!"

  Ben had staggered backwards and fell down—bringing up an arm to defend himself. His black enforcer armor now shimmering in the light of the sun outside the shade.

  There was no psionic order, but the scantid had grown to understand Selene without them. It turned to her and started licking her with it's antenna. Examining her injuries.

  "It's fine..." she said smiling weakly.

  "I never seen a scantid act like that before..." Ben said, gradually calming himself. Still on gaurd from the feral monster.

  "This one is special. My first ever. Kind of saved my life maybe."

  "Slightly aberrant. Premature. Unstable mutation. But... Malleable syntaxes." Evo commented.

  "Alright—alright get down." Selene said laboriously. The scantid hoped down next to her obediently.

  "So.. You need some white fluid stuff to heal? How would I even bring it to you?" Ben asked.

  "I don't know... Find a bowl.. Or something." her head started to drift to the side as her eyes closed again.

  "Don't go to sleep!" he said.

  "But... I'm.. eepy.." she fell unconscious.

  Ben looked to Evo. Who looked back at him. Then they both looked at the scantid. Who was staring at Selene.

  "This is quite the development Ms. Erikson..." Dr. Bryant said as he studied her. He lifted her arm and examined one of the silver plates of armor on her side. Which covered the latex-like white suit beneath.

  "That's an understatement." Raymond said.

  Zephyr smirked at him; "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

  Danny had his arms crossed on the other side of the pilots cabin. He was leaning on a console.

  "Tsk... I always miss out on all the good shit. Where's my fancy alien armor?"

  Dr. Bryant ignored him. His tablet beeped—the drone was notifying him the scantid had stopped. He examined the footage on his tablet gravely.

  "This isn't good... Selene is injured. Badly." he raised his eyebrows when he saw the Protectorate soldier sifting through cassiok remains nearby.

  Zephyr clutched a fist—"Just tell me where. I'll bring her back."

  She was eager to make up for the whole situation with Aboleth and this was just the thing.

  "You barely know what that suit is capable of Ms. Erikson..."

  Raymond scoffed; "...He means that we wouldn't want you 'accidentally' slitting her throat."

  Zephyr looked away shamefully. He had her there.

  "I know better now... I can control it."

  "Trust is the issue here Ms. Erikson."

  She got an irritated look then. She pulled away from Dr. Bryant.

  "Trust? I could've killed you both by now if I wanted! Why the hell would I hurt Selene? I-" her breath hitched as she looked at their disbelieving faces and her anger boiled over. She turned away and headed towards the exit.

  "I'll find her myself!" she said.

  "Zephyr wait!" Danny said—hurrying after her.

  Dr. Bryant and Raymond exchanged a look.

  "She is our best chance of getting her back so far..." Raymond commented.

  Dr. Bryant nodded slowly. "..I'm only reluctant to make use of an alien device we know so little about. Ms. Eriksons intentions may be pure, but..." he shook his head. Deciding it was pointless to deliberate further.

  "I will redirect a drone to guide her. There are puck and Zykra forces between here and there—hopefully she is willing to do as she says."

  Raymond gave him a confused look; "It's not like she hasn't killed before."

  Bryant didn't respond. He only looked out the pilot cabins window into the desert landscape littered with wreckage. The sun was drifting towards the horizon. It would be night soon and the desert cold would set in.

  The survivors would regroup and the battle would resume then. If Zephyr was going to do this.. She'd better hurry.