The group stood in silence on the mushy battle grounds.

  Some in lamentation, others in desperation and were trying to calculate their next moves but to no significant avail.

  The General stood silently with his eyes downcast.

  He was unfamiliar with the feeling of not having a plan, a next step, a definite direction.

  Bob stood with his insides churning, he knew he was a drifter and had no pocket in the universe worth calling a home.

  yet somehow the rise of Vol Drung seemed to have affected him deeply as he looked up and around at everyone around him.

  His captive, then his comrade and now as painful as it was to admit, his friend.

  Hans, the hynx and even the general in a way had become defining cornerstones of purpose in his galaxy.

  And he nearly turned and ran from them.

  Just as he did from everyone else he had ever known.

  he looked at the faces of the mishi and mushan, dirty and grazed, Gerad was barely breathing in a heap of battered fungal flesh.

  Hans was incoherent and nearly catatonic.

  the hynx lay there cradling its legs.

  and the general coughed and spluttered near him.

  Not this time… This time I have to stay! I have to think… What do I do!

  “Have you still got that quick little craft?” Gladius questioned Bob, snapping him out of his worry filled daydream.

  Bob nodded dubiously, guessing as to what the general would ask.

  “Where?” The General's voice was so full of gravity it would have registered on a seismograph.

  “In the marshes to the west… but it's just a glider, no way it can make it back to the capital before those freaks.”

  Gladius dropped his armour and checked the power interface for his bio instalments.

  It read twelve percent charge, he needed four in his core to continue functioning his organs.

  From what he had seen the glider would need ten percent to put the warp drive into overdrive, on top of that they would be travelling fast enough to obliterate some parsec jumping tube freighters.

  Hopefully it had combat shields that could be repurposed.

  “Get the animal, we've got to get to the capital.” He said sternly as he picked Hans up and threw him over his shoulders.

  “Thank you for your courage.” The general said softly to the two mishi who were nursing Gerad in the aftermath.

  They nodded in response.

  “We’ll wait for him to wake and return to the village, thank you big scary man and strange hunter, you have saved us from a terrible fate.” Said Puella to the two before returning her attention to her half conscious spouse.

  “Hunter, lead us to your ship, we don’t have much time.” Gladius ordered.

  “Did you not hear me? There is no way we will make it back before that freaks armada does! We should just cut our losses and get as far away from the Galactic centre as possible!” Bob protested vehemently.

  Panic resurging in his mind.

  Gladius merely stood there with a gaze that could freeze over a star.

  “Coward, have you no mercy for your fellow human beings? We are their only hope.” He stated.

  Bob looked down at his blaster with brows furrowed.

  He sighed and slumped his shoulders forcefully.

  “You better have a plan, big guy.”

  The general managed a slight one sided smile and nodded.

  They made their way back to the glider to find Jakaab sleeping, camouflaged under the wing.

  “Boo.” Bob muttered out prompting the creature to jump about in a panic before the general grabbed him by the neck with his free arm.

  “Another tag along?” He asked Bob, somewhat bemused.

  “Unfortunately, yeah.” Came the response as Bob opened the cockpit of his glider.

  “You seem to attract them like flies to manure.”

  The General jumped in the back seat, squeezing the unconscious Hans and the panicking reptilian in with him whilst Bob and the Hynx boarded the pilot's seat.

  “So what now General? I’m guessing you got a way for us to catch up then?” Bob asked as he booted up the craft.

  Gladius struggled in his seat to open the port in the base of his spinal cord and pull out a retractable cord.

  “Get to high orbit.” He said.

  Bob quickly obliged and within moments they were far above the fungal planet, watching the grey green clouds roll over the surface from above.

  “What now?” Bob urged the older man.

  “Unlatch the H.U.D. unit and pass me the ignition wire, the one that leads to your power source. Then calibrate your hyper drive, set the coordinates to the capital, sentinel city, 23, 85, 431.” Lyanus ordered calmly and concisely.

  Bob did so but with confusion painted on his face.

  “You can’t be for real?!” he exclaimed when he realised the Generals plan.

  Gladius ignored him and attached the ignition wires to his power chord.

  “You’ll die!” He yelled with spit flying out of his mouth and bloodshot eyes.

  The General ignored the hunters' concern.

  “When we arrive, make sure the drunk comes to his senses, he may be our only hope. Get the hammer away from that demon bastard and don’t stop hitting him until he’s down for good. Understood?” He ordered, exasperated yet resolute.

  Bob knew there was no point in arguing and turned back to his control panel, his hand firmly on the warp lever.

  “Ready?” Asked the general as he finished merging the wires.

  Bob nodded.

  “Go.”

  Bob pushed the lever, forcing the general to cry in agony while his skin turned red from the rushing, boiling blood before the craft blasted off into warped spacetime.

  The General screamed in anguish as the engines drained his vitality and seared his body.

  They warped into normal space time, floating over a tall residential scape in the central districts of the Conglomerate Capital.

  The gargantuan, sprawling, planet wide metropolis bathed in an orange twilight seemingly unharmed.

  They must have beaten the armada there.

  Bob looked back at the general, his body was now laced in burn wounds as he was slumped in his seat, barely conscious.

  The Hynx crawled across to him with a look of concern.

  “Land… rooftop… now…” Gladius rasped out through laboured breaths.

  Bob slowly glided down to the rooftop of the building where there lay a docking bay for small craft.

  His trusty glider's engine rattled as smoke poured out of the exhaust bay at an alarming rate.

  The General's power core pushed the craft to its limit.

  They disembarked, Bob helping the broken bodied Hans and the general to their staggering feet.

  “It seems we’ve beat them here.” Gladius said as he took laboured steps towards the door that led to the rooftop.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “This better not be the lock up.” Bob said as he helped the General onwards.

  “Huh… still don’t trust me?” He chuckled back but Bob who kept his cold expression.

  Before they could reach the door, a woman burst through in haste.

  “Gladius!” The woman gasped as the General broke off from Bob's shoulder to fall into the woman’s embrace.

  Despite her small stature in comparison to Gladius’ hulking physique she caught him sturdily.

  She was olive skinned, long and lithesome of physiology and held in her angular yet soft face two intense bright green eyes.

  “Therase.” He rasped out, relief pouring from his voice.

  “Edyn?” He asked.

  “She’s downstairs… sleeping, but Gladius! Your body…” she said, her brown eyes widening as she looked at the battered, broken and bloody bodice of her husband.

  “I’m fine Therase just a little burnt, that’s all… and the other girl? Did Avious deliver her?” He asked.

  “She’s downstairs, watching over Edyn, the two seem to have a natural affinity. Who is she Lyanus? And whose child does she bare?” Therase asked with slight dubious concern in her voice.

  Gladius chuckled a moment realising his wife’s cause for alarm.

  “All will be revealed in time my love but nothing is askew as far as you and I are concerned, in fact I realise what matters more than ever now.” He said warmly as he hugged her tighter.

  The reunion was short lived as Jakaab began yelling from the back of the company, pointing manically at the sky.

  The armada was in view, judging from the perspective, they had warped into high orbit.

  “Damnit! Already?” Bob exclaimed in dismay.

  “Quickly! Follow us, we have to go downstairs, I need my second power core.” The General said before coughing out a splattering of blood.

  “And these people?” Therase shamelessly questioned.

  “They’ll be fine, as much as it pains me to admit it, we need them.” He said with a glance back at the crew.

  Without further ado the group rushed as fast as they could downstairs.

  As soon as they entered the Lyanus complex the general rushed to his quarters where his baby lay, cooing and sleeping in a cot.

  Iris was tending to her lovingly before standing and waiting to the side.

  The general's eyes softened and his posture's tension dissipated.

  “General… you’re here… She was just sleeping… she’s gorgeous.” Iris said as she put her hand over her own stomach.

  The General smiled as he cradled his baby and held his wife close.

  “Thank you Iris, I hope you’re journey was pleasant and you’ve been accommodated well.” He said.

  Hans who began to come to, was watching through the door as he hung off Bob's shoulder in the living quarters.

  Although he was sober the scene in front of him granted him a miraculous sense of calm that he had not felt in an eternity.

  “Iris…” he mumbled, his strength returning to him every passing second.

  “What? Got something smart to say before the world ends drunker?” Bob asked satirically.

  Hans remained silent.

  “Drunker! I have someone for you to meet… I sense it’s been a long time.” The General ordered.

  Strangely Hans did not feel the urge to rebel and antagonise as some otherworldly force drew him into the room.

  Iris stared at the crippled, scruffy and bloodied wreck of a man that had entered the chamber in a sense of nostalgia.

  “Daddy…” she whispered as she stood there stunned.

  Hans immediately began to weep as he sobered further.

  He stumbled over to her and stood arms length away, too afraid and guilt ridden to reach for his daughter.

  he dropped to his knees whilst still holding her hands.

  “You’ve gotten so big.” He said through tear stifled breaths.

  She did not say a word and after a moments hesitation she threw herself too him, hugging him tighter than an atom could hold its nucleus together.

  She began to cry as well.

  Hans wrapped his momentarily stunned arms around her.

  “Daddy where have you been! I missed you so much!” She and her father wept profusely as everybody watched, with tears forming in their eyes.

  The General managed a smile before he coughed and staggered as blood poured from his mouth.

  His baby started crying.

  “Gladius quickly! You’re dying!” Therase said as she picked up the child and directed her husband towards a pod in his quarters.

  He opened it with a shaky hand and there stood another set of armour, this one sleeker and more elegant to the eye.

  Next to it rested a glowing blue orb in its cradle.

  Therase stripped the General down to his bare body.

  It was bloodied, bruised and burnt.

  A tear ran down her face but her expression remained strong.

  In the centre of his scapulas at the base of his neck a marking sat.

  Therase pressed it and the flesh around it morphed to open up a boney, fleshy cradle hidden under the skin lodged in his vertebrae with wires running in all directions.

  The old core was barely glowing, burnt wires and singed flesh lay around the cradle.

  Smoke and a necrotic stench poured from the artificial orifice.

  “Gladius! What have you done!” Therase cried.

  “Only what was necessary… nothing more… nothing less…” he replied, gesturing to the new core.

  Therase cautiously removed the old core from its cradle before replacing it with the new one.

  As soon as it latched into place, the fleshy power port crackled and closed shut as the general groaned and winced in pain.

  His veins burst to the surface of his skin and his eyes glowed as his healing system kicked back into gear.

  A few moments later he seemed nearly back to normal.

  He turned to look at his wife and child.

  Kissing both of them he said.

  “Know that I love you, the both of you, more than anything in this galaxy.”

  “What’s happening Gladius? I’ve never seen you like this?” Therase said, concern laced in her voice.

  “Our reckoning, and we are not prepared.”

  He begrudgingly left the embrace and joined the group back in the living quarters.

  Hans held his daughter at arms length.

  “I thought you were gone… forever… I’m so sorry darling I looked for you forever and everywhere…” he dropped his head in shame.

  “Daddy… I missed you!” Was all that she could manage as she lifted his head and hugged him again, this time with a smile.

  “Ready?” Lyanus stated more so than asked as he marched past them to the door.

  “I have to go… I have to try and help… I have a reason now, I need you to be safe.” Hans said with furrowed brow, not wanting to leave his daughters side again.

  She nodded but looked down and sobbed.

  “You found me this time, you better do it again.” She said sternly.

  Hans nodded with stifled sobs as he held his daughters hands before begrudgingly breaking away.

  Hans followed the rest of the crew up the staircase that led to the roof top port.

  Astrange sense of calm washing into his sobering mind, keeping him quiet as he assessed what was happening.

  His body had nearly already healed from the pummelling he took on Jubembo.

  A sense of purpose began to swell in the gaping chasm in his soul.

  Maybe the Galaxy wasn’t as much of a horrid moral cesspit as he had thought.

  If she could be delivered back to him by this man.

  He looked at Gladius, who still winced as the core assimilated to his cybernetics.

  maybe there is hope for me yet.

  He looked at Bob who strode forth resolutely.

  with friends like these…

  The rag tag team got back to the rooftop in a hurry.

  As soon as they burst through the door, huge tremors swept through the city and shook the building violently.

  The armada had made planetfall.

  A huge shadow lay across the capital as thousands of spheres floated in the red twilight sky.

  Thunderbolts and lightning spread like cracks in reality around them as more and more warped into the sky, causing irregularities in the electrical charge of the upper atmosphere.

  Alarm sirens began ringing and the first responders began ascending in their peacekeeper crafts up into the cataclysmic sky.

  They were shot down before they could even get close by giant beams of energy from the spheres amorphous hull cannons.

  Reduced to clouds of ash raining down upon screaming citizens.

  “We have to move. Quickly, if we can get to the barracks I can mobilise whatever force there is on this planet.” Gladius stated.

  Bob grumbled and grimaced.