Scores of armored Altera scuttle about the corridors. Valen and Rea walk down the corridor inspecting the soldiers. Czerell and Nikirri meet them head on. Nikirri stands at attention in Rea’s presence.

“Awaiting orders High Cardinal” she says with prestige.

“Organize your troops, were expecting some very heavily armed guests in less than a quarter Alpha hour. Tell them to attack only on my command.” Rea says.

“Yes ma’am.” Nikirri says.

Valen smiles and pats Czerell on the shoulder “Damn son, you look like hell”.

Czerell just gives him an annoyed look.

Cale and Derelic run up behind Valen.

“What the hell is going on…it’s like the whole ship is goin crazy” says Cale.

Rea and Nikirri walk off to discuss more strategy.

“Alright boys I don’t know if your aware of the current situation, but we just got visual of Reaper Alliance ships poised to attack. I figure the only way for us to get out of here is to help them.” Valen says.

“Alliance ships, there’s no way in hell they could stand up to an Alliance attack. It would take an entire battalion of Dracul fighters to take on even one Alliance.” says Czerell with urgency.

Valen grins “I know, that’s what I told Rea. But the bounty hunter crews aren’t that many in number. If they can be persuaded to leave the Alliance ships and come aboard, we can take them on in a close quarter frontal attack”.

“You sure you trust these women Leutenii, I mean they were gonna kill us not to long ago” says Cale.

“Do I trust them…well that remains to be seen. But we don’t have much a choice now do we” says Valen.

The corridors of the Mother Ship were dark and silent. One could almost hear a pin drop. The Reaper Alliance ships had been signaling to the Altera, but they wouldn’t respond. They had made the bounty hunters think they had abandoned ship. The Alliance hunters were poised to board the Mother Ship and plunder what they could. Their pods slowly began docking with the ship and the bounty hunters poured out like a swarm of hungry wasps. They are clad in heavy cybernetic armor and are armed seemingly from head to toe. The leader of the hunters is Craygis. A moldy, rigid dirty and ruthless man who cares for nothing but his own gain. He has a cybernetic eye and a good portion of his top scalp covered by a metal plate. He has a rather comical stutter due to his the computerized implants in his damaged brain. His most hated nickname amongst his crew is “Twitchy”.

Craygis and his crew of hunters enter in cautiously with their weapons drawn. Craygis monitors a small computer on his wrist to see if any activity registers. He is not that stupid to blindly walk into a trap.

After several seconds of not registering anything he decides to move in “F…fan…fan out”.

The hunters move in and silently spread out, their eyes peeled.

From a shadowy corner of the corridor Rea sees the Alliance hunters spreading out and her hand plays steady on her weapon. She whispers into her comm channel “Ok Altera steady and on my command, report”.

Several Altera report throughout the ship “Altera squad one…two…three…four…five”

A hunter stealthily makes his way past Rea unaware of her presence. She swiftly rises up and blasts his head clear of his body “Now Altera…attack”!

Chaos erupts as plasma blasts emanate from every direction.

Craygis grits his teeth “It’s a tr…tr…traaaap! F…ire! T…t…take no one a…a…live”

“Well hello Twitchy, long time no see” Valen says from behind.

Craygis looks behind him and is met by a fist smashing into his jaw. He flies back and looks up at his assailant “Ya…ya…you! I’ve gotta bi…big bounty for you”.

“Why Twitchy, you hurt me. I thought we were closer to that.” he says.

“Don’t fucking call me Twi…twi…tchy!” Craygis roars. He fires a few blasts at Valen who ducks out of the way. Craygis gets up and charges Valen. Valen elbows him the face and back flips him to the ground. Craygis re gains his footing quickly but before he can move another inch he feels the barrel of a gun press against the back of his skull.

“I really wouldn’t if I were you” Rea says. She holds her pistol firm to Craygis.

Nikirri fires away like a woman possessed. She blasts several bounty hunters before she is taken by surprise by another. She tries to raise her weapon to defend herself but her rifle is kicked clear from her grasp. The hunter looks down on her with his gun poised to fire. Suddenly a plasma bolt smashes into his chest. He stands stricken, his wide eyes in terror. He gazes down on the gaping hole in his chest. He groans and falls to the ground. Standing behind him is Czerell, a smoking plasma pistol in his hand. Nikirri looks at him with surprise.

“Don’t worry, we can settle up afterwards” says Czerell.

Craygis stands there staring his intended quarry in the eye. “So I take it you’re the de…de…fector. Does the name Genesis Tray…tray…lon, sound f...fa…miliar”?

Rea circles him slightly with the weapon now pressed tightly to his temple “So you are the mercenary my son sent to capture me”.

Craygis opens his palm and a small three dimensional image appears. The image is of a lean and ruggedly handsome young man in full Reaper uniform. Valen stares down toward it…it is the first time he has seen his son.

The small digital figure begins to speak “Greetings High Cardinal Rea of the Altera. By now you are probably aware of my identity. I am Reaper Genesis Traylon, your son. My mandate by the Reaper Dominion council is to capture you dead or alive. Craygis is rumored to be the best in his field, I’m sure he’ll come through. Well mother I suppose I should thank you for bringing me into this world. How ironic…you brought me into being, now I’m taking you out.” The small figure disperses.

Rea tightens her finger on the trigger “You can tell my son, it’s not going to be that easy”.

Craygis smiles, slaps the pistol out of her hand and gets her in a choke hold, all in one move. He dispenses a blade from his wrist arsenal and holds it tightly to her throat.

“Craygis always gets hi…his mmmman!” Says Craygis.

“Don’t be stupid Twitchy, let her go” Valen asserts.

“Twitchy this Valen” Craygis plunges the blade into Rea’s abdomen. She lets out a whimper and drops to the ground.

“Rea!!!” Valen shouts. In a blind rage he rushes Craygis. The twitch plagued bounty hunter sings wildly at Valen. Valen dodges, grabs Craygis’s arm and impales the mercenary under his chin with his own blade. The hunter drops to the ground. Valen rushes over to Rea.

“You’ll be alright, I promise you” Valen says.

Rea just expresses a weak smile and closes her eyes.

Valen looks down at her and a small tear runs down his cheek “I’ll find our son, I swear”.

The somber ceremony brought no solace to Valen. Rea was laid to rest in the endless vastness of space. The customs of the Altera in paying tribute to their dead was not familiar to the fugitive Reapers. When one of their fellow officers died…no funeral ceremony was performed, they were just forgotten. Reaper officers who had served their time and died in the line of duty, and that was it. Nothing of them was ever mentioned again. Sentiment was forbidden within the rigid structure of the Reaper Legion. Valen had never paid his respects to the dead before, but he didn’t find it difficult. Especially not with her. Valen solemnly departed the Mother Ship and re-boarded the cargo ship.

Cale raced ahead of Derelic “Lets get the hell out of here”.

Derelic notices Elenique watching from a distance, he calls after Cale “Hey uh…I’ll be back at the ship in a minute”. He walks up to the beautiful warrior. “Um, I know we didn’t get off to such a great start but…”.

Before he cold finish his sentence she raises herself on her tip toes and kisses him. It was a better finish than he had imagined. After a few seconds she pulls away.

“Maybe we’ll see each other again some day” she says.

Derelic smiles “Yea maybe”.

At that they part ways and Derelic starts to make his way back toward his ship. He stops at a communication console and presses a button “Leutenni Czerell…we gotta go sir”. All he hears on the other end is female groans of pleasure and heavy breathing.

Czerell and Nikirri tenderly make love to each other on a shiny crimson bed. Derelic’s voice breaks over the comm. The two continue to passionately kiss when Czerell briefly breaks away to answer the comm “Yea uh Derelic gimme a few minutes…” he turns to look at the beautiful women in bed with him “Make that a few hours”.

THE END