We are the hunted, but we once the hunters. We are the prey, but we were once the predators. We were once the Reapers, but now we are the ones who sow. All that we’ve known ripped away, all that we pledged to be, destroyed. With our destinies now combined, and our future unknown, we search the stars, for what we do not know. Our one objective now, survival. All we have left is each other…

Episode 4

The large room stood in stark silence. Vague shadows of undefined forms danced across the darkened walls. Than a slither of light cuts through the darkness and the door to the room creaks open. The sound of slick metal gliding across the floor, echoed throughout the large room. The ever encroaching light rapidly superceded the darkness.

Czerell stood in the doorway pushing in the heavy door. The room which had not seen the light of the rest of the ship for perhaps years, was now in full light. The cramped dusty chamber was filled with bits of metal, scattered electronics and circuit boards and assorted parts of all shapes and sizes all strewn about. Czerell’s eyes pour over the contents of the room and he slowly steps in carefully avoiding bits of rogue metal that seemed to jump up from the ground.

“Look at all this shit…some of it probably hasn’t been used in years.” Czerell says with a frown.

He kicks and scatters some debris to make walking room. Cale follows close behind. He stares into the room, wondering what could lay within it’s messy interior. His hands feel across the wall and discover a small breaker. He flips it and a faint flicker of dull light permeates the room. The dull illumination lingers and the room’s contents can be seen in a somewhat better perspective. Cale crouches to study a stray piece of circuitry laying on the ground.

Meanwhile Czerell makes his way to the back of the room when he spots something hanging on an adjacent wall. His eyes light up and he retrieves it. Pulling a battered dull rifle type weapon off the wall.

Czerell studies the piece of weaponry as a child would a new toy “Hey check this out, an old Amulet X-80. I haven’t seen one of these ever since I was young Talonis in training, wonder if it still works”.

He tinkers with it a bit and activates the weapon’s power reserve. Brightly colored gauges spring to life and register a low energy base. Cale looks up and smiles.

“Toss it here, it’s been a while since I’ve used one of those too.” he says enthusiastically.

Czerell tosses the weapon to Cale and he in turn starts to tinker with it. Looking back at the wall in which he retrieved the old rifle, Czerell expresses an inquisitive look as he notices something else, partially hidden behind a large slab of brittle metal. Czerell tears the slab away to reveal a compact looking device. The young Leutenii pulls an illumination rod from the corner of the wall and holds it to the strange looking device to study it under better light. The device slightly resembles a human torso, except made out of cybernetic material. Suddenly a look of realization crosses the Reaper’s face. He grins and runs his hand over the contraption.

“Hey Cale, come and have a look at this” Czerell says with a hint of excitement in his voice.

Cale makes his way to where Czerell is looking at the strange device. Staring at it for a moment, Cale brushes it off “Hey wait a minute this is a…an old Combat Training Drone”.

Czerell smiles “Exactly, of the class Thetron…this is a damn antique. Only the youngest in Reaper trainees use these for practice. Why I must have trained with a C.T.D. Thetron when I was no more than ten or eleven”.

Cale lets out an amused breath “Why Thetrons must be the oldest droid training aids ever used…what the hell is one of em doin on a cargo ship”?

Czerell hauls the drone from its resting spot against the wall and heaves it up “I don’t know, especially since there are so much more advanced combat drones in service. Why use a relic like this? I mean you got the Versidon, the Osirian and my personal favorite, the class Terradon. Which incidentally is used for cyclatic evals, when prisoners aren’t aboard”.

Cale helps Czerell with the drone “I never had the pleasure of fighting a Terradon, but I hear there pretty tough”.

“I think I just heard the understatement of my life. I had to fight a Terradon when I was an Anubi when I stationed on a Replenishment Carrier. As you well know Replenishment Carriers don’t have incarceration tiers, ergo no prisoners for me to square off with. So they pulled out a Terradon, boy I was in for the fight of my life. But I finally beat it and passed. A few assignments later I was promoted to the rank of Tyrannous.” says Czerell.

Cale turns the old drone over and inspects it’s backside. The brand of C.T.D. adorns it’s “neck” along with it’s production code. Several charred wires protrude from it’s base. “Circuitry is a little fried, but it’s nothing that can’t be easily repaired.” says Cale.

“Great lets get this baby operational, I’ve been dyin for some exercise.” Czerell says excitedly.

The exercise room was dimly lit with only one small spot light on Cale. He had the C.T.D. on the floor on it’s “face”. He was tinkering with the frayed circuits, trying to repair them. All around him lay several circuit boards and a variety of tools. He momentarily looks up and spots a shadowy figure in the entranceway holding a weapon. He squints to try and make out the figure. The shadow walks forward and into the light, it is Czerell, in his hand the Amulet X-80 looking show room new. The weapon had been polished to shimmering perfection and the power gauges indicated that it had been fully re-charged and ready for battle.

“You got that thing operational yet?” asks Czerell.

Cale looks down momentarily “Um…almost, just a few more memory wave wires and circuit boards to put into place. I found some fairly updated maneuver sequence chips that can be downloaded into its memory banks. Give us a little more of an intense workout”.

Czerell nods “I got ole Nikirri working, as you can see. I had to do some ammo modifications and replace some of the energy rivets, but she’s as good as new”. He pats the weapon on the side of the barrel to show his pride at restoring it to it’s former glory.

Cale again looks up from his work and smiles “Um, Nikirri”?

Czerell lifts one eyebrow and grins “Well you know, can’t easily forget a woman like her”.

Cale chuckles and slides the metallic back in place, securing the circuitry of the C.T.D. “Well that oughta do it, cross your fingers…”