The next 2 years

Carzola had found himself re-examining the information he had on Chege on multiple occasions. Firstly, he had seen Chege tank the main cannons on the gate without so much as a scratch. Yet now he was able to repeatedly injure him in a chase.

On both occasions, humans had seen a golden barrier around him Chege. As long as the barrier was up, nothing got to him. Carzola was curious which was indestructible, the barrier of Chege. Now he knew as long as he could circumvent the barrier, he could hurt Chege. However, that was easier said than done.

For one, any time a serious threat had come at Chege, the barrier had automatically come up. Many wondered if the barrier was automatic defense, like breathing or acute reflexes, but many believed it was under Chege's control, capable of summoning it whenever. So far, they hadn't found any weakness to exploit. What they didn't know is that they had barely scratched the surface of the power that Chege commanded, that not even he knew he had.

Secondly, Carzola had believed he was evading Chege's arrows, and to some extent, he was. However, after seeing the arrow so accurately sent through the gun's muzzle, he understood that that couldn't be further from the truth. The reason Chege kept missing was that he was relying on his power, knowledge, and control over the bow and arrow. There were spells in place to enhance his aiming and firing but he needed to master them, so in a way, Carzola was half-right.

More importantly, Carzola understood that the shepherds and the giant were very self-aware, very much sentient. They couldn't be called beasts anymore. perhaps they were, but in the galaxy, there was another term reserved for sentient beasts: monsters. That was their most accurate description.

That being said, Chege captured Carzola and along the way, picked up Dr. Hanni from the tree he had been pinned at. After the shooting of Kassam and his lover, the mayi were more vigilant around the humans and any toys they possessed had been confiscated.

Back at the human base, they awaited the reports and regularly scheduled check-ins from Carzola. The man was proving to be a reliable source of intel, and the images he had managed to capture and transmit back to base were some of the finest and the most detailed so far. However, they never expected the next set of images.

Carzola had been captured and was now a hostage. While his weapons and equipment had been taken, the man had too many mods in his body, and many were just for this sort of situation. He could never be truly cut off from the grid unless he found himself completely blocked from all radio waves or he willed it.

In one of his eyes, he had a camera that he could operate intuitively, capable of sending both still and motion pictures wherever it was connected to. His uplink had been connected to the bases networks, making him transmit both image and sound.

At first, he didn't do a report, just send some images and videos he had managed to take. Due to being a prisoner, he didn't have much wriggle room in the shelter, but the footage of his capture, chase and second capture provided more intel on the enemies than there had been since they moved to the planet.

When Dr. Keshi and the research team received the footage, it came as a welcome surprise that Dr. Hanni was still alive. While his close friends celebrated his being alive, others had a different reason.

"The boy has proven to be quite resourceful." Dr. Mark remarked as he watched the video. Many had ruled him out as dead, and since Carzola had yet to send a second video with Dr. Weere on it, they assumed he'd been killed and Hanni allowed to live.

"I wonder what information he can provide about these creatures?" One of the ladies in his posse asked with a look of disdain. Due to her high celebrity status and proximity to other bigwigs, most of these elites almost always had this look when talking of others whom they deemed inferior to them.

"He is very observant, remember. If his keen mind keeps up, and since he is the first professional to live among them, the information he can uncover would be unparalleled." Dr. Mark's remark was true. He had come to admire the boy doctor and had endorsed the boy to go for what led him in this situation.

He turned and looked towards Dr. Keshi. She didn't say anything, but her look of gratitude conveyed her feelings. She was known to be a good boss, and even Dr. Mark had to admit she had earned his respect, despite her being a stickler to details.

The mining department members were undergoing a different reaction. They had hoped for the survivability of their member, and not receiving any news was not necessarily a good thing. They knew of Dr. Hanni's recent news, and not receiving news any on their own was disconcerting. Dr. Hanni's status was changed from MIA, presumed dead, to Hostage.

Ser Bor felt a jolt in his comms. Reaching for it, he realized that Carzola had sent him a separate folder, unlike what the base received. Opening it, he saw the contents in the video and images that had been sent and immediately his face collapsed. Scrolling down, he read Carzola's caption: "I now know what you want."

It didn't sound like a threat, but he knew what it meant. Had it been anyone else, an outsider uncovering such a secret, Ser Bor would have already been contacting Carzola to end them. Now it turned out it was his favorite merc. The reason for his hesitation was not due to feelings, but because he knew how powerful Carzola was. This was not the kind of person you try to hit, and if you do, you better not miss him. In such an uncontrolled environment, he couldn't guarantee a successful assassination.

The only option left was to cut him in. This was not such a terrible idea. The mercenary knew his job, and he had taken part in other secret family activities before. It wouldn't hurt to have a capable person join in. The profits they were bound to make were so immense that an extra person's cut, an individual at that, was negligible. You can imagine the kind of profits that would attract an entity as big as the Tlas family into such secrecy.

There was no way to transmit a message back, as all his reading equipment had been confiscated. Carzola could send, even attack an audio message, but had no way of receiving the message. Despite that, Ser Bor still sent him a reply, for whenever he will see it. For now, Carzola focused more on survival.

Quickly, Carzola became Chege's favorite pet, mainly because of his combat skills. More than anything, Chege felt the need to grow strong. He saw that the only way to get the answers he needed was by growing on his power. Only then would he command respect and hopefully, much-needed answers.

Additionally, Chege still made sure to read every scroll he could in the library. Some that were rotten, others unreadable and of course, those he couldn't understand. Despite all that he still had several scrolls to read, and many were magical. He learned many spells, some basic while others were a tad bit more advanced.

What shocked Chege was that he could learn every spell available in the shelter. Earlier, he had read that different mages had varying command over the elements, but now he found that he could control several elements, be it fire, air, water, space, and even thunder. He was as versatile as he was powerful.

Moreover, he still hadn't found a situation he couldn't weather. This gnawed at him the most, for without figuring out where he got these powers, he feared he could just as easily lose them. Whoever gave them to him could take them back just as easily, and he needed to prepare for such an outcome.

Carzola's became like a combat instructor. When Chege needed to do his training, he found Carzola to be the best choice. The shelter's top combatants, Kassam and Kiel, were wounded. None of the others were free to interact with him and the human captors were civilians, useless to him. During that time, Carzola and Chege grew to be quite close.

For 2 years, everything seemed to be going better than good. In that period, the humans and the mayi never crashed once. The tacit peace that had been established between the 2 races, despite there not being any communication. The humans were the aggressors, and the moment they cooled off, the mayi finally got some leeway to grow and develop their society.

The 3 humans were still hostages for the duration, but with regular videos being uploaded daily concerning their well being, the humans were in no rush to organize a rescue operation.

Carzola remained as instructor cum punching bag. He could take a hit, and he always found a way of getting Chege to dig deep within. That was a major feat considering there was no one else who could even get Chege to break a sweat.

Dr. Weere had finally found a way of making himself useful. Together with Dr. Hanni, who the mayi recognized as non-combatants, they became like human whisperers, interpreting human actions for the mayi. They weren't being treacherous to their race.

They recognized that conflict had stemmed from misunderstandings, and by getting the creatures to understand humans just as the humans sort to understand their enemies, they could bridge the gap. They also bid to gain the shepherds' trust, hopefully, they'd become diplomats for the 2 races.

Chege was amazed by how much he had grown both his mage powers and his overall physical power. Strength was never his forte before, but now, his fists packed quite the punch. Moreover, he was able to understand both languages, the human and the mayi. He no longer needed a translator, and even with his humans, he could and occasionally did, hold discussions.

Moreover, there were some mayi who could perform magic. With their power combined with his, he was developing quite a powerful legion. Days of the mayi crawling and hiding underground were over, and a new dawn was rising.

Several light-years away, Ser Bor received a notification from his comms. There had been thorough preparations underway for the preparation of the project, but now everything was ready. It took him some time to go through all the information he had received, but when he did, he was very satisfied with the figures and the timelines predicted. It had been a long time coming, and now that the company was ready, delaying it much longer was a waste.

He then transmitted the information to 2 other people. One was sitting in a posh restaurant having supper. His elegant plaited suit told of superfluous wealth and the companions he had with him confirmed this. When he got the message, a toothy grin flashed on his face, and all decency seemed to evaporate.

The other was in a well lit underground room. He was about to fall asleep, as he had had a long day, and another awaited him the next day. He had managed to convince his captors to allow him access to the communicator, so he heard the beep from it.

There was one additional command attached to the messages. It wasn't a command really, more like a greenlight, as this was a long time coming. Those 4 words had been awaited by several, and now time for him to type them: "We are a go."