2 Chapter 1- Artificial Cultivators

Hadrian ran his fingers over the diamond pattern of the hammock ingrained in his back.

"One of the fastest ships in the galaxy and he's still late, think he'll be here anytime soon?"

"Doubtful sir, He is your brother after all."

"I know you're an A.I. and all and your programmed to tell the truth, but would it kill you to take my side?"

"It just might sir." He scoffed and took a gulp of whiskey.

Hadrian was a pendulum as he enjoyed gentle rocking of his hammock. He lounged in the shade of the palm leaves for hours, unmoving and uncaring. Warmth flowed through his body as he downed yet another drink, combating the urge to close his eyes. A yawn escaped his mouth and his eyes strained under the pressure of staying open. It was hard to resist the feel of the desert zephyr against his skin, the sway of his hammock as it rocked him slowly into a coma, and the aroma of the oasis, with its fresh flora and natural spring scents flooding his senses.

The long-range sensors buzzed around the perimeter of the spring and Hadrian smiled. The Order couldn't so much as scan the planet without him knowing, he continued watching the sensors for a while until it bored him and he sat up in his hammock, resting his head on his upturned palms, his elbows on his knees. He averted his gaze to observe something other than the sky.

Hadrian turned his attention to the east where his ship lied, ready to bolt. Then looked at the ground. Not only did he have his ship but also a trusty hoverboard which sat about four meters below, laying in the shade of the enormous palm trees. He could leave at any time, the Order would never know he was there.

Hadrian heard the small mammals that littered the shores enjoying the oasis as well. A rodent that looked like a mix between a rat and a dingo, an ugly little guy, drank from the spring while others played around in its sparkling waters. They dove and splashed, cooling themselves off, all while remaining in the shade of the palm leaves.

A birdlike creature swooped down to the water's edge, drinking from it just as anything else that wanted to survive in this wasteland. It was akin to earth's vulture only much bigger, with the addition of a long, thick tail, two wings sprung from this extremity as well. The Flora and Fauna of New Sol were much bigger than most planets. The trees alone provided shade for the oasis. The planet was quite large as well.

With the arrival of a larger animal on the scene, the others flocked to the opposite side. There wasn't much to fear though, in a place such as this, the oasis was neutral ground. Something that no longer existed with the Order in power.

Eventually, he couldn't resist the remedies of the oasis any longer and laid back to sleep.

Sooner than he'd like he awoke from his nap to the noise of his long-range scanners blaring in his earpiece.

At first, his eyes felt like weights and he almost went back to sleep until the realization of what had awoken his hazy mind. Something had just warped into orbit around New Sol, His heart skipped a beat. Something eventful, finally. He assumed his brother had finally arrived. He counted to three in preparation for forcing his resting body out of the hammock which turned to thirty before he finally lifted his back from his bed.

Hadrian rubbed his eyes and opened them only to be blinded by what seemed like the sun staring him right in the face. A single ray had slipped through a crack in the leaves and happened to be shining right in his face. He lifted his hand to block it and noticed the device on his wrist. There were two blips on the virtual map now. Neither of the vessels belonged to his family.

"Sir, there are two ships bearing the orders mark, their current trajectory and speed indicate they will enter the atmosphere in five minutes."

"Thanks but I've already noticed, and remind me to change your voice later, this one is annoying." Her current setting spoke with an educated, grown woman's vocabulary, but with the high pitched tone of a little girl. "I chose refined and sexy, not young and undeveloped."

He rolled his eyes as Kat caused the blaring to get louder in his ears.

"Was that really necessary?" his ears screamed and his mind cried at the volume which remained on the rise.

With no further delay, Hadrian rolled from his bed and tapped a few buttons on his wrist. While he fell, he oriented himself in the air so that his feet faced the ground and proceeded to bend his knees. The hoverboard shimmied itself from the sand and shot like a bullet to his feet. The magnets engaged and a thump signified the board locking into place. Hadrian wobbled a bit as he wasn't used to nothing securing him and didn't like trusting a machine with his life as he flew around the sky.

He allowed the soothing air in his face to arouse his senses as he flew over the ocean of sand. In seconds, he felt good as new. It really irked him to depart with the oasis and a nap but now he itched for a fight.

As he neared his ship he tapped a few more buttons and the ramp extended down. Alarms pelted him as he approached. Once inside, Hadrian hopped off his board, landed in a roll and sprinted through a small corridor. The thud of his boots echoing all the way. A silver door slid from the floor and disappeared into the ceiling. He tapped his leg repeatedly while approaching a wall filled with monitors then proceeded to tap the desk as he looked at the displays.

Each of the floating cameras, strategically placed around New Sol, were activated and ready to go.

"The ships have just entered the atmosphere and they are approaching to fast to land normally." His stomach bubbled with anticipation. He'd assumed the order had discovered him, this was something else.

Hadrian scanned the large wall of monitors, each one displayed a different scene from around New Sol.

"There." He said, pointing at one of the cameras. On his monitors were two ships marked with the insignia of the order, one was an imperial cruiser while the other remained unidentified. "I need to know what I'm dealing with Kat."

"The cruiser seems to be in pursuit of the smaller ship sir. It appears to be an escape pod that belonged to the vessel chasing it."

"Stop calling me sir, I'm not old!"

"Sorry, sir." Kat didn't laugh but Hadrian assumed that she enjoyed annoying him.

Each ship had seemed to have sustained heavy damage and wouldn't be flying anytime soon.

"Someone must have escaped with the pod while in the Orders custody." Hadrian was ready to burst.

"It does appear that way…Sir."

"You infernal machine, you're not worth the credits." His face was bright red but he spoke to a machine and didn't know what kind of response to make, a rude gesture, raising his voice, he didn't know. So he decided on a mixture of the two. A jumble of words and a wild flailing of his arms was the result.

"The Larger ship will be manned by a crew of ten or so artificial cultivators. I'd advise you to avoid fighting head on if they endure the crash, which they most likely will. Of course, you won't be listening to anything I say will you?"

"Do I ever?" He chuckled a bit and began boasting. "No amount of their false cultivation could prep them for what lies ahead."

"You should at least approach cautiously."

"To hell with that Kat. They interrupted my nap."

Hadrian's mind drifted to the memory of his first time encountering the machines. The remainder of that day enraged him. Their unnatural form of cultivation made a mockery of the art and disgraced any who took advantage of such foolishness. It mocked the very heavens. So many bought into the orders propaganda, promoting their insolence, someday he'd put a stop to that, he'd put a stop to it all by cutting off the head of the snake.

Octavian Zaharias, The Order's Grand Master.

"Why do I try? Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll kill you."

"You deal in statistics. You know that is highly unlikely." His lips curled into a grin. He faced worse odds than that plenty of times. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? I have to help, they deserve it for interrupting me." He hopped back onto his board and headed toward the crash sights, not before grabbing a bottle of his favorite alcohol, Malicoshan fire, the best whiskey in the galaxy.

"They landed in the dunes just north of here."

As Hadrian exited his ship, the hatch shut and the cloaking mechanism kicked in.

Air buffeted him as he soared towards what he could see were two smoking piles of rubble. The ride made a few minutes feel like hours during which he checked his gear. Each crash site was about one hundred meters apart. When he reached the wreckage, as expected, most of the humanoid looking robots stood unharmed in the fire. Hadrian assumed whoever was in the pod didn't fare so well. The soulless machines were still climbing from the debris when he launched his assault.

All the tension inside him was freed as he let out a war cry and rode his hoverboard into battle. He was the embodiment of valor, a knight, and his steed.

Hadrian came in fast. He tapped a button on his wrist again and a section in the front of his board parted, dispersing two flat discs that soared through the air and stuck on two of his foes before they could get to their feet. An explosion rumbled the ground around them, it sent a shockwave that rocked him as well but they were unfazed by the blast altogether.

"Damn, I forgot how tough they can be." Hadrian's adrenaline began pumping, he loved a fight that required a plan, not just brute strength.

These particular androids were called juggernauts. They focused their cultivation on only strengthening their bodies. There are only two ways to take down a juggernaut. Destroy the core which is inside their hardened exterior or drains their qi reserves.

Luckily He had just the thing. He'd have to play this one old school and get his hands dirty. The familiar pressure of His jade colored katana against his spine made him long to wield it, just as it longed for some action itself. His sword was made of the same metal as his ship and loaded with a special form of power that couldn't be mimicked by the Order, nor by any regular cultivator. The Sol bloodline was powerful, to say the least.

plasmablasts erupted from the androids rifles once the smoke cleared and the sand stopped raining down upon them.

"I've engaged the autopilot, your board will evade for you."

Hadrian grinned.

"So glad I stole this thing."

The blasts whistled by, missing him by narrow margins as his board maneuvered. Each time one of the beams streaked by, his heart skipped a beat. The heat of battle mixed with the warm whiskey was a bad combo but he loved it. Everything on the line, nothing held back.

The androids seemed to attack with fervor but Hadrian knew it was impossible. There was no passion inside them, their hearts replaced by cores that fueled pointless murder.

"Need to get closer." He shouted over the wind.

"These Droids only have small qi reserves, not meant for fighting. Wait out the assault and you should be able to."

The moment she stopped talking, so did the plasma blasts. Hadrian remained stationary for a moment. He cocked his head to the side, but not for long.

"they're out?"

"It is possible that withstanding your explosives in addition to the crash required more qi than expected."

Before Hadrian could utter another word his board jerked into motion and only then did he notice the missiles trailing behind him.

"Guess not."

His board made sharp turns and Hadrian felt like a child's rattle.

Nausea tied a knot in his stomach. Acid burned his insides as he choked down the vomit that threatened to erupt.

"I need to stop drinking."

"That you do sir, that you do." Hadrian glared at nothing in particular.

"I can always find a new A.I."

"Sorry, that one was out of habit."

He could never really replace Kat. She wasn't the average A.I. Just as his sword was no regular sword nor his ship a regular ship.

"You cannot outrun the missiles, they are gaining on you."

Hadrian didn't miss a beat planning his next move. Fighting was like chess to him and he had them in checkmate.

"On my mark remove the autopilot and on my word switch the board from evasion mode to defense mode." His words flowed like a well-oiled machine. His orders, short and to the point.

"With all due respect, if I remove autopilot you will be unable to avoid the missiles."

"It is alright I'm tired of running anyway." Tension had a tight grip on him as the end drew near.

"Now." He said and she disengaged the autopilot.

Instead of avoiding the missiles Hadrian aimed himself straight for the Juggernauts. They began gaining on him fast. He could hear the screeching noise. It was like being chased by angry women, only not as terrifying.

"On my word again." Once only about twenty-five meters remained between him and the enemy he said, "Now Kat now!"

His board stopped propelling him and it expanded as he disengaged his mag boots. Hadrian was traveling on sheer momentum and The rockets would make contact in seconds. He flipped the board up to his arm mid-transformation and engaged the magnets there. Once it made contact with his gauntlet it finished expanding into a round shield about six feet in diameter.

Hadrian stared at the interior of his defense. It was the only thing lying between him and death. The adrenaline pumped even faster through his body. His nerves plagued him as he waited to be flung at the androids, they resembled hungry lions awaiting their dinner.

Using the qi he drew from the sun, Hadrian strengthened his body just as the juggernauts did. Two can play that game. The only difference was, his power was natural, not drawn from a machine. Natural qi came from the elements and he just happened to have an affinity to the sunlight due to his heritage, there was quite a bit of that to go around. He was empowered as the warm rays penetrated his skin, his muscles grew as did his cocky demeanor.

He braced himself for contact and when the missiles hit, his body was hurled through the air. He spun his body so that his shield faced his enemies, deflecting the hail of plasma bolts.

His shield acted like a bowling ball with his enemies as pins. When ten meters remained the hail of blue fire ceased and victory was his. They were out of power.

Hadrian's shield completely obliterated six of the juggernauts on his way through. It was a hectic scene of fire, sand, and metal body parts erupting into the air. He recovered from the impact because of his amped-up body but it would be sore later that day.

With another wave of liquid excitement coursing through his veins he dispatched the remaining androids with his blade and shield, he moved like a storm, a tempest of swirling death. His sword ending the last one with a thrust through its chest where its core slept, drained of power.

The final android thumped quietly to the ground and stirred a small cloud of sand.

Hadrian was just about to sheath his weapon when a single gunshot went off. He deflected the bullet, just barely and found a single red dot hovering over his heart.

A Feminine voice resounded in his head.

"Move and you die."