Chapter 13. On the way to the egg. Arc 1 Space exploration.

Act 1 (Warrior-Crocthor Alligaanna) Origin Galaxy.

We Krogars, a race unlike the lofty elder races or soft other races keep with our baser instincts! Wem from the swamp and heat of our home world still hunt those stronger than us! For they are the key to our greater strength!

Now me and my War Bask! Come into this human vessel hunting for the elder races within! And maybe if some of the tougher servant races of the elders were on board I wouldn't mind enjoying their flesh.

I snickered to myself, sounding like a rough un-oiled chainsaw. As I two others exited the large, white, segmented, decorated alloyed corridor we were left standing in a nesting hall.

Infront of the weakest elder race, and he was a child! I laughed strongly followed by my small Bask, and then the younger of our group walked forward clawing a mark on his chest. I nodded at his courage.

(Krogar youth) I! Crocsmith of broodmother Alligatrixy challenge you, Human! To single combat! Honor me with blood or death!

After his challenge he charged with an ancestra-war-spear at hand, his spike spitter holstered. Poor choice, his blood lust taking too much of him over, even if he defeats this Elder he would not last long, if he doesn't balance his blood lust and cunning.

(Abyss) I am Abyss, and I accept, Pirate of the Light-stricken sea.

The Human actually accepted! I stopped the remaining youth with me from charging too. As I watched as the unblooded on my watch thrusted his Ancestral-war-spear with both hands making the recycled air sing.

But what I saw surprised and made me hunger. As the young human effortlessly redirected the powerful thrust using his bare flesh forcing the wayward unblooded to pierce a table and stumbled forward showing his back and writing his own death sentence.

The sentence did not come, as I saw the human quickly pull out one of those, a cursed, lightning sticks! With one swift motion the unblooded laid twitching on the floor, defeated and alive, shaming himself and his bloodline.

Then the human looked toward me and my remaining ward. Who was looking eager but, I in the wisdom of living longer finally understood what stood before us. So I pushed the unblooded back down the corridor we came in and yelled.

(Crocthor Alligaanna) Run! Tell the others! Oogwaian Martial Priest! Grr!

I saw as the unblooded youth ran for his life as he feared my menace too much to endure confusion. I turned around and saw the Human just finishing placing bindings on the shameful sack of flesh.

I aimed my bone spitter and readied my resolve as I roared my challenge.

Act 2 (Star of the Abyss) Origin galaxy. Starlight sea.

(Krogar Warrior) I am Crocthor! Hear my challenge!

The reptilian humanoid pirate roared, as he started shooting at me with his advance, crossbow rifle. The bolts were large, long, jaggedly pointed spikes.

And from the psionic essence I can feel from the bolts there purely organic, maybe a branch of a metal rich tree or a part of an alien animal.

But still, it did not matter, as a dozen foot long javelins tried to pierce my flesh, they all missed. as I walked towards the Krogar in a steady pace, not rushing or deliberately slowing my strides.

(Krogar Warrior) Kluk! Damn! On guard Human!

I saw and heard as the crossbow rifle ran out of its ammo, the sound of it made the Krogar warrior yell another challenge as he pulled out a primitive yet psionically rich War-Spear.

The shaft was made out of some kind of polish stone, decorated with symbolic etchings, cloth, and bone pieces. While the bladed tip was the sharpened fang of some kind of gigantic predator.

Sister Maria might want it. With thoughts like those, I spoke to accept his challenge as he charged at me.

(Star of the Abyss) I accept.

A thrust aimed at my neck was his first answer, and then my chest and then my knee. He was good, unlike the young krogar I first faced, this one was experienced, he did not commit his strikes, keeping me from countering.

But that also meant every strike he made was far easier to evade, his attacks were his own defense, but as I saw he did another thrust that would transition into a cut. I made my move.

A strong kick to his chest, broke his relentless attack. His cut parried, with a kick, he was good enough to block my strike, but it did stumbled him.

With his stance ruined, I moved forward and struck with my palm, which was once again blocked by the spear's shaft. He grunted, the air from his cold blooded lungs escaping his powerful jaw.

As I throw my third strike, aiming for the base of his neck to end the fight. He swung with unsteady might, further unbalancing himself. The strike aimed to remove my head from my shoulders.

Sloppy. That was my thought as I redirected the spear higher, forcing him to swing at air, and falling front first. He would have caught himself with a foot if I wasn't his dance partner.

With his own momentum and my own, I forced my fist into his chest. "Creek!" ending the fight. He slumped fully "Thud." falling jaw first, I saw blood pulling in his eyes. As he looked at me.

I felt him, his fear, his pain, his pride? And. . .joy? Why would he feel this way? I cannot ask, as even I did, I don't think he can answer but I still did. As I picked up his war spear he dropped, feeling the power and weight within it.

I placed it near him, as I sat down next to him, the fight might have only lasted a handful of minutes but it did shorten my breath.

(Star of the Abyss) I. . . why feel happy Crocthor? You're defeated, and I'm sorry, you were too strong for me to hold back on, unlike the younger one from earlier. . . Your insides should have been. . .pulped. I don't think you'll survive it.

I felt his thoughts change, becoming more focused and then I heard rough laughter and then he spoke, his voice becoming weaker and weaker with each word.

(Crocthor the warrior) Why? Why! Because I have been bested by a greater warrior!. . . and my essence would. . . live through you. . . please, take. . . spear. . shaman. . .ahh. . .

I sat there and looked at his eyes and held his scaled arm as he gave me his spear. I saw the moment his soul left him and moved towards the Immaterial sea joining his savage ancestors.

I always hate forcing souls to leave the material realm. . . it has always felt. . . unnatural, something that should never be done. . . but it's always been a necessity. . . I wonder when I would learn a better way.

Those where my last thoughts as I stood up and turned around to face five more of those reptilian pirates, I felt them long ago but they did nothing but watch me as Crocthor gave me his spear. 

I brought my new spear and bared it to the five before me and yelled my challenge, my own essence resonating with the instrument of war. Memories of the past wielders circling my thoughts.

(Star of the Abyss) I am Abyss! I challenge you all! Surrender or be shamed!

Act 3 (Pilot-Dianna Freestyle) Origin Galaxy.

(Krogar warrior) She went that way! Look for the human!

I was hiding right now, being hunted down by Krogar raiders. It all started while I was going to the gym when I heard the alert and almost fell down, because of the impact. But I didn't as I quickly ran towards an emergency bunker.

But then I heard a scream from a corridor and I did something stupid open and took an emergency stun pistol in one of the hidden weapon caches with the ship D-AI's help and then ran towards the sound.

What greeted me was two Padpaws running away from three Krogars. Of course I had to shoot at them, to get their attention. And of course I needed to yell.

(Pilot-Dianna Freestyle) Hey! Pick on someone your own size!

Even as I was yelling that, I was already running, even the smallest of those guys were twice my size! And now we end at me inside a bunker, behind a fake wall, waiting and hoping my hunters don't know how to track.

(Krogar raider) She should be around here. . .

They're so close! That sounded like he was just right infront of her! But then I heard scrambled running and then a yell.

(Krogar raider) Big Game! A Martial master! Fighting Crocthor now! Hurry!

Then I heard as four sets of footsteps ran further and further away. . . who could that be? Then without thinking about it further sent a command to the ships D-AI.

(Pilot-Dianna Freestyle) Tanya. Monitors follow the pirates.

I looked at the screen inside the bunker and then watched as the four krogar that just left her quickly ran towards the ship's meditation room. We usually transport religious folks and especially young Oogwaian's so we converted a storage room into a traditional meditation chapel. 

No Idea why they would go there though. . . is Warsong there? 

I changed the feed and saw that it wasn't Warsong but Abyss! He was seating infront of a downed Krogar. I heard them talking through the monitoring system. . . and they didn't sound like what I imagine soldiers would sound like.

I almost forgot what I was doing, as I listened to them. But then I snapped out of it and yelled in a microphone so I could warn Abyss.

(Pilot-Dianna Freestyle) Abyss! there's Krogars running to you! leave quickly! 

But as I finished my words they were already there, the speaker said my warning and I saw Abyss look at the M-camera and gave me a smile and then turn towards the Krogars.

(Star of the Abyss) I am Abyss! I challenge you all! Surrender or be shamed!

That shaken my bones, as I felt his voice go through me even though I was hearing him through a low sounding speaker. I was watching something out of an action modern wuxia movie!

He was dodging bullets, while walking towards the group Krogar, and as the last of the bullets fired he cut it into two as the two pieces of bolt stuck themselves on the floor.

I held my breath as he spoke and then charged at the krogar, and they did the same. It was a slaughter, with three instantly falling as they reached Abyss first.

He did something with the butt of his spear, that was so fast that the framerate of the monitoring system didn't catch it and only caught the falling Krogars.

I didn't stay to watch the rest of the fight as I went and looked for the two padpaws I saved, better to check if they're safe than stay here. . . besides, the system would record it.

Act 4 (Acolyte Envoy-Maria Skysong) Origin Galaxy.

(Ship D-AI)Alert! Alert. . . Situation resolved. crew, please help with the extraction of the pirate vessel and imprisonment of surviving pirates.

The message repeated every hour as I worked on waking up the rest of the crew, and the captain using the control module in the bridge. Thankfully I rented the ship instead of a simple transport hiring, or I and my delegation would have been stuck in cryo sleep like the others in the ship's icebox.

(Envoy.A.t-Skanna Stackron) Lady Maria. . . is it truly safe?

I heard my assistant ask her voice to tinge with worry and fear. her whole essence, scurrying, wanting to run and hide somewhere tight and safe. Like a borrow or crate.

Sigh. . . I think this is the only weakness of my assistant's race: it's they're inherent meekness. . . I'm confident that if we would have found them a few centuries later they would have become much like humanity. and conquered their main continent, and killed off the majority of their fairly intelligent predators. 

But no. . . we found them in their middle stone age, being only able to survive in big villages because they've found out that building small continuous fires around their homes would drive away most predators.

Be good managers of your resources or die from starvation or aggressive predators. . . Yes, some human factions still believed we should have just let evolution do its work. But no, we did the right thing, uplifting them, and sciencing both their minds and bodies to prepare them for our galaxy.

As my thoughts ran I opened a monitor and asked the D-AI to show us what or who solved the problem. I was a little surprised that it was Abyss. He was securing the pirates he subdued, and then I saw Warsong joining him, they were talking.

(Acolyte Envoy-Maria Skysong) Yes, Skanna, I think we will be fine, now. Can you help me wake up the rest of the crew from cryosleep? I don't think I will go anywhere with that Krogar ship attached to our hull.

I saw the notice on the monitor that the transport ship was currently moving into the orbit of a gas giant. Are solaris engines were automatically going to minimum activity, I looked at the system scan and we were in.

V-Star-033468. A star system discovered by the Vibranty but with no life sustaining planets, and with a common red dwarf, and only having 2 barren planets and a gas giant. even humanity didn't want it, so they built an automatic gas station on the gas giant, solar station and SB-array close to the star. . . and left it as is.

Now we're going towards the gas-station first for some resources and repair, and then towards the SB-array to update it and collect the data it had gathered.

As I worked the systems so that the ship and its many D-AIs would do what was needed. the secured door of the bridge slid open, I saw the pilot named Dianna that Abyss had been trying to befriend entered in her gym clothes, with two Padpaw crew-woman in mechanic attire.

They gave me a bow as they neared.

(Pilot-Dianna Freestyle) Thank you, for handling everything well ma'am, please. We can take it from here, until the captain comes.

I nodded in acknowledgement and handed control of the captains-chair, and said my peace before leaving.

(Acolyte Envoy-Maria Skysong) Of course, I'll be helping with the pirates and rallying my delegation party.

At the mention of my party I saw a visible change in her emotions, oh? I see Abyss had done more than "Befriend" her. Hopefully it wouldn't get too far or else I would need to document the first sexual encounter of an Azul Star Baleen whale. 

The thought made me giggle as me and my assistant left the bridge.

Act 5 (Escort-Warsong) Origin System.

(Escort-Warsong) You know, Abyss, the reason I'm here is to deal with people like them for you, especially with your psionic essence as chaotic as it is.

I waved my thick, webbed, clawed, flipper hands toward, the 5 Krogar youth, who looked like they've died inside and 2 Krogar warriors who were still binded but giving prayers to their lost brother.

(Star of the Abyss) I know Warsong, But they weren't much of a threat, granted if they'd attacked me as a whole warband I would have lost and might have ended up burning the entire ship. Ha ha ha!

The joke was funny, but very much not false. . . if these pirates successfully "killed" Abyss, he would have exploded in a burst of psionic fire and would have purified everyone in this ship.

I'll be fine, because I have been cultivating the path of the honorable blade. . . I can't say for the rest, as even sister Maria had done evil in her earlier life.

I know not the crew, or those who boarded to be transported, with us.

My answer was a pointed gaze, that I was serious. My emotions mirrored my severity, Abyss did not stop laughing even after I showed my seriousness I gave a heavy exaggerated sigh.

(Escort-Warsong) I give up, but atleast call me, as reinforcement before the fight not after it. Alright dreamwalker?

This time he took it seriously and gave me a sincere nod. And then he asked a question as he looked at his prisoners.

(Star of the Abyss) What do we do with them?

I wasn't sure, I have been trained to fight and to better myself through strengthening my flesh, so that I can then house a wise mind and powerful soul.

I had learned many from the memories and words shared by the elder and other acolytes in golden jade sanctuary the but those were old, and I'm not sure what we can do, as I suggest something simple like taking them to the ship's brig.

But then I felt sister Maria, and her assistant as both me and Abyss turned to our side to see her and her assistant Skanna. They were wearing their official envoy-clothes.

(Escort-Warsong) Good! Your here sister, I and Abyss were thinking on what to do with these pirates, I was thinking of handing them off to the first Human military outpost. But I am unsure of your. . . protocols.

I felt her thoughts, of how fast they went. And then the emotions she emitted and then she spoke as I still slowly studied her psionic essence as I'm sure she's doing the same for me and Abyss, as I felt hers and his ambient echoing pulses.

(Acolyte Envoy-Maria Skysong) I would have done the same yet, if I wasn't an human federation envoy, part of the Diplo-Xeno faction.

She gave us a smile after her thoughtfulness disappeared, finalizing a plan in her mind.

(Acolyte Envoy-Maria Skysong) No, we would keep them for now, as I ask my contacts to meet us at the Rose Thorn-12 wormhole. They'll collect them and have them go through rehabilitation. . . I think that's better than leaving them to the Starguard faction to be interrogated and imprisoned for life or returned to their people.

Abyss felt curious at her words, I mirrored him and this made sister answer Abyss's question before he even asked.

(Acolyte Envoy-Maria Skysong) If they are to be returned they'll be executed for shaming themselves, especially after they lost their huntmaster, and they survived.

He looked at the dead Krogar and the now seven krogar that looked like they've given up on life. . . I knew there were people that practiced the death or glory flesh and spirit path, but this was the first time I've seen it practiced this. . . zealously, but it does explain why Abyss was forced to. . . end, their strongest member.

Even now I feel the powerful essence within his soulless body and the weapon Abyss has used to defeat the rest of the pirates. . . I think if I fought the Krogar warrior I would win. . . but I know my shell would have gained more cracks than the one Abyss gave me.

Unlike him I cannot sense the essence within the inanimate, or be able to ask the psionic essence within the air to support my bulky shell to dodge the powerful weapons point.

I looked at Abyss the revelation, darkening his usual bright essence, understandable. as no one trained by us of the golden jade sanctuary would find banishing a soul to the Immaterial sea a pleasant thought.

(Star of the Abyss) I understand.

I placed a supporting claw on Abyss, he was almost as tall as me, a rarity among humanity. He gave me a smile as thanks for my gesture.