Chapter 6 – ArthrosPsyatic Output = 10,000 Bio-units

  Synaptik = Unbound

  Arthros climbed out of the fighting pit and sed the dark horizon for an outline of his HWND. He was itg to get back to The Reckless and study what little data Zero might have found. His iion with Jericho would have given her enough data for a more accurate s of his brain.

  He looked around for the HWND; Zero had only left his shoulder a few moments ago.

  “Zero, I’m ready. Where are you?” he thought.

  There ause before her voitered his mind’s ear, “I’m here.”

  The Heared from behind a rge outcrop of stos humanoid frame looked around for a moment, before it took a couple of bounding leaps toward him. The pulse engines oher shoulder ignited briefly to give it ara lift, and the mech easily cleared the dista nded in a partial squat directly in front of him, knees flexed to absorb the nding, and the ground trembled from the impabsp;

  A small lizard close by was startled, and it gave the HWND an angry hiss before disappearing behind a rge stone.

  Arthros stowed the Skarthkas and grabbed hold of the HWND’s extended arm. With an athletic swing, he whipped himself around the HWND’s torso, and onto its babsp;

  Arthros climbed into the cockpit and eagerly pressed himself into the biosyic mold. He took manual trol of the HWND and flew into the air, breaking through the cloud line. A small, yellow light glowed in his view—a virtual indicator of The Reckless’ position. He shot toward the bea.

  “You’re certain he is worth it?” Zero asked.

  “No, but he has potential.”

  “As did the others, acc to you.”

  He reactivated the somatosensory receptors, and instantly felt the rushing wind on his face as he soared through the sky. It felt good after being iagnant pit.

  “The others weren’t unbound, and he definitely has some Klethonian blood.”

  “And that’s enough for you to make a decision?” Zero sounded irritated.

  She was skeptical, which was uandable. There was a limit to what she could pute, and she cked the intuition that a biological had. Arthros thought back to the human’s fiden the pit, and his tenacious determination in the Med ter.

  “He has an insatiable desire to be better than he is.”

  “I suppose that could be powerful,” Zero admitted.

  Arthros nodded, “Or self-destructive.”

  “Well, he still o survive the iion. His psyatic output was terrible regardless of his psymetra limits,” she said.

  Arthros didn’t reply. If the young human had his braied like the others, then it would be a disappointing flight back to Hokku.

  Before long, they were back at the nding pad. The Reckless was almost invisible in the night’s darkness. Arthros nded in front of the ship and opehe cockpit door. As the biosyic mold loosened, he pulled himself out of it a backward. Even at his height the drop from the massive mae was signanifct, and his feet stung when they nded on the pacted soil.

  He g the small office building on the far side of the nding bay. A small window glowed from its interiht.

  “Stay active. If the workers here reported the killing, a Corpos patrol could be here at any time,” he muttered to Zero.

  “Yes Arthros.”

  He strode up The Reckless’ loading ramp, which was lowered and waiting for him. He filled his lungs with the fresh air cirg through the ship. He was happy to be rid of Kleth’altho’s stend grime.

  He strode to his quarters at the back of The Reckless, and brushed his fingers against the braided hammock as he walked into the room.

  Soon he would sleep. He eased himself into the chair by his desk, and in response a pale, white globe materialized. It hovered above the desk’s surface, slowly rotating.

  He tapped on a few keys at the desk and the globe ged to resemble Kleth’altho. He touched the hologram's surface, and the image ged again to dispy his current location. After a few more maniputions, he was able t up a view of the fighting pit, and beside it was a list istered fighters.

  Jericho Hound’s name was he bottom of the list.

  He touched the name and the information that fshed in front of him wasn’t very helpful—basic statistics of his weight, height, past fights, and a physical description. There was no family history or listed residence.

  Arthros frowned. He flicked his wrist on the s and the hologram ged again, back to an image of the pit. He typed Jericho’s name on the surface of the desk. He didn’t e up in the registry.

  “Zero, cross-referehe statistics from the fighter registry with the citizery of all humans with the first name Jericho.”

  “Dohere are four matg the same description—two retly deceased, one in a region oher side of the p...”

  “And the fourth?”

  The holographic image shifted, and the portrait of a young boy stared at him—the childhood version of Jericho.

  “That’s him.”

  “There is no record of him existing past age seven.”

  “Well, the corporations aren’t famed for being great record keepers,” Arthros admitted.

  “No, but any purchase would have automatically updated the registry. Kleth’altho citizens are required to wear chips,” Zero reminded him.

  Arthros’ spines quivered, “Someone removed it.”

  “Removal of chips is sidered a federal offense.”

  He tapped the tips of his teeth together as he stared at the child’s face—a wide smile, eager eyes, and shaggy red hair.

  Someone wahis little boy invisible.

  “Must have been his parents,” he said quietly.

  “His mother, a torpe addict, was retly admitted to a house in the neighb region.”

  He narrowed his eyes as the image shifted to a woman. Her skin hung loose on her face, and it was covered with open sores and scabs. Her eyes sunk deep into her head, and her chapped lips were scarred. Her hair was the only healthy thing about her appearance, and it shone like spilled blood.

  “And his father?” Arthros asked.

  “A pledged sve—engineer division. Lucas Riley.”

  The woman’s face ged, repced by the portrait of a skinny man, with ly cropped blonde hair, and aged skin. He shared the same, naturally defiant expression as Jericho. Arthros leaned closer to the image. There was something very familiar about the man.

  “Riley…” The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t remember why. Perhaps he had met the human before, though he didn’t reize his fabsp;

  “Strange, Lucas Riley is recorded as a pledged sve, but the name Riley was added years ter. Additionally, he was brought into svery outside of a pledge year,” Zero noted.

  That was rare, but it did happen. Criminal cases were the only exception. He was more ied in the name.

  A sudden thought struck him, and a pit formed in his stomach. “What was his name before?”

  “Redacted, unauthorized information,” Zero replied.

  Arthros snorted. He was a HWND ahere wasn’t any information that was unauthorized from him. Before he could pry, the hologram fshed and chimed out a warning. Arthros let out a groan.

  “Ining transmission. It’s the Admiral,” Zero warned.

  He smoothed the spines on his head and took an irritated breath. “Put her through.”

  The hologram shifted and a Hokkonian face appeared. Her grey skin ale and speckled with dark spots. Her white eyes stared at him coldly, and he was sure her spines would be erect if it weren’t for the decorated cap she wore on her head.

  “Admiral, I thought I specifically requested not to be tacted on my vacation,” he said in an amicable tone.

  The Admiral snorted, “Any requests were dehe moment you deactivated your locator. You’re lucky I didn’t send a unit to haul you back the moment you went dark.”

  He fshed a dangerous smile, “We both know how that would have gone.”

  The Admiral’s nostrils twitched, and she gave him an irritated gre. “There’s been a perimeter breach.”

  He raised a hairless brow, “And? We have tless every day. Just send the patrol to intercept.”

  The Admiral’s face twitched, “I did. They were…eliminated.”

  He froze, “A full patrol?”

  “Half.”

  “Half of a Navy patrol?” he ventured.

  Please let it be a Navy patrol.

  The Admiral ched her jaw, “No, HWNDs. wo Novawolves.”

  No!

  “We haven’t lost a HWND in over four years!” he leaned ba his chair, and it creaked under his movement. “Where?”

  “the Storm, along Kleth’altho’s border.”

  He scoffed, “That’s impossible. There’s nothing ing out of there.”

  She shook her head, “There was. Remember that scout ship we intercepted a week ago? I was just going over the i report when I got the news of a perimeter breach.”

  “So, you sent a couple of HWNDs to check it out.”

  She nodded, “Sed division—Sratho and Mdios. They were good pilots.”

  Arthros cursed, he khem. Sratho was a good-natured soldier, and always kind to Arthros’ divisioe their races. Mdios he never cared for, but it still hurt to lose pilots.

  “You’re sure they’re dead?”

  The Admiral nodded again, “We got the termination message from their AI. I want you to go check it out.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut and knuckled his forehead out of frustration. “My vacation just started. Send a full patrol. They’ll have a better shot at it than just one pilot.”

  She gave him a ft stare, “Don’t fish for pliments, Arthros. It’s beh you.”

  “I wasn’t–” He bared his teeth and smoothed the spihat threateo shoot up. “If it’s an order…”

  “It is. You’re the only one who ha.” The Admiral signed off, and her image winked out of view.

  He was left staring at the wall behind his desk, w his jaw as he fought the urge to smash his fists into the sole. Sure, his trip to Kleth’altho wasly authorized, but he thought there was an unspoken agreement. He ime off. He was going insane on that wretched p.

  “That is the duty of a pilot,” Zero respoo his thoughts.

  “Don’t lecture me, Zero. Please.” He pushed himself out of his chair and grabbed the Skarthkas that he had leaned against the wall beside him.

  “Load up the HWND,” he anded.

  He felt The Reckless shift and groan as Zero maneuvered the HWND onto the ship’s bad loaded itself into the holding partment.

  “I’ve uploaded the coordinates Admiral Zludikai sent over,” Zero said.

  He walked over to the cockpit and colpsed into the navigation chair. A small holographic map appeared in front of him. There was a small, glowing indicator along the Storm’s edge.

  “Has anyone ever been able to traverse the Storm?” he asked.

  “It has been a few geions, but there are records of the neighb species travelling through to meet for trade,” Zero replied.

  Arthros imagihe phenomenon that was the Storm. The thought of travelling through the torrent of charged energy seemed impossible. “After all these years, they e back just to decre war?”

  “They are only described as peaceful, reserved, and weak.”

  He snorted, “Until now. If they get through the Storm, that alone makes them dangerous.”

  The Storm was supposed to be imperable. With the Snty’s thinning popution, they relied oorm as a natural barrier.

  “We’ll have to fortify that perimeter,” Zero said.

  He barked out a harsh ugh, “We don’t have the numbers.”

  She didn’t reply. She knew about Hokku’s popution problem better than a was a crisis that the Snty seemed keen to ignore. Once again, their arrogance prohibited them from admitting weakness.

  The Reckless shot into the air as the thrusters fred to life. Within seds, they were rocketing through Kleth’altho’s thinning atmosphere toward the anchored, orbital gate.

  Rows of individual pods made up the ey of the gate, and they were tied together by aromagic field. They circled the p like a ring, enabling them to track all ining and outgoing traffic across the surface of the world.

  Arthros was lost in his own thoughts and didn’t bother to activate the cloak. Let them discover his presence. What were they going to do? He was too distracted to care.

  The anticipation of a human pilot and the apprehension of dead Hokkonian pilots mixed like oil and water, ing into a sloppy paste of emotion that solidified into a cold, bitter rage.

  Whoever was behind the destru of the HWNDs would quickly discover just how dire the sequences of those as would be.

  Within an hour of travel, they arrived at the Storm: an incredible mix of vibrant colors fshing and rolling. The phenomeended for many parsed the Snty had utilized the natural defe offered.

  “S the area, Zero. I’m at the coordinates but I see nothing,” he said.

  “Nothing.”

  He stroked the fttened spines on his head and tapped the tips of his teeth together. “Narrow the s to small debris only.”

  “Nothing.”

  The Storm’s stant i dang lights refleg off the viewport. If Arthros were in a better mood, he would have ehe beautiful show.

  “Narrow again, as small as you go,” he replied.

  After a long pause, Zero said, “Sers have picked up a scrap of metal, measurihan one square inch.”

  Arthros nodded, “Hokkonian steel?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “They should have done a better job of ing up.”

  It didn’t take long to trace the steel’s signature back to the destroyed HWNDs’ core. It was quickly moving back the way they came. Whoever destroyed the mechs had taken the core with them.

  I would have seen something.

  W his gut as he stared bnkly out of the viewport. They weren’t far from their target, but they weren’t closing any distaweehe unknown ship was as fast as The Reckless.

  There wasn’t a ship iar system that could outpa M-42 Novawolf cruiser.

  Arthros felt the ship rock as Kleth’altho’s gravity tried to pull them in. He didn’t realize that they had already made it back. With a flick of a switch, the ship’s anti-orbitals engaged and The Reckless righted itself immediately.

  “Any further and we’ll enter Union space.”

  He grunted. He almost fot that the Union had a station not far from Kleth’altho’s orbit.

  “Once we’re in range, warn them about what’s ing,” Arthros instructed.

  Within moments, a cube-shaped structure appeared in the distance. He hated the dark green tint of its exterior.

  “I sent a warning code. No respo.”

  Arthros grunted again, eyeing the star map in front of him. The HWND core stopped moving as it reached the station. The intruder must have been hiding behind the station’s mass.

  “It’s there,” he growled.

  “Still no response.”

  “Of course not.” He dug his fingers into the armrest of his chair.

  The station was famously undermanned, but there was someone onboard. There had to be. He could feel the hum of its life support systems from here.

  He scowled at a friendly greeting that ainted in rge white letters, visible on all sides of the cube. The faded words were written in the Union’s universal nguage, but Arthros could read it well enough. Beh the greeting was a five-digit bination that made up the unication key for the station.

  “Hail the station on a 49673 broadcast,” Arthros instructed.

  Another pause as Zero tried, “No response.”

  Arthros smmed his fists into the ter sole, and he could feel his spines fluttering on his skin. “Try again.”

  “Nothing.”

  He let out an irritated hiss. All he had to do was fly forward. He could check behind the station, or even cle s the structure. Both would probably allow him to identify the invader. Yet, both options were strict viotions of their treaty.

  Patrols required permission to enter Union space, and cle ss were a viotion of privacy. If he wao give the Snty ammunition to get rid of him, that would be a quick way to do so.

  “We’ll broadcast on an open el, then.” He leaned forward to speak into the embedded microphone on the sole. “Terminus 14, this is Arthros One, ander of the eighth HWND division. Do you read?”

  He fought desperately to keep his anger in check. A fight with the Union would only cause problems iure, but the longer he was met with silehe more he loo obliterate the ugly green structure.

  “Terminus 14, this is Arthros One, ander of the–”

  “Terminus 14, here,” a feminine human voice responded. “How I help you?”

  She spoke between heavy breaths, but there wasn’t an apologetie to her voice. Rather, she seemed a Arthros for calling.

  “Is there a reason my unication attempts have been ignored?” he asked.

  “Staff ge. My name is Cyprus Atik. I’m a Senator. Terminus 14 will be under my and for the foreseeable future.”

  Arthros’ face twitched. Was she lying to him? There were ors on these stations— certainly not so far from the core.

  “I don’t care who you are. I don’t tolerate my time being wasted. I was trag a ship; it led me here,” he growled.

  “I’m sorry, sir. Is the Grand cil of the Dromedar Union a waste of your time? I report directly to them, after all.”

  Arthros wao crush her throat with his fist at the saccharine sound of her voice. “The ship—I tracked it here.”

  “There’s ne ship here. Only my Union Cruiser, and a Badger Css 2 shuttle for my crew.” she replied.

  He stared at the indicator; it hadn’t moved from its spot. “I’ll be ing aboard to take a look.”

  “No, you won’t,” she replied calmly.

  Arthros snorted, “You don’t have any right to deny me passage. I’m a pilot.”

  “It doesn’t matter, aerminus 14 belongs to me now and is sidered a sanctuary for the citizens of the Union. If you take oep on board, the Union will reize your as as an act of war,” the womaed.

  Arthros’ eyes widened, “That’s ridiculous.”

  “As ag captain of Terminus 14, my decisions are my own, regardless of how ridiculous you might find them.”

  For a moment, Arthros didn’t know what to do. He had never experiehis much pushback from another person before, and he didn’t even have the freedom to correct her disrespect. His blood boiled, and his spied, but there was nothing he could do.

  “The ship you are harb is guilty of murder and is wanted by the Snty,” he growled. “You’ll be sidered guilty by association.”

  “There is no ship, ander.”

  The unicatio dead, and Arthros allowed himself a few seds of unbridled rage. He screamed and cwed at the spihat tehe fabric around his arms. He tore at white cloth and bared his teeth in a snarl. He imagined ripping the woman’s head off with slow deliberation. The outburst sted only a few moments, and when the rage subsided, the floor was littered with the tattered shreds of his clothing. His arms were bare.

  “I’m impressed you didn’t open fire,” Zero mused.

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, exhaling slowly through his slit nostrils. “The Union has been stirring up trouble tely. I’m beginning to think she’s been the root cause.”

  “Perhaps. She did speak boldly.”

  He grunted, “We’ll report to the Admiral that the Union is harb the ihen, we let the Snty figure out what to do.”

  “I doubt you’ll approve of their decision. They often disappoint you.”

  “That’s putting it lightly.”

  He steered the ship around and input the coordinates of Jericho’s pit into the navigation puter. There was a ge of pns. Jericho was ing with him regardless of his choice. He didn’t have time to sit around and wait.