Leaning back in his chair to get the blood flow to circulate around the back of his brain, Zackery Taylor mentally formulated his strategies for taking on Exoudica, real name: Chen lo Phun. Three months of training all leading up to this moment.

First he was going to execute a gunship rush, since gunships were hard counters to reavers, which his Korean opponent built in the early game in 65% of his matches. If Zack didn’t outright force a concede at that point then from there it would become a game of pick offs, trades and snipes that was normally the mid-game, although Zack did plan on getting battle cruisers with long range bombardment cannons a few minutes early for better harass potential on his opponents economy.

Outside of his booth, the casters talked about the metagame of Empires Collide at length but it wasn’t even a scratch on it’s surface by comparison of how deep into it any of the competitors had delved in order to make it to the round of eight at the spring quarterly cup.

Then the conversation shifted to Zack personally, one of the casters argued that his increased skill level was due to some kind of advanced cybernetic brain augment. Although such inventions were not unheard of by current earth tech, they were expensive and so only the higher castes took them. Akma appeared out of his portal and said that if there truly was a cybernetic implant giving a competitor an unfair advantage then it would be far more obvious.

Although in truth his service to Akmadouric’s army had only repaired the minor defects of his body. Zack’s reaction times increased by a tenth of a second and his correct decision making skills increased by 13%. He was still entirely human.

The loading screen for the match, the bar slowly filled. Zack took deep breaths and expertly calmed himself in spite of the fact that a million dollars was on the line.

The game began, and his starting planet appeared in the center of the screen. Immediately he set up a rudimentary economy as was standard, but focused more on minerals than on energy production. He got out a basic scout ship and sent it out to find his opponent’s starting point. Emission trails from harvesters led it to Exoudica’s planet. Zack produced a pair of gunships and sent them out to attack. It took a minute for them to travel through the void between systems. Upon their arrival they immediately took laser fire from the planet’s moon. And Zack immediately had the gunships turn around.

Exoudica had gotten an early moonbase. Zack paused and considered the implications. His Korean opponent was using a brand new build on him. Not good, but at least his opponent was showing him respect by taking him seriously. Zack dropped everything he was doing and focused on getting an expansion. Taking control of another system to bolster his economy into the mid-game.

Just as the fifteen minute mark of the game’s timer struck, an Archon class heavy battleship made it’s way towards Zack’s home base. Supported by no less than three shield drones and two light cruisers. For such an assault force to make it’s appearance at this stage, it was quite the death push. To see such a thing before the 21 minute mark meant that Exoudica had every intention on winning the game with it. And would probably succeed. Zack calmly weighed his options and finally decided to rush production on the grand project; the orbital defense ring. His entire workforce took triple shifts and finished it just as Exoudica’s forces came within range.

The golden ring that wrapped around the planet began to glow as the firing sequence initiated. The energy coalesced into a cone in front of it and gathered into a single point, then a wave of golden fire burst from it’s tip and an artificial solar flare flew through space at half the speed of light.

Exoudica’s forces immediately stopped their forward advance and took an evasive 90 degree turn. The shield drones used the heavy battleship for cover and overcharged it’s shields in preparation for the impact. The light cruisers sped on ahead in order to avoid the blast completely. Zack lost sight of the Archon battleship as the edge of the 100,000 mile in diameter fireball engulfed it.

The light cruisers rushed Zack’s planet and were met by swarms of drones. Each unmanned spherical craft maneuvered their electromagnetic skimmers in complex formations and patterns as they closed in. Anti-fighter turrets shot large area of effect rounds and white puffball like explosions appeared within the approaching metal cloud. But with Zack’s ability to control large groups of units, their effectiveness was minimized to only a few hundred drones out of the thousands. The three light cruisers were in a tight formation in order to reduce the amount of exposed surface area and the swarm of drones enveloped them. Close range laser beams drilled into the weak points of the light cruisers five foot thick hulls, yet still they pressed forward. Exoudica knowingly sacrificing them for a chance at destroying the orbital defense ring.

Zack ignored the battle and focused on finding the Archon heavy battleship that had disappeared in a very large and very bright chaff cloud that distorted the readings of all but the most advanced senors. A few of his excess drones formed a net and flew into the cloud. It didn’t take long before one of them were destroyed by the heavy battleship. And thus giving the orbital defense ring the location of it’s target. He glanced at the timer until the grand project could fire again ‘Fifteen seconds’.

Then he sent his gunship and one maned fighter fleet to intercept. Immediately the Archon heavy battleship opened fire with a dozen plasma repeater rail cannons.

Zack remained calm and detached but one corner of his mind screamed ‘How do you have all this shit at this point in the game?’

Without any hope of outright destroying the battleship while under that much damage per second, Zack set the mission parameters to the suicide setting. The fighters and the gunships fired their munitions and accelerated to their highest speeds. The blue plasma vaporized whole ships instantaneously before they even reached a range in which they could fire accurately. Only eighteen fighters and three gunships successfully collided with the the battleship’s hull. But it was enough to damage it’s engines, leaving it immobile and at the mercy of the approaching artificial solar flare.

Exoudica waited until all of his ships were destroyed to type ‘GG’ and concede. Zack sat back and took deep breaths. His team entered his booth and they talked about the match and made suggestions for going into the next one. Zack had won the first match of the best of seven he and Exoudica were going to play for the crowds.

Sight came first. Dim white globes of light were attached to silver things and rested on a dark floor. Then sound, garbled chattering that he couldn’t make sense of. Then feeling, his knuckles stood on the powdered soil below. And finally Hroyd’s thoughts came back to him and he was whole again. Transitioning from the spiritual ether to the world of solid matter and flesh was always unpleasant with him not even able to remember his own name, what common everyday objects were or what the sounds that produced speech meant. Temporarily losing the ability to think was an experience he had never gotten used to.

Hroyd walked on the tips of his claws towards the other low-tierman that were taking part in the next raid group. There was the usual assortment of bizarre alien creatures, from amorphous slime creatures to furry flame wielding rodents. And at the head of the thirty person raid party was mid-tierman Kerink, who had just returned after three months of personal time off.

With all of the members of the raid group arrived, she started the briefing with a bored expression on her face but there was a new fire within her four yellow eyes “Today we will be scouting and clearing sector A34. Divide up into five man squads and be sure that all roles are filled and that all your abilities work together cohesively. I will there be as a shock trooper for whatever unit that gets in trouble.”

The members of Hroyd’s usual group found each other. Which included a dark green slime creature that forcibly reminded Hroyd of sewer sludge. Behind the thing stood a humanoid in a gray suit that covered him from head to toe, he wore a mask and carried a gun hosed up to several large canisters on his back.

Already on Hroyd’s back sat a gray invertebrate with placid skin and many…appendages with sharp tiny pincers on them. Instead of eyes or the usual sensory organs it had soft red fronds. The Kulabv warrior had been researching many strange creatures and some of the strangest lived in aquatic environments. Now he was partnered with one.

And finally the large human Rifleman Becker in his bulky metal armor elected himself leader of their mismatched team. Prominent chest and shoulder plates made for respectable protection. Jet engines were attached to his back and feet. In has hands he held a laser rifle and attached to his thighs were a pair of smaller caliber laser pistols for backup.

After the groups had finished assembling, a coordinator sphere appeared above them all.

Kerink shouted so the whole crowd could hear “The coordinator for this mission will be a human from Earth named Luke T. Ace. While his orders are not absolute because you know what you are capable of more than he is, keep in mind that at all times he will have more information than any of you about the lay of the field.”

Another human. After meeting all of these intelligent creatures from so many species, it left him with a longing to see but a single member of his own people. Had Hroyd known that this would have someday become his reality. He would have cherished the days of sparring with his brethren and the deep resonating songs from the Kulabv priests even more than he had. He would have immersed himself in the priest’s teachings in order to preserve the memory of their spiritual ether worshiping ways.

Hroyd blinked hard to bring himself out of his memories and began to march ahead of his group in order to begin his scouting mission. After traveling for a few miles he picked up a scent using his biokinetically enhanced nose. As always it stung from whatever had been done to the soil, but he managed to catch a whiff of a husk. Somehow the Akma network transferred the knowledge of him following a scent trail automatically to the Coordinator. He slowed his approach as it grew stronger and began to stalk through the cracks between the now dead roots. He augmented the soles of his feet and the tips of his talons so that they wouldn’t make a sound, even to his finely tuned ears.

Then he saw his quarry. The husk of a Kulabv warrior ambled without any of the litheness of a real one. Hroyd waited until it passed along the opposite wall, then jumped straight into the air using his arms. His lesser claws on his feet landed on the husk’s back and dug in and changed to hook themselves in it’s flesh. He brought his arms down and the larger talons on his hands came down and penetrated the flesh between the husk's ribcage. Hrody dragged his claws outward and sliced through it's vital organs, killing it instantly.

A blue screen flashed in front of his eyes

+100 favor

Whenever he earned favor it was an annoyance. A constant reminder that he couldn’t spend it to gain the ability to shoot flames out of claws or anything. His physiology was too unstable and he would have to give up his biokinetic abilities in order for it to even be possible, and even then the chances for success were very low. Furthermore he wouldn’t be able to spend the favor on reviving any of his fellow Kulabv brethren until Akmadouric gained dominance over this dimension. Whatever that was, he still couldn’t grasp the meaning of the word. But from Akma’s never ending explanations he knew that with every foe slain the blue giant’s task became easier.

His nose picked up something very strange in the direction he was scouting but he didn’t detect any more husks. So he waited for the rest of the group to catch up before he ventured into the cavern where the source came from. As quietly as possible he crept and enhanced his sense to their maximum sensitivity. Strangely he could have sworn this cavern was much bigger in his memories. He sat still as he tried to figure out the answer to the problem but then all of a sudden the wall on the far end moved. Then he could clearly see that it was made of the very same black corrupted flesh.

A message from the coordinator flashed across his eyes “Continue scouting.” Hroyd pressed his lips together in annoyance and remained where he was while thinking ‘Damn boy would happily sacrifice me for just a little bit more information. I’ve seen how you play those games like Zackery Taylor. I’ve seen how expendable you treat your units.’

Another message popped up “The other members of the raid group will be there within one to five minutes.” and Hroyd made his way to a better vantage point.

He caught glimpses of the creature’s long body. A few fins here and two tails there. It’s body was covered in dark violet corrupting spikes. Eventually he managed to identify the creature from what few subtle clues he had. It was a Hkvarksh, an aquatic creature that he thought only existed in legends. A shame that his first time seeing one was marred by the fact that it had been corrupted.

The other members of his squad entered and the beast reared it’s perfectly round head to look at them. The Hkvarksh’s eyes were large and bulbous. It’s four thin arms came out from it’s neck, each ending in webbed hands. Becker immediately took the initiative and shot it in the head. The creature hissed and twisted it’s long body. Rising into the air, something caused each of it’s tentacles to bulge and then pods came out of each of them and fell to the ground.

Smaller versions of the Hkvarksh emerged from the eggs and the present raid members present wasted no time. They attacked immediately. The slime charged to the front and the man with the canister on his back sprayed it with a white foam from his gun. The slime tripled in size and engorged the Hkvarksh spawnlings, which were smaller versions of their parent. The amorphous being crushed, bent and broke the spawnlings inside itself. From the personal briefing Hroyd knew the canisters to be filled with compounds that the slime could use.

Hroyd joined the fray, and the gray invertebrate on his back shocked him lightly, thus giving him the signal that it was about to start using it’s electrical blast attacks. So he modified the fur on his back in such a way so that the creature wouldn’t harm him. White lightning arced out of it’s pincers as it channeled the energy all throughout it’s body.

The slime creature began to change colors, from green to yellow. Then quickly rolled over to a group of hatching spanwlings that were too close together. It began to sink and the ground hissed as the now acidic body of the slime moved. Hroyd could see the spawnlings that entered it dissolve. Their paper thin skin disappeared immediately, muscles were eaten away almost as quickly and the organs went the slowest. Leaving the inert skeletons floating inside of the amorphous creature that defied reason.

Becker forced out a chuckle as he looked over at the melting spawnlings and said through the communication network “Ya know, I been waitin’ a very long time for corrosive weaponry to enter the battlefield.”

Hroyd had seen it before and cringed every time. But for Becker to have a such an attitude towards such a horrible method of killing reminded Hroyd why he was grateful to be on the same side as the man.

Just as Becker was getting done with his laugh, a horrified expression crossed his face “Watch ou-!” but Hroyd was already using all of his strength to jump. There were no spawnlings around him, which meant the attack was coming from above. Several rows of razor sharp teeth converged around him as the Hkvarksh itself tried to take a bite out of him.

Hroyd’s jump wasn’t high enough. The gray invertabrate used the upward momentum to ascend even higher and farther away from the teeth that enclosed around Hroyd’s mid section. Immediately he activated the first of the two skills that he had bought using his favor.

Accelerated Spiritual Ether conversion Description: Quickly enter the spiritual ether. Usable as an effective escape mechanic. Time to complete: 0.18 seconds Willpower cost: 25 Requires: Spiritual Ether in current dimension

The teeth pierced him by several inches but he had already entered the Spiritual Ether before the beast could do anything worse. His body instantly became like the energy around him. Like the green soothing void that spanned in every direction. He checked for any of the gray clouds of corruption that he had heard about from Akma. Inexplicable to all who had studied his home dimension’s Spiritual Ether, there wasn’t a single hint of corruption in spite of the estimated time in which Ulgroth had taken over. Hroyd had not a doubt in his mind that it was due to the Kulabv people.

He floated amid the ether, watching as the energy flowed into the holes in his body that the creature had given him.

Back in the world of flesh, Hroyd could only imagine what was going on as the battle progressed. His invertebrate partner that rode upon his back had probably latched onto something within the Hkvarksh’s throat and began to deliver the strongest shocks that it could muster. Maybe the slime would be able to grab a hold and melt through it. Maybe Becker would decide to battle the whale sized creature in the air after the spawnlings got under control.

There really weren’t too many scenarios that Hroyd could see in which the raid group lost against the creature, even without the Mid-tierman Kerink’s help. And the Ether reformation would take a bit more time before he could shift back to his fleshly form in one piece.

Rather than float in the green void, he followed the thread attached to his center of being. He passed through multiple barriers set up by Akmadouric in order to prevent certain types of attacks from hostiles. But from Hroyd’s perspective they appeared as nothing more than intermittent flashes of yellow. The green void changed to a greenish-blue after he passed through one of the barriers, which meant that he had traveled through to another dimension while in the Spiritual Ether. The green void changed several more times, to lighter or darker greens mostly. And then he came upon then end of the thread.

Then he activated the second skill that he had bought from the favor market.

Spirit form-Contractor link Enables an Eidolan to view the base world where the Contractor resides. The link can be opened further to allow communication. Requires: A bonded contractor

Hroyd voiced his thought’s aloud even though no one could hear him “I’d best open the link slowly. Zack wouldn’t like it if I appeared out of nowhere and surprise him. Especially if he’s doing something embarrassing. Wouldn’t want to make that mistake twice.”

He opened the link incrementally until he got a vision of the boy with whom he shared a consciousness deep bond. Zack was in a room that Hroyd had never seen before. Doing his rituals for focusing his mind prior to high stress matches.

“Oh, that’s right. Today is the day that the boy takes part in his precious tournament. I may as well watch him play his game, since it’s important to him.”