Space was like a dark curtain, contrasting with blacks and yellows, and the occasional white, which was shaped as a circle and sometimes a crescent. Thousands of bright stars and planets dotted that curtain in an intricate pattern. Suddenly, a menacing shadow overshadowed the planet of Bremman. It was the shadow of a Capital-Class Helian Cruiser traveling in space. It had a bulbous center section, with gun batteries covering the front, sides and stern and a command tower on the dorsal side. Its engines emitted a sound like the singing of whales, at least inside of the engine room. No sound could be heard in the silent and empty coldness of space.

Helian starships made use of a spice found in the dunes of Nar-Sal as fuel. The so called ‘Hydroastrian Spice’, a pale orange drug-like substance distilled for fuel use, revolutionized space travel four hundred years ago. Whereas starships before would have to travel for whole years, sometimes even a decade, to reach a planet, with the hydroastrian spice starships could accelerate at a constant rate of 1 g, thus making possible for travels between planets to take only a few days, a week at most. This allowed far greater travel between planets and helped in the eventual unification of the entire Helian planetary system under a single government.

On the bridge of the Helian Cruiser, overlooking the thousands of sequin-silver stars, was a lone figure. It was a middle-aged mustached military officer wearing a grey uniform, a command cap and magnetic boots; since the cruiser was floating above the planet rather than accelerating, there was no gravity inside the ship and magnetic boots were vital for withstand the effects of zero gravity. The man's name was admiral Char and he was in command of this cruiser, ‘Arrow’, and its fleet of fighter spacecrafts. Besides him, the bridge was full of tens of officers and technicians, each of them having a different task to ensure that the cruiser and its fighter spacecrafts were well-maintained and ready to carry out whatever orders necessary.

“Admiral,” one of the officers announced, “Commissar Heinrich has arrived.”

“Bring him to the bridge,” Char nonchalantly replied, still gazing at the vastness of space.

A few moments later Heinrich arrived on the bridge. The two men raised their hands, saluting Chancellor Maximilian, before Heinrich went on to explain his situation to the admiral. Even though Heinrich was inferior in military rank to Char, his position in the Unity Party as a commissar meant that he could speak to him as an equal.

“So, that sorceress is still alive?!” Char barked upon hearing Heinrich’s explanation. “You should have notified me earlier!”

Heinrich put on a smile. “My friend, I would have but I sincerely believed that James would kill her and the boy. You can’t blame me for thinking so; his reputation as a sorcerer-hunter is renowned in the entire Helian system.”

“Too bad he didn’t live up to his name. Do you think the shadow hunters you sent will take them out?”

“I am not sure; they have proved to be tougher than expected. That’s why I am here. I want you to ensure that no unidentified vessel can escape the planet. We cannot let them escape.”

Char sighed. “I do not think that this is enough. Too much is at risk. If the shadow hunters fail, I will order a bombardment of Arcadis. It will be far easier than trying to check every ship flying out of the planet.”

“That would be mad!” Heinrich protested. “Beside the military and civilian casualties, such a bombardment would cost us billions in cash and affect trade in the region.”

“We can blame the Alliance for the bombing,” Char retorted. “After all those terrorists already have a terrible reputation, so it won’t be too much of a stretch to blame them for that. As for the human and financial cost, I believe it will be less than allowing this sorceress to escape. Such individuals can tip the balance decisively to our disadvantage.”

“But-“

“I will take full responsibility for this!” Char interrupted him. “If the Chancellor deems my actions too extreme, I will be the one putting my neck on the line.”

“Good. But let us first wait to see if the shadow hunters are able to do their job before rushing to bombing.”

Arcadis was one of the largest spaceports in Bremman. It was surrounded by mountains on the north and west and by forests, like the one through which John and Iris had ventured in order to escape death, on the south and east. Arcadis thus was a natural fortress. This was further reinforced by the fact that the city was protected by a powerful energy shield and tens of anti-aircraft turrets.

John had never been there before but he had heard about the spaceport's wild night life, its rough inns and flourishing trade. Many people, from rogue smugglers to honest merchants, were gathering in the spaceport, either trying to sell their services or wasting their time in the inns. All this activity enriched Arcadis.

John and Iris were walking through the crowded streets of Arcadis. They could hear all kinds of languages and voices as they made their way forward.

“You should go there and buy two guns,” Iris whispered to John while handing him some cash and pointing at a shop. “We better be armed. Come meet me at dock 55. It is to the north of here. You should be able to find it easily.”

“What guns should I buy?” John asked. “And where are you going?”

“Buy two repeating rifles, preferably X-Corp manufactured as they are the best. Buy a shield too for yourself. As for me, I will be meeting the pilot who will take us off the planet.”

John simply nodded in approval. Iris left at once, leaving John alone in the crowded street. All this overwhelming noise and crowd was a bit too much for John. As a farmboy from a small village he wasn’t used to all this. The crowd here had a life of its own. The people were moving like enchanting shoals of fish. There was chatter between sellers and buyers, old friends catching up, new friends made. All these almighty swells of people made John feel a panic rise in his chest in a way that his previous lethal chase at the forest had not.

He quickly made his way to the shop, rushing through the mass of people. He stepped into ‘Lupa’s Emporium'. Lupa was a short old man and when John walked into his shop, he was inspecting a laser rifle. "How may I be of assistance?" the old man asked.

"I want to buy two rifles and a shield."

"I have the right kind of shield for you!" Lupa exclaimed. "It is an X-Corp Shield. Once you activate it, it shall deflect any laser fire coming at you. But be cautious in using it; while it can deflect fire for some time, it will eventually be broken. So, if you are in combat it is better not to charge head on against your enemies, lest you find yourself exposed and without a shield to protect you."

Lupa handed over the shield to John and the young man inspected it closely. "It seems good enough..." John replied, not that he had much knowledge of such stuff. "What about the rifles I asked for?"

Lupa grabbed two large repeating rifles. Their color was that of bright silver. Lupa handed them over to John for him to inspect and said, "Those are also X-Corp made. They are X-Corp Repeating Laser Rifle or, for short, XR-LR. They can fire repeatedly, allowing you to overwhelm your enemy with rapid fire. They are also easy to recharge."

"How much do they cost?"

"Two hundred credits."

That was exactly the amount of cash Iris had handed over to him. John let out a sigh of relief and gave the money to the old man.

Laughter. Jazz music. Smoking. Jim's Inn was filled with people. Everyone was talking to their friends, either telling jokes or arguing. Others were gambling and a few old men were even playing chess. The waiters were running from one table to another, bringing drinks and delicacies.

Iris approached one of the tables, where an orc was sitting. The orc had his feet on the round table, was drinking a glass of whiskey and relaxing. He was shorter and slimmer than most orcs and had a more thin and gentle face, yet he was still much more muscled and taller than most humans. His name was Xar. He was one of the pilots enjoying themselves in the establishment and a rather famous one. He was the one that had brought Iris to Bremman.

“Beautiful lady, nice to see you again!” the orc said. “I suppose you have the cash, right?”

“Yes,” Iris replied while handing over 1000 cash credits to the pilot. “Here is the first part of the payment, the rest once we reach the destination as we’ve agreed.”

“Nice!” Xar said as he counted the cash. “When shall we be leaving?”

“Now, if you don’t mind.”

Xar drank the glass and got up. “Oh well… let’s get going.”

It was at that moment that two men clad in black barged into the inn. All the laughter, shouting and music at once stopped. Everyone looking at them gaped in fear, their faces becoming ashen white. A few shut their eyes before their sight. The men were dressed in black robes. Their faces were deathly pale and awfully scarred; it was as if every bone on their face had been cracked and mended back together a thousand times. Blood dripped from their eyes. They were Shadow Hunters. The shadow hunters were an elite corp of well-trained melee troops with enhanced physical strength thanks to a number of experiments and drugs.

“Quick,” Iris said, “we must leave.”

“Hey! When you said that you had trouble with the authorities, you did not say you had that kind of trouble!” Xar retorted.

“You are already implicated. It’s a bit too late to complain now. Plus, do you want the cash or not?”

Xar sighed. His erstwhile partner had stolen his previous spaceship and had caused him much financial distress. He was desperately in need for cash. After all, this wasn’t the first time he was on the wrong side of the law.

As the two shadow hunters approached, they unsheathed their swords. They were longswords made from the bones of beasts from the dunes of Nar-Sal. That’s why they were known as ‘Skeletal Swords’. The two shadow hunters walked towards Iris, their swords aimed at her.

“Sorceress, you will die!” one of them said with his deep voice.

He jumped and slashed downward at Iris while his fellow swordsman charged with a leftward slash. Iris waved her hand, causing a powerful energy wave which sent one of the round tables flying at the shadow hunter attacking from her left. She then immediately unsheathed her laser knife and met the attack coming from above. Her knife blocked the attack while the table she had thrown had kicked the other shadow hunter on the ground.

The shadow hunter swung his blade at Iris. The sorceress leaped backward and then struck back with short, quick motions. The shadow hunter parried those attacks with relative ease. The man slashed high at Iris from right to left. Iris grabbed the shadow hunter's hand with her left hand while her knife slashed across his chest. The man reacted by kicking Iris' jaw, pushing her backward. Iris fell on the floor and spit some blood but she ignored her injury; she got up and slashed her knife at the man's head. The shadow hunter swiftly swung his sword upwards and the two weapons collided. A loud clang! sound was heard.

Meanwhile Xar was doing his best to hold down the other shadow hunter, who was still somewhat dizzy after being hit by the table. The orc was powerful but so was the dark warrior and the two of them struggled. Xar was tense, gritting his teeth and using all his muscle strength to keep down his enemy.

The other shadow hunter was swinging his sword at Iris, who ducked low, avoiding the strike, and then leaped over his head, attacking him with a powerful slash. The swordsman managed to block the attack and attempted to counter with an upward slash. Iris quickly rolled back to avoid this slash. She then advanced speedily, aiming her knife at the shadow hunter’s neck. He moved his blade upward to block the incoming attack but the sorceress hastily changed the direction of her knife and instead struck at her opponent’s shoulder. The knife was stabbed deep into his shoulder. He let out a cry and instinctively kicked Iris’ chest, pushing her back.

Iris got up, lunged forward and struck with even greater speed. As the shadow hunter’s hand was less steady due to the stabbing, he wasn't able to block Iris's attack; her knife stabbed his chest. The shadow hunter clutched his wound and coughed. He vomited some blood and cursed before collapsing on the floor, dead. Iris then quickly moved to attack the other shadow hunter, who was still being held down by Xar. She slashed his throat, finishing him off.

“Let’s go!” Iris shouted.

She and Xar made their way out of the inn, leaving everyone inside stunned at what they had seen.

Char and Heinrich were on the bridge of the Arrow, waiting for reports regarding the shadow hunters to arrive. Char was especially nervous, clutching his fists.

“We’ve got reports sir that the shadow hunters have been killed,” one of the officers stated. “We also know that the sorceress escaped with a pilot known as Xar Kuo. His vessel seems to be docked on dock 55. Shall I order troops to be on their way there sir?”

“No!” Char replied. “We will bomb the place. Prepare the cannons.”

“Are you out of your mind, my friend?!” Heinrich asked. “We now know where her vessel is. Even if they escape, we know which vessel to send our fighters after. There is no need to cause such a disaster on our own.”

“This woman humiliated a whole legion of your troops and murdered a renowned bounty hunter and two shadow hunters, do you think a few soldiers are going to stop her? We cannot allow her to escape.”

Heinrich was silent. There was no point in arguing. If the admiral was right, the sorcerer would be killed. If not and this whole destruction of a major urban center was a debacle, he would be removed from his rank by the Chancellor and his position might be given to him. So Heinrich simply stood by and allowed Char to do as he pleased.

“We are charging our cannons to full energy,” the officer reported. “We are targeting Arcadis. Tell us when to fire.”

“Fire!” Char commanded.

“Fire!” the officer repeated through his radio device to the technicians managing the cannons.

The Arrow turned its guns at the spaceport and began firing huge bolts of laser fire. They entered Bremman’s atmosphere and hit the city like asteroids.

John was waiting at dock 55. The platform where the spaceship was stationed was locked by a steel gate, so he was simply moving up and down until Iris and the pilot would arrive. He had gotten used to the loud sound of city life by now yet suddenly he heard a loud boom! sound that startled him. He turned around and saw on the horizon flames and smoke rising up to the sky. He looked at the sky and could see a giant bolt of laser heading towards the city. John gaped in astonishment and fear. His heart beat fast; he could almost hear its tumultuous thudding. As the bolt landed on the city, John could see and hear a huge explosion followed by buildings collapsing and fire engulfing everything around it. He himself was shaken and felt as if the earth was collapsing under his feet.

It was at that moment that Iris and Xar arrived to the dock. “Code is 5439483!” Xar shouted at John. The young man at once headed to the control panel and pressed the code in order to open the steel gate leading to the platform. The three of them at once made their way there, running as fast as they could as everything around them was exploding and collapsing into ruins.

Great rags of fire, changing from red to violet and back through the spectrum to red again, went shaking the city as the laser cannons fired lethal shots. Windows were being shattered, with thousands of pieces of glass and steel flying around. John could feel the ground moving, he could hear a noise that was like extended thunder. The explosions were so powerful that they were causing the city to shake as if an earthquake was taking place.

“You must be really important for those damn bastards to be bombing an entire urban center out of existence just to get you,” Xar said as he opened his ship’s ramp. “What are you, some kind of sorceress?”

Neither Iris nor John replied and Xar simply shrugged it off. He had far more pressing issues to worry about, such as escaping Arcadis before being turned into dust.

His ship, called the 'Actium', was actually more of a large shuttle. He had recently bought it after the loss of his original ship. It had three wings: one tall, dorsal stabilizer that remained stationary, and two lower wings that would extend during flight and fold upward for landing. The shuttle was mounted with two forward-facing double laser cannons. It was capable of a crew of only up to four people, with only one tiny living quarter with four folding beds.

“Come in!” the orc shouted. The three of them rushed through a long corridor into the ship’s cockpit. Xar immediately sat on the pilot’s seat and put his seatbelt on. “You should take a seat and put your seatbelt on too; unless you want to get crashed into the windscreen during the take off.”

Iris sat on the co-pilot’s seat while John took a seat behind them. The farmboy followed to the letter Xar’s instructions. He clicked his seatbelt tight around his waist. He couldn’t help but feel nervous. For so many years, he had been so excited at the prospect of leaving behind his home planet and travelling through the stars, yet now that he was about to go on his first space travel, he felt an unexpected sense of fear; fear of the unknown. His forehead glistened with cold sweat and his hands were clenched.

“On your right armrests there are two needles,” Xar said. “Inject them fast.”

“What?” John asked. “Wh-“

“Do it!” Iris interrupted him as she injected the needles into her skin.

John took the first needle in his hand. The needle contained a liquid white substance. John injected himself, gritting his teeth. He then injected into his arm the second needle. John was beginning to feel weird but before he could fully understand what was happening to him, he felt the entire shuttle shaking. Xar pressed a few buttons and then pulled a lever. The Actium lifted and smoothly hovered out of the platform, its engines flared yellow-white at full power.

“What were those needles?” John asked

“During takeoff, travelers experience several times normal gravity,” Iris explained. “Without such injections, at 5g you begin experiencing temporary loss of vision and eventually you blackout. The first injection increases your blood pressure and forces blood at the top of your body, so your skull can withstand the increased inward pressure. The second injection increases temporarily the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells, so that less blood is required to feed your brain.”

John was feeling dizzy and his vision was blurring. He couldn’t fully understand the science behind all this, but he was relieved he didn’t blackout.

Xar coughed. “Excuse me for interrupting your little chit chat but we are still not out of danger!”

Char and Heinrich were overlooking from the bridge of the Arrow the destruction of Arcadis. Char had a smug grin on his face while Heinrich was lamenting the waste of human and financial resources.

“Sir!” one of the officers shouted. “Urgent report! Our sensors pick up a vessel that matches the description of the sorceress’s vessel. It seems they made it out of the planet.”

“Fuck!” Char cursed. He was usually calm, even when under great pressure, but this setback unsettled him. Justifying such an extreme action as destroying Arcadis would be manageable with the sorceress dead but if she escaped, there was no way he wasn’t going to lose his rank and perhaps his life. Heinrich knew this too and was trying to keep a serious face despite his inner desire to smile. “Send all fighter spacecrafts to hunt them down!”

“Yes, sir!”

“So… your plan did not work that well, did it?” Heinrich mockingly asked.

“We shall see!” was the abrupt reply of the admiral. The fate of his career and perhaps his life was at stake. He was going to give it all to shoot down that spaceship.

An alarm thrilled from Actium’s sensor console. “Inbound fighters!” called Xar. “We need to take them down. Girl, you control the guns.”

Iris nodded. The ship’s cannons could be handled by a touchscreen console that allowed the user to choose where and when exactly the guns would fire. An AI was calculating the possible trajectories of the enemy targets and pinpointing them, but the user needed to have quick reflexes.

A large swarm of fighter spacecrafts massed ahead. They were long vessels with two extended lower wings and guns on their front. Iris opened fire. Two streams of cannon fire flickered across the darkness, chopping through the enemy formation. Two Helian fighters were shot down while a third limped out of fight with a damaged engine. Iris shot again, her laser shot hitting the wing of another fighter, separating it from the rest of ship and bringing the vessel down. Another ship was destroyed in a spectacular explosion.

On the right was another Helian fighter, one which Iris had not seen. Its laser bolts sizzled against the Actium’s rather weak shields, shaking the ship. Everyone inside could feel the heat from the attack. Xar quickly turned the ship to the right and Iris set the coordinators on the control panel. She fired a burst at the fighter that was attempting to make another pass. It hit it and the ship was blown to pieces.

“Nice shot!” John exclaimed. “I didn’t know you were so good at firing spacecraft cannons.”

“You don’t survive long in space if you don’t pick such skills, especially if you are in the military,” Iris replied.

“We should soon be able to reach the asteroid field of Chilascar,” Xar said. “It should be easy to escape them from there.”

As the Actium sped forward, it entered into the asteroid field. Several fighters followed behind, some of them being crushed by the floating asteroids. Their huge explosions would send pieces of the ships flying across space. Xar was carefully managing the ship in order to avoid hitting any of those dangerous rocks, zigzagging and moving with elegance. Soon enough he was able to lose visual contact with his pursuers, leaving them far behind. The numerous floating asteroids meant that the Helian fighters had little chance of locating where the Actium was on their sensors.

“Yeeha!” an excited Xar exclaimed. “Told ya I am one of the best pilots. Now… setting course to...?

"Thellasia,” Iris replied. “It’s where the Alliance has its base.”

“I thought this was an unpopulated oceanic planet... How could the Alliance have a base there?”

"You will see."

"Fine. Setting course to Thellasia then!"

As the Actium made its way out of the asteroid field, it was able to leave behind the enemy fleet.