Ares teamed up with the maintenance technicians.

Before, I gave strict orders not to mistreat or humiliate the humans now in my army.

Meanwhile, orbiting a desert planet...Sahelia

Tania and Argentrix had joined together to visit the mall, but aside from getting ripped off, they passed on their way. They sensed a mystical power emanating from some kind of temple that dominated the market.

Everywhere aboard the spaceport he saw soldiers and the occasional bald female pessonnages dressed in black.

On the steps of one of the temples there was a lady waiting.

Without saying anything, Tania and Argentrix followed her like a dragon, but on a human scale, for the obvious reason of getting through the doors.

No one paid any attention to them. Only the scientists, amazed, were content to look and take mental notes without daring to touch or ask for anything. The orders were strict.

Obviously, they were able to consult the parts and equipment catalogue to prevent the Hood from being mistaken once again for a wreck or a tinkering with space barbarians...

Nimbus: "We'd need an imperial transponder and to register it at the harbormaster's office..."

Several small compact reactors to generate water, air and food on board, one gravity reactor. We could resell our reactors and thrusters as raw material as rare alloys, reclaim a huge amount of space, Everything here is a hundred times more compact and more powerful."

Other scientists replied: "Everything in its own time. It might be cheaper to buy a used shuttle or cargo ship than to convert the Hood. Remember, Professor Nimbus, the Hood passed through the portal without damage and successfully depolarized. We are whole and unharmed..."

The professor nodded.

In the temple, in the background, through the glass, you could see the sand planet...

"On this planet, we saw you die... My beautiful Tania...

But the Bane convent has been wrong in the past, sometimes...

I am Sister Olafia, guide and concubine to the Emperor Etherum...

I have booked passage for you and your people aboard the cruiser Dunamis. Should he learn of this, I will be executed. He is not a man of compassion.

You're here because of the Prophecy. My sisters were expecting you... in the future, we've seen you die many times, but we've also seen you take command of vast armies and free this planet from the wars that have raged for centuries. Once. This is the prophecy. This is the future we seek."

She signaled that we could go.

Few or no questions.

It was forbidden to speak to a concubine of the emperor Topkapi, it was the ultimate insult.

With her finger, she pointed at the novices, all veiled in black, unable to show their faces or eyes.

They motioned for us to follow them and we arrived at a terminal.

"You have several factions fighting over Sahelia . The Krulls, the Mordos and the Zergians. They're no better than each other. But since the Mordos have given you credit, I urge you to join their faction."

Tania: "But the Mordos are supposed to be neutral, aren't they?"

"The guild is neutral, not the House of Mordos. Just as the emperor is an Krull and many wives are Zergians.

Personally, I think the Zergs are more honest in the sense that they'll choose the cruellest decision every time. They're equal to themselves and one thing's for sure, they can't be trusted.

The Mordos are devious, they trade illegally in front of a prolific front, but you can earn their trust, hard, but it's possible.

The Krulls will be courteous, loyal and faithful, until the moment you're a pebble in their shoes and they abandon you to your fate...

Your time is up, and you must make your choice.

My mistress is giving you your chance. She has her reasons and she needs a champion to carry out her plans.

Otherwise, you are lost and it is either slavery that awaits you or fighting in Baron Zergalor's arena where his son revels in a shower of blood of the unfortunate victims.

You will sign up as freelancers under the banner of the Mordos. Then you'll sign a contract with a supplier of harvesting equipment and military supplies.

Anything goes. There are no rules. Only nukes are forbidden.

So you will harvest mana crystals or "Spice" as they say, and guild ships will come to your refinery to collect them. The equivalent in credit will be paid to you and little by little, your life debt will be erased.

Then you'll become part of the House of Mordos once and for all. There you will end your life peacefully, free to go where you please, provided you succeed."

Things were clear and unambiguous. There was little room for manoeuvre.

To find financial sources by exploiting our magic, which sooner or later would lead to the lust and break-up of our group, or to follow Sister Olara's plan?

After multiple steps and casting charm spells, the transactions could take place and our entry in the register was made as a Mordos sub-faction.

With additional secret credits, graciously donated by Olara, we were able to equip ourselves with extraction equipment and a refinery with its collector.

A general map of the exploitable areas between the north and south poles, the poles being covered with seas thus ensuring life on the planet, but the rest was a hell of sand and heat where oases were rare and designated an area or territory.

Nothing was taken for granted.

The emperor had just before our arrival declared the planet open to crystal hunting.

These crystals were precious and refined into a kind of drug that opened up the sky and space... ...in return for monstrous mutations.

We took little or no military equipment.

We would use our magic in battle.

Humans and scientists would manage the equipment and production.

Then we'll see how we're treated by the Mordos.

Our base will be the Hood and then we'll equip it with the new, more powerful, compact reactors when our finances improve...

Financial hell!!!!!

Sand and copper dragons began to cry.... Instead of frolicking in the wild and indulging in their lizard nature...they were stuck in a world where their fangs and teeth were meaningless and their dragon nature was gone.... distorted.

A technical hell made for humans.

Finally, an Earthman here would go mad.

In fact, almost the entire population was addicted to spices... An infernal empire truer than the real infernal empire...

After setting up the command center in the Hood, we projected a map and our information on the big screen...

So you could see the blue areas to the south and west, the Krulls.

To the northeast, the vicious Zergians and to the east and south, the devious Mordos.

Obviously we would be deposited in an unoccupied zone. i.e. combat zones and of course dangerous zones, rebels, spies, hideous monsters and the terrible leviathans, the giant sand drakes. Some are over a hundred meters high, over a hundred meters in diameter and easily one to two kilometers long.

Their front is a gaping mouth covered with multiple layers of teeth, a bit like a giant leech.

The friction they generate is capable of generating lightning that strikes anything that protrudes from the sand.

A formidable protective weapon...