Gus was woken by the scream of a siren.

A flashing red light illuminated the room in momentary waves, making the features of the room faintly visible to Gus's tired eyes, playing tricks on his mind.

On the left side of his vision, the desk tucked into the corner of the room seemed like a quadrupedal creature, with the lamp on the desk acting as an elongated neck.

To his right, the wardrobe looked more like a doorway to hell, or a home to a thousand nightmares.

"Sirens?" he groggily muttered as he began to climb out of bed. "Wha-"

He was interrupted by a loud banging on his door. As he opened it, he saw Connor standing in front of him in an agitated state.

"Didn't Frank warn you to not keep her waiting? The alarms have been going off for about five minutes now."

"Calm down, Connor. I was already on my way," Gus replied while rubbing his eyes. "What's going on?"

"As they finished setting up the defensive perimeter, some of the Bolts ran into trouble," Connor informed him with a grim tone.

"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"

"It's best if you come see for yourself."

Gus followed his advice, and raced upstairs to the command deck.

"Ah, it's the 'Evolved.' Good of you to join us," the Admiral said sarcastically, turning around to face him as he burst into the room.

Gus noted that the rest of his group had already arrived ahead of him, and that Connor must have been sent to fetch him for the Admiral.

"Apologies, Admiral Zakari," Gus replied. "What's happening?"

"Take a look for yourself," she said, gesturing behind herself toward the large window.

Gus gasped as his eyes followed her gesture.

A battleship lay ruined in the middle of space, its hull torn open, and its insides violated, like the prey of some feral beast. A second was at the edge of doom, desperately limping back towards the Orca and the safety it provides.

Behind the wreckage of the battleship, a cluster of Bloody Dawn vessels stood watch, critically analysing the human fleet to see how they would retaliate.

"As we were finishing off the last of the bases, this fleet appeared out of nowhere. It seems we arrived here just in time to see them launch an attack on this system," Zakari explained to Gus.

"Couldn't it have been a distress signal from one of the bases?" Gus asked.

She shook her head. "It's... highly improbable. For them to muster such a force in so little time... well, I pray that they were planning this as opposed to the alternative."

Although he didn't want to, Gus had no choice but to agree with that assessment.

The Bloody Dawn wielded five of the rumoured 'Grafted,' the large creatures with a hull grafted onto their backs.

Ahead of them, ten 'Skimmers,' lightly armed and armoured transport ships designed for boarding actions, charged at the lines of the humans, with seemingly no regard for their personal safety.

Behind the grafted, three 'Blood vessels' lay hidden, ships designed to transport an invasion force all on their own.

Further back, stood six 'Kraltex' vessels, Bloody Dawn warships comparable to a mixture of all three of the human's main combat ships.

The scariest of all the ships, however, were the two at the back.

Shaped like an oversized throne and housing thousands of cannons and ships, the 'Deity' class vessel, one of only five in existence, loomed over the fleet like an overprotective parent.

Alongside the Deity was a ship that none on the side of humanity had ever seen before.

Its appearance was like that of the Grafted, but larger. The creature that made up the bulk of the ship was bigger, more aggressive, stronger, faster, more durable, and its claws and teeth were clearly sharper, even from the distance between it and the humans.

"What I need you to do," she said, "is delay them. The Orca can handle most of their fleet, especially with support from the rest of our fleet. Those skimmers aren't really a risk to us either, our deck crews can handle some Shenia. What we cannot allow to happen, is for those Blood vessels to touch down on any of the planets. Even one of those things making landfall will result in countless lives lost. Get onto one, and see that it doesn't reach its destination."

"Just one thing," Klaus began to ask. "How are we going to get there?"

"Take a squire," she responded.

"A Squire? That inferior pile of sh-" Connor began, but he was cut off by Zakari.

"Take a Squire. It's smaller and faster than a Knight, and you need speed. Plus it gives you a way to get on to the ship." As she finished speaking, the Admiral turned and addressed one of the officers on the command deck. "Where are they?" she asked, "they should be here by now."

"They're at the bottom of the fin now, Admiral," the officer replied.

Moments later, a group of three soldiers entered the command deck. Their faces were hidden through a variety of masks, bandanas and tactical gear. Their bodies also gave no hint of their identities, as they were hidden under identical black tactical outfits.

"Where are the others?" Zakari asked them as they entered.

"Most opted to stay and guard the ship against boarders, Admiral," the central soldier told her. "And, since we're fighting alongside an Evolved, we figured you didn't need all of us."

"Very well," she responded. "Gus, take these three with you to the Blood vessel."

'Three? Don't I only have two follower spots left?'

*Correct.*

"Uhm, do you mind telling me what each of them do? I'd prefer to only take two with me, if I could," Gus said.

To him, it made sense to not take all three when he only had two follower slots available. All he would achieve by taking a third is reducing the number of points he would generate from his follower kills.

"What they do?" Zakari questioned.

"What they specialise in," Gus began to explain. "Like, for example, we have a pilot, a sniper, an engineer."

"Okay, left to right. Brin, close quarters specialist. Caden, tech expert. Ciara, heavy weapons expert," she informed him, gesturing to each of them in turn.

"I guess I'll take..."

'Well, we have an engineer, so I guess the tech expert is a little redundant,' he thought to himself. 'It's definitely the least impactful role for me to add for now, so I guess that settles it.'

"...Brin and Ciara. They fill more roles that we don't really have covered for now."

"Okay." Zakari said. "Gather your stuff and get ready. Be in the hangar in ten minutes," she said to the two soldiers who had been chosen, along with Gus's followers. "Gus, come with me."

Letting the two soldiers leave before him, Gus hastily followed after Zakari.

"So... your Evolution. You said you improve yourself by earning points, correct?" she asked, as she led him down through the tight corridors of the ship, made only tighter by the size of her frame, to the hangar.

"Pretty much, although I can do a little more with it," he responded.

"Like the store you mentioned?"

"Yeah, like that."

'Damn, I should have taken some time to check the store before falling asleep!'

"And how much have you improved yourself?" she asked, her neutral tone masking the intense intrigue that shone from her eyes.

"Not much, not yet. That asteroid was my first real fight after my ability awoke."

"I see." After a long pause, she continued speaking. "You know, I can actually beat some of the Evolved in combat," she said with a sly grin.

"Not surprising. Some of them are like twigs with a bloated head," Gus calmly responded.

'Is... is she trying to test me? To intimidate me?'

"Fair enough," she said with a laugh. What about the 'followers' thing you mentioned?" she asked after another pause. "How does that work?"

"I can declare people followers, giving them boosts like what I receive from my stats, albeit in smaller amounts. Subsequently, I get rewarded for their kills with a specific point."

"I assume you'll want to declare the two of mine you're taking with you? And can I also assume that you can only declare two more for now, which is why you refused the third?"

"I will want to declare them," he confirmed. "Is that okay?"

"It's perfectly fine," she said, with yet another sly movement of her lips.

'It was blatantly obvious that I avoided her second question,' he thought in a panic.

"Let me offer you one last piece of advice, since until recently you were oblivious to this world of power," she said, stopping just outside the hangar. The Evolved are strong. They're influential. By the end of the war, they may even hold more influence than the system governors. Make allies as quickly as you can. Grow your strength immediately. Or you may be cannibalised by the others before you are able to bloom."

With that, she headed back to the command deck, leaving Gus to think about what she had told him.

"They're influential, eh?" he muttered to himself. "Sounds like they use their influence to help themselves and themselves alone. Ah well, they were always condescending, self-centred pricks."

'Well, most of them,' he corrected himself mentally.

Gus entered the hangar through a doorway, and found himself on one of the walkways that ran along the walls. As he headed to a ladder that led to the floor, he heard a voice calling up to him.

"-Sir! Mr Evolved, sir!"

Gus raised a hand to acknowledge the voice as he increased his pace down to the floor of the hangar.

"Mr Evolved, sir. This is for you."

Spoken through ragged breath, the scrawny, brown haired man handed a case to Gus.

'A case,' he thought.

"What is this? Who are you?" Gus asked him.

"My name is Heb, sir. I'm an assistant to the Admiral, sir. This is a gift from the Admiral, sir.

"A gift?" Gus asked.

'What's her goal?'

"Yes, sir. A Ravager. Heavy kinetic assault rifle, modified for faster fire rate and increased stopping power with an extended magazine up to fifty rounds, sir."

"Okay, thanks. And knock it off with the 'sir' nonsense."

"But why, sir?" Heb asked in a confused tone. "Aren't you an Evolved?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm better than you. And anyway, most of them aren't worthy of respect."

"Very well, sir."

...

"Apologies. Very well."