Starborn: Origin of the Stars

Still a little bit nervous, Krezolgok pulled his hood further down over his face to make sure his muzzle stayed hidden. Of course he had gotten what he came for, but he still couldn’t get used to the respect and reverence he was met with.

“No, not respect and reverence…” He thought, “It’s fear and dread that these people feel. I can smell it. Even with the heavy scent of metal and electronics in the air, it still stinks of cold sweat.”

Those of his clan who ventured out from time to time talked about it and his father also did not fail to mention it every time he recounted his ventures to the “Civilized Territories”. Heck, even his blood told him to keep his head high - he was a Zulbano, he was a hunter… the apex predator.

The “Wolf-Folk”, as they were called sometimes, lived in a territory that spanned over only five systems with no more than 20 habitable planets. Compared to the unified races of the UAS, which colonized dozens of galaxies, or the Drel, who alone had claimed as much territory, the Zulbano were a small folk. However, the systems they lived in were hidden well, not many knew where to find them and even less dared to travel there. Isolated from the rest of the Civilized Territories, the Zulbano got a certain kind of mystery to them and rumors about their fierce and unyielding nature as well as their many won fights and wars gained them quite the reputation - rumors that they very carefully keep spreading. The Wolf-Folk was a nation of fighters, brutal to themselves and their enemies alike. Only the strong may survive and prosper. Those ones met in the Civilized Territories normally were on missions for their clans or acting as hired guns. Very feared but efficient problem solvers.

“They don’t know anything about us. Just rumors and gossip. Still, here they are, nearly groveling to my feet.” The young wolf thought and let out an angry growl, “Pathetic, I’m nothing but a Bultaz. A failed member of the clan, nothing more.”

“Is there something that’s displeasing you, honored guest?” The man at his side asked, sweat dripping down his disfigured face. He had once been a human, Krezolgok guessed, but now most of his features were replaced by metal parts, making identifying his race a guessing game.

“The stench of metal and rotting flesh…” He hissed, “Not something you could change, I assume, Head Priest Muronag.”

The Cetro shot him a sharp glance but quickly lowered his head again, not responding to the offense.

“Weak…” The Zulbano muttered and kept walking.

A few minutes later they finally arrived at the hangar and Krezolgok made his way for the single ship that stood in the middle of the big hall. At its door he stopped and turned to face Muronag and his two guards.

“If your information proves to be right, I’ll inform the Pack Leader about your cooperation. I cannot speak on the behalf of the clan, but will see to it that a good word is put in for your community.” He said, his face hidden by the deep hood and the dark mist that billowed out of his robe the whole time.

“Thank you, honored guest.” The Head Priest said and bowed his head, “If you need anything else, feel free to contact us any time!”

Krezolgok just grunted in annoyance at this show of submissiveness and climbed into the small ship.

After the door closed behind him, he turned off his robe’s cloaking feature and pulled back the hood.

There often was a misconception about the Zulbano. People assumed that these hunters, these natural predators, weren’t much more than sentient, cunning beasts that ferociously fought with claws and teeths. However, in reality the Wolf-Folk had some highly advanced technology at hand. Sure, it wasn’t them who had developed it but other races, but it had become an essential part of their culture by now.

They specialized in tech that allowed them to fight in cities as well as they did in the forests: cloaking devices, personal shields, lethal and non-lethal weapons and so on. Mind you, a Bultaz would never get anything like that, but Krezolgok at least had some basic equipment like the masking robe. While it didn’t make him invisible or invincible, it still helped to obscure direct vision and veil his movements, giving his prey less time to prepare when he attacked. Also, to be honest, it also added to the mystic air that surrounded the Zulbano and ensured that the gossiping would continue.

While Krezolgok waited for the autopilot to fly his ship out of the hangar from the Cetro’s mothership, he thought about his next steps.

“The prey is hiding in the forests of Seavis. The location is to my advantage but I need some more supplies before I go there. The contact I had with the Cetro is one thing, however I should make sure to stay off the radar from anyone else or the mission will fail even if I find the rogue community.”

The ship activated its QVT and soon entered superluminal travel. The young wolf observed the outside world slowly turning dark and then slumped back in his seat.

“The priest was mostly clueless about any specifics. Neither did he know the exact region the prey is hiding nor could he provide anything with their scent that I could use to begin tracking them.” Once more he growled.

“I need to check some inns and taverns for rumors then… or find the other team that is looking for Techno Blood. The priest was sure they were UAS people and seemed to be hating them to his bones. I wonder how they managed to poke such a big Cetro community.” Not dwelling on this any longer, Krezolgok shook his head and grinned, “It doesn’t matter. No one takes my prey. Maybe they can quicken my search, but that’s it. Their hunt will end the moment we meet.”

***

A loud ringing shattered the silence of the night before everything turned quiet again. Half a minute passed before the jarring bell rang once again. Finally lights began to light up behind the open window of an apartment on the second floor in a housing complex in Nexus Haven, one of the better living districts of Rucasur’s capital Seka. A third time the person waiting at the door selected the “Calling”-button on the welcome screen, making the security guard flinch visibly.

“Sir, please…” The old man pleaded with all the courage he could muster.

“Don’t worry, you can leave. Your service isn’t needed tonight.” The visitor said, casually pointing at the twelve heavily armored soldiers that stood lined up in a semicircle and vigilantly eyed their surroundings. Four huge military UAVs swirled around them, securing the airspace above, and two armored vehicles blocked the road.

“B… but there are ru… rules!” The guard stuttered.

“Not tonight, my friend, not tonight.” The man said and smiled when he saw that the elevator inside the building was finally opening, “Leave now. We only came for a friendly chat. No worries.”

“As you say, Sir.” The old man nodded and hurried back inside.

“Bennet, what’s going on? Ringing me out of the bed in the middle of the night. And why didn’t you answer my comm?” The woman exiting the elevator asked sleepily when she reached him. She was still not fully awake and wearing pajamas stitched with the extended periodic system.

“Sorry, Katlina, you have a visitor.” The security man said with an apologetic look and pointed at the door.

Angrily she shuffled to the door and pulled it open.

“I hope for your sake that this is really important!”

“I’m afraid it is, Mrs. Hutton.”

Startled, the woman rubbed her eyes and gaped at the scene outside.

“Eston?” She boggled, “Damn, are you trying to take over the building or are we going to war?”

“I hope for the former, but I fear it’ll be the latter…” The officer said grimly.

“What? Really?”

“...No, of course not! Damn, Hutton, you still suck at getting jokes.” Eston sighed, “Can we talk inside?”

“Now?” The researcher asked and looked at her sleepwear.

“Yes, now, or do you think I came here to ask for an appointment?”

“That… Ughhh.” She moaned and headed back inside.

A few minutes later Katlina returned to the dining room, two cups of steaming coffee in her hands. After she sat down at the table, opposite of Thomas M. Eston, she motioned at her guest with a nudge of her chin.

“So, why are you here?”

“Are you aware of the research we’re doing on Gaunus?”

“Yes, most of it is about weapons and other military equipment.” She said and scratched her head, “What does this have to do with me?”

“That is correct. We are working on some of mankind’s most advanced weaponry. Obviously that also means we have installed our best facilities and are housing the brightest heads. Have you heard of Prof. Aurelius?” Eston said, ignoring her question. Nothing of his relaxed attitude from before was left.

“The ancient researcher? Of course! What’s with him?”

“Do you know where he is?”

“What? No, why would I…- wait; you also don’t know?” Katlina asked with squinted eyes.

“Not exactly, no. He left Gaunus two days ago, we hope he’s on his way to Rucasur. He has lots of connections here.”

“You wanna tell me the old geezer deserted from the UAS? Are you kidding me? He lived his whole life for the sake of mankind and the UAS.” She scoffed.

The officer gave her a long, scrutinizing look and then slumped in his chair.

“He didn’t desert…” Eston finally said, “It’s more like he fled the planet.”

Not waiting for her to ask, he continued.

“He worked on a new Drel weapon we got our hands on. It took him weeks and months to get the energy-supply done and even then he had not a hinch of an idea how the weapon worked or what its effects may be. Multiple times he asked for more information from witnesses that had seen the weapon firing but was turned down by the facilities commander.”

“Ramones…” Katlina muttered.

“Yes, the evening before he left, Aurelius gave Watanabe, Ramones’ second hand, a written report and warned them of testing the gun. He stated that the weapon’s energy consumption wasn’t only “strange”, but above everything we’ve ever seen in a weapon that small. His warning was brushed aside again and the next morning he was gone.”

“Commander Ramones is known to be… brash and daring… I assume Aurelius sent a copy of his report to the UAS HQ? What is your position, will you allow further research? The old man has worked on many alien weapons and isn’t known to be a scaredy cat. If he drops the project it’s probably for the best to listen to his instincts.” Katlina mused, more to herself than to actually voice a question, “Wait, why are we even talking about this? I probably only know half of what is happening on Gaunus due to my clearance level and I’m not even an expert in Drel technology. What is this about?”

Eston took a long sip from his coffee and slowly placed down the cup before he answered and Katlina got the feeling that the man had just aged a few years.

“The UAS didn’t get a chance to decide how to proceed. Ramones ordered a test in one of the secure facilities just this afternoon. It was “just a handheld weapon”, as such he argued the risk was negligible.”

“...how bad did it go?” Katlina asked, her voice not more than a whisper.

“We lost about two thirds of the complex.” Eston said heavily, “I’m not talking about the testing site, I mean the whole outpost. It was the Drel weapon your son had seen once. It ignored the strengthened materials used to build the testing site and directly ripped space apart. The whole building and four adjacent facilities were completely erased from existence; the following water inrush did the rest. We lost five of our best research teams with ten people each as well as 350 soldiers, workers and civilians.”

For a long time both of them remained silent, processing the aftermath of the disaster.

“Why are you telling me all this, Mr. Eston. I’m just the head of some backwater museum…” Katlina finally muttered while her mind was still trying to process what she had learned just now.

“You know where the weapon came from?” Eston asked in return and her eyes went wide.

“Tulward…”

“Yes, Robin Tulward brought it from the Drel outpost he found. While Watanabe died in the accident, Ramones survived. Now he is pointing towards the civilian who smuggled this weapon of mass destruction into a UAS facility.”

“That’s bullshit!” Katlina stood up and shouted enraged, “First of all we allowed him to keep the gun and secondly, I’m fairly certain that Robin or at least my son would have reported the weapon’s nature after their encounter with the pirates. How can Ramones think he will get away with shifting the blame simply like that! No one will believe this fairytale.”

“Huhhh…” Eston sighed deeply.

“Don’t tell me the UAS buys this story?”

“Of course not, but Tulward has stretched his dealings with the UAS. There are factions that are very unhappy with how much leeway he got. He also ignored a direct recall-order after leaving the Mereus Cluster and this disaster is the perfect excuse to put him in a dark cell. Bolster is pushing me hard. I don’t know if I can protect the boy when he returns to the Cluster.”

With a stern face Katlina inspected the weary UAS official.

“Once again: Why are you here?”

“People are asking questions, good questions, and I’m no longer in a position to leave them unanswered. I need to understand what Tulward is up to and you are the person who had the most contact with him. If you want to help him, help me leaving no stone unturned. I need to know everything about him - from how he got the map to the exact nature of his G-Anomaly all the way to what's going on with the chip in his head.”