Ivan Kal - Warpath

Adrian immediately felt his fear intensify. Iris wasn’t inside the implant, but her core that was separate. “And the core?” He asked quickly.

Alex shifted uncomfortably, “We did manage to retrieve the core. But you and Iris were a unique case, she was intertwined with your brain intimately, we don’t know how much of her is left.”

“Where is she?”

“At the Research and Development center here on Sanctuary. They have been trying to repair the core and reactivate her, but I don’t know much else.” Alexander said.

“I am going there now.” Adrian said and swung his legs off the bed. Alex immediately grabbed and pushed him back to the bed.

“You are not going anywhere, we need to do test and make sure that everything is alright. What happened to Iris won’t change if you go there. I’ll call the people working on her and tell you what is happening, but you need to stay here where we can monitor you.” Alex said looking at Adrian, “Please.” He added.

Finally Adrian relented. “Alright, but do your tests quickly, I am feeling fine and I don’t plan on being in this bed for long.”

“Adrian finally woke up.” Laura said.

“He did? I thought that the doctors said it wasn’t likely.” Tomas said.

“They can’t explain it. But then again they can’t explain what happened either.” Laura said.

“And he is himself?” Seo-yun asked.

“Thankfully, yes. I talked with him for hours yesterday, he was completely himself.”

“That’s great. But I am still worried about it, the sphere’s computer knows what happened, but refuses to elaborate, he did say that this wasn’t life threatening. Whatever it is.” Seo-yun said.

Laura nodded. After a month of watching over Adrian not knowing if he would wake up, she felt relieved to have him awake. The doctors were still doing tests and trying to figure out what happened.

“Hopefully everything will be alright.” Tomas added. “But we still have a war to fight even without him. Is there any word from the fleets?”

“The Third Fleet has complete control over the Rasaka system and are in the process of taking the other border systems with Rasaka as their base.” Laura said.

“And the Second Fleet?” Tomas asked.

“There is still fighting going on the shipyards, we have only taken about half of them and two thirds of their stations. All prisoners are sent back to Sanctuary, but there isn’t a lot of them. We have encountered only a small number of Sowir, compared to their agents which are numerous.” Laura answered.

“And have gotten anything from the prisoners from Rasaka?”

Laura glanced at Seo-yun letting her answer.

“Sadly, no. The Sowir have no ability to speak, we believe that they use their mental abilities to communicate. And we aren’t putting any of our people close enough to a conscious Sowir for them to influence them. We have however recovered the devices that the Sowir use to translate their way of communication into a spoken language. The devices are currently on-route to Sanctuary, so we will try to establish communications once they arrive.” Seo-yun said.

“Good. Anything else?” Tomas asked.

“Well. We have analyzed the data that we managed to recover from the Sowir stations and shipyards in Laraska. It appears that they were building a lot of machines with the purpose of fighting underground. And all of these machines were going to Guxaxac.” Laura said.

“Guxaxac? Why would they need them there?” Tomas asked.

“We didn’t understand either. So we sent a probe to the system. We just got the sensor feeds this morning. The Sowir have a fleet of about two hundred ships in orbit of Guxaxac, and about half of them are troop ships. And they don’t have any station in orbit or permanent installations on the ground…” Laura answered.

“You don’t think that… But it has been more than a hundred years!” Tomas exclaimed.

“The Guxcacul are subterranean. And we know that their cities are deep underground close to their planet’s core. And Sowir aren’t really suited for battles in closed quarters where the numbers of their agents mean little.” Laura commented.

“They could still be alive… We need to make sure.” Tomas said.

Laura smiled. “I already have plans to send a team to the planet, but we will need Warpath’s Specter to do it. I’m sure that Adrian would approve, but I will check with Isani just in case.”

“Alright then, let us hope that we finally get some good news.”

February; Year 32 – Guxaxac system

Vanguard warship Specter cruised through the Guxcacul home system, undetected by the Sowir forces in the orbit of the large rocky planet. In its only bay it held the stealth shuttle that was retrieved from Earth and was the basis for the drive technology that Specter made use of. The shuttle had been upgraded with the latest of the Empire tech and weapons that they could put in it. And inside its small hull sat eight human shaped figures dressed in battle suits and one Guxcacul.

Sahib Adin tried to figure out how it was that he always managed to get into the most dangerous places. Just a few days ago he was fighting Sowir, and now he was on board a stealth Warpath ship, sitting in a stealth shuttle that was at least three decades old about to drop on a planet that was apparently under Sowir siege for at least a hundred years.

“So, how are we going to find your people again?” Sahib asked.

The Guxcacul moved turned his head in Sahib’s direction, the small light in the shuttle illuminating the silver armor that he wore over his plates. It was Warpath made, and Sahib had to admit that it was impressive. The Guxcacul didn’t like the restriction of full body encased in a battle armor, so the people at Warpath created a suit that was more like an exoskeleton which boosted his strength and speed, while also protecting his vital areas.

“If they are still alive, they will find us.” Riss said via the translator somewhere beneath the armored plate on his chest.

“Great, so we just wander around aimlessly?” Sahib asked.

The Guxcacul released a series of noises that the translator didn’t translate, and which Sahib was pretty sure was laughter. Then it changed and he spoke. “No, our sensors have mapped out Sowir positions on the ground, so we are going to one of the areas where they have no presence. There was a small military outpost near the surface in the area that we are going to check out. If it was already destroyed by the Sowir or abandoned we will proceed deeper underground looking for clues.”

“Even better.” Sahib grumbled. Spending time with his team underground was a sure way to get him to go insane.

Then their comms chirped and their pilot spoke. “Alright guys this is it, the Specter can’t chance getting any closer. We are going the rest of the way solo.”

Immediately after Sahib felt the shuttle move out of the Specter’s bay. The trip was uneventful, until they reached the planet’s atmosphere and the shuttle started to shake. But soon enough it leveled off, and the rest of the trip went smoothly. Once they landed the pilot waited for a few minutes making sure that they had landed undetected and then he opened the back hatch.

“Well guys, this is it. I will be waiting here for as long as I can, if the Sowir detect the shuttle… I doubt that I will be able to escape. So do try to hurry.”

Sahib and his squad exited, followed by Riss. Immediately Riss took the lead and they started moving across the rocky and sandy ground.

“So, when were you last here?” Garth asked.

“About hundred years ago, before the Sowir offensive reached this far.” Riss answered.