I walked back into the HAB to see KAJ poking around in the different cargo boxes. I could tell he wasn’t looking for anything to steal; he was just curious.

  “Kaj, we have decided to take you on as part of the crew. You will need to form an honor pact with me. Everyone will feel more comfortable if it is as binding as you say. I’m sure you understand,” I said, walking up to the Malakim.

  “I understand, Captain. I, however, need you to understand that what you are referring to as an honor pact is, in fact, a blood pact. The blood pact is binding for both of us. I cannot break the blood pact, and you cannot abandon me without cause. This pact is to be taken with reverence and caution. Do you still choose to proceed?” he asked.

  “Is it dangerous to me or my crew?” I asked.

  “No, Captain, not in the sense you mean,” Kaj said, clasping his hands behind his back.

  “Okay, then let’s do it.” I said with a sigh and a shake of my head, “We need all the help we can get, Kaj. I won’t lie, though. You will be asked to fight and possibly die.”

  “I would expect nothing less Captain. One more thing?” he said.

  “Sure, what is it?” I asked.

  “Once I make this pact, I will be ostracized. My people will turn their backs on me, and I will be unable to return to my home planet for the foreseeable future, possibly ever. I will be branded a traitor and deserter. I do not take this lightly, you understand; honor, however, dictates that I owe my life to you and your cause. At some point, however, I may be able to argue my case to the Chief Justice of my people. My only ask is that if the opportunity presents itself, you allow me to pursue it. To die a traitor would be the greatest tragedy for a Malakim.”

  “I understand Kaj and swear that if you get a chance, I will allow you to clear your name,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  Kaj nodded and stretched his hand toward me. “We must join hands; do not be alarmed at what follows.” I reached out my right hand and grasped his left wrist, He looked at me and nodded.

  “Captain, do you happen to have a blade?” he asked.

  I summoned one of my daggers in response.

  “You must cut us both. Our blood and flesh must become one,” Kaj said as he motioned for me to make a cut across both of our wrists where they met.

  I sighed but agreed, “Okay.” I slid the blade across my wrist, then across Kaj’s wrist. As we stood there, hands clasped, the blood intermingled on our skin. Kaj pulled his hand away, closed his eyes, then placed a hand on each side of my head, pressing his forehead to mine. “I, Ka-Jarat, pledge my life and honor to you. My blade will defend you in battle, my wings will carry you to safety, and if it must be so then my life will be given to protect your own. With these words, I initiate the sacred pact.”

  As he spoke, he surrounded us both with his wings in a sort of cocoon. Clasping my hand once again, a faint light emanated from the place where our hands were joined. When he finished, my back stiffened, my head shot up, and my eyes turned white. I wasn’t in pain, but I could tell that something had changed… I could sense Kaj. I could sense his life force and intentions. I could feel where he was and if he was okay. It wasn’t invasive or overwhelming, but it was there. I opened my eyes as Kaj retracted his wings. Releasing his grip, he took a step back from me.

  “You understand the weight of this pact now, Captain?” he asked with a nod of his head.

  “Y…Yes, I understand Kaj. You are honorable; I will do my best to ensure that you don’t suffer from this decision.”

  “Problems for another day, Captain. Today, we fight,” he replied with a clasp of my shoulder. Everyone in the room was staring, obviously as taken aback at what just happened as I was. To be fair, it had to look weird.

  CJ stepped forward to get closer to me, “So…. Are you guys, like, going steady now?”

  “What is this… going steady?” Kaj asked, not understanding the reference.

  “It just means that you and Andrew are a couple now. You will need to start planning the wedding and looking for a starter house. Preferably something near a good school zone, but not too far from work.” CJ was obviously having fun with this. Matty, Jax, and the rest of the crew got a good laugh out of that. That was good; we needed something to break the tension.

  “Okay, Okay, that’s enough, everyone. Kaj, I need to send you an official crew invite. I assume you have access to an interface since you were already in the dungeon, right?”

  “Yes, Captain, I have an interface.” He replied.

  I identified Kaj; his description read:

  Ka-Jarat

  Malakim Battle Seraph

  Level 10

  I initiated the crew invite option:

  Invite Participant Ka-Jarat to join the crew of the Bloodhound? Y/N

  After Kaj selected yes, I saw his dot on my mini-map turn green. He was now part of the crew. I didn’t know what that would mean for us in the future, but I knew that we had another skilled warrior on our side right now.

  “Okay, everyone, we need a plan,” I said, getting everyone to focus on the pressing matter of our survival. “We have less than four hours before that relay station is accessible. We need to make our move before it opens up. The Lacertines have the numbers, we need to have the strategy. I need ideas, and I need them fast.”

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “Captain, the Lacertine factions forces are currently split. I’m sorry I didn’t mention this sooner. They sent half their force to take the Malakim faction key. They will occupy the Malakim Basecamp to ensure that they have a direct route to the relay once it appears.” Kaj said.

  Tiff scowled at Kaj’s intel. “Captain, while I appreciate that Kaj is now part of the crew, we must be careful. There is no guarantee that the Lacertine faction didn’t return to their base camp after taking the Malakim faction key.”

  “Tiff, I can tell you with a fair amount of confidence that Kaj is being truthful,” I said, wanting to reassure her but not wanting to get into the details of the blood pact right now.

  “I still advise caution, Captain,” Tiff said coldly.

  “Tiff, we don’t have the luxury of time being on our side. We need to identify a target and a strategy for attack. There is no perfect solution here,” I said sharply. I looked around at everyone in the room, “Listen, everyone, we are severely outnumbered, but we might have a chance to hit the Lacertines while their forces are split. We need to take advantage of this. I am technically the captain here, but we all know that 6 weeks ago I was no different than any of you. I’m asking you all to trust me here. If there are 20 Lacertines at the Malakim base camp, we must attack them befo….”

  BOOM

  The front wall of the HAB exploded inward as debris and shrapnel went flying. I flew back through the air suddenly, activating my armor mid-air but landing hard and skidding into the rear wall. I realized we had never really discussed defensive battle formations to repel an attack. I wondered if anyone was hurt or worse. A thousand thoughts went through my head at once as bullets and plasma rounds began ripping through the air.

  “Everyone find cover, NOW!” I yelled. I couldn’t see a damn thing through the red dust that now filled the room. I could see approximately ten red dots on my mini-map, but I couldn’t spare time to get an exact count. I stood up, trying to get an idea of where everyone was, but I still couldn’t physically see them. I saw the green dots on my map, but everything was moving too fast for me to get a good count.

  “Is everyone okay?!” I shouted, hoping for a response through the chaos of whatever was happening.

  “Several of us are injured, Captain. CJ is unconscious. I can see him,” Tiff said. “I took some shrapnel to my leg and have limited mobility.”

  “Matty, Jax, and Red are hurt real bad, Captain!” Loren said, “I don’t have eyes on Claire.”

  The red dots were getting closer. They surrounded our HAB and moved in a tight circle, closing in on our position. This was all moving too fast. I needed to protect my crew. I jumped up and ran to the center of the room. “Everyone, stay down. Don’t move and stay quiet; I have a plan.”

  “Captain, what are you doing? They are almost inside the HAB!” Tiff said.

  “Just Trust me, Tiff.” I replied quickly. The red dots were close, no more than 10 feet from the perimeter of the building. I knelt in place, one fist on the ground, and waited.

  “Deep breaths, Deep breaths,” I said to myself. I watched my mini-map… 5 feet and closing…The red dots all shifted to the exposed front entrance. The Lacertines began to file in through the ruined exterior wall surrounding our group, weapons trained on me since everyone else was down. I didn’t look up, continuing to stare at the ground, sparing glances only at my interface.

  “This is the last one?” a raspy voice asked from my left.

  “Yes sir, the rest are incapacitated.” Another voice answered.

  “You Humans made this too easy. We were beginning to think it would be a challenge. Expectations seldom mirror reality, though,” the first voice said again. “Finish the human, and let’s end this farce.”

  I looked up, made contact with the Lacertine that addressed me and smiled as I activated my new Big Bang ability.

  Whoosh

  Waves of black and green swirling energy shot out from my body. This was not like my Pulsar Blast ability. These waves felt like they were ripping me apart from the inside. I arched my back and screamed as the energy waves shot out. The Lacertine soldiers were blasted with the black energy while the green waves washed over the crew. Seven of the lacertine soldiers were pinned against walls as the waves of black energy continued to batter them. Over and over, the waves crashed into them until blood and bodily fluids began spraying from open wounds as bones were crushed. They didn’t even have time to scream. In seconds, seven of the ten Lacertine soldiers were turned to mush. The other three were thrown out of the destroyed section of the HAB and were struggling to regain their feet, showing signs of obvious injury.

  In total, ten black waves emanated from my suit, and eight green waves—every wave, whether black or green, felt like it ripped pieces of my insides out. By the time it was done, I was lying on the ground in a heap, blood trickling from my mouth. A boon and a curse, I thought to myself. I had assumed the curse was the 60-minute deactivation of my armor. I was wrong, and I was paying the price now. The ability drained and injured me, my health bar showing less than 25%. The number of waves corresponded directly to the number of enemies and allies in my direct vicinity. I was lucky this hadn’t killed me.

  Lacertine Trooper defeated x7

  Experience Earned!

  Level Up!

  You are now Level P-14

  I cringed. I closed the notification, and I mouthed Randi’s damn skill activation phrase. “Make me feel good, daddy.” A health stim pierced my skin, and I took comfort in hearing the familiar hiss as it drained into my neck. I was going to lose consciousness, anyway; I felt it coming. I stayed conscious long enough to see the crew start to get to their feet. At the same time, the three remaining Lacertine soldiers got to their feet. Bruised and battered but still combat capable. They raised their weapons and aimed directly at me, lying nearly unconscious on the ground.

  “NOOO!” Tiff screamed as she reached for me and tried to run to cover me in my defenseless state.

  Then I saw it. Kaj, descending from the sky, his wings spread, bellowing a majestic battle cry. In his right hand, he held a glowing yellow scythe. I felt like it was all happening in slow motion as he dropped right in the middle of the three Lacertine soldiers, red sand blasting into the air and his muscular legs tensing as he landed. He ripped the scythe up with a blinding slash, slicing the middle soldier vertically in half. The two halves of the soldier fell in opposite directions as his organs and intestines fell to the ground. At the peak of his swing, Kaj backflipped into the air, using his wings to aid his jump. As he landed again, he spun to his left and swung down diagonally, cutting off the left leg of one of the remaining soldiers. Quickly spinning away again, he set his sights on the remaining soldier, who saw the carnage unfolding in front of him and decided to run. “Today, you pay the reaper Lizard!” Kaj yelled as he leaped and extended his wings. He grabbed the lacertine from behind and flapped his giant wings, gaining altitude as he shot straight up into the air.

  “Holy shit! Where did he go?!” Matty asked as he held his hand over his eyes and tried to get a visual on Kaj.

  “Do you think they are fighting up there?” CJ asked as he mimicked Matty.

  AAAAAAAAGH…

  The scream was quiet at first but got steadily louder until

  CRUNCH

  Kaj had just dropped him from several hundred feet in the air to his death.

  “I think I’m gonna be sick….” CJ said as he ran to the side of the HAB to vomit.

  “I think your angel has a bit of demon in him, Cap!” Jax said as he and Matty walked up to inspect the corpse.

  Kaj came flying back, pulling up and flapping his wings as he landed near me.

  “I do not take my oath lightly, Captain; you have my blade until it is no longer needed.” He said as he knelt beside me.

  “That works for me, Kaj. Just an FYI nobody freak out, but I am gonna pass out now…” I said as everything went black.