Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1 Read online

  They go down several halls that are filled with offices. They continue onward to another series of small buildings that are research facilities and laboratories. Most of those buildings are empty, except for some of the laboratories that had some dead humans in them.

  “Hmm…. Some of these humans in these labs were not killed by the undead. They were killed with objects in the laboratories. Also, I noticed that the undead on the west side were killed in combat. These undead from the north- and east-side labs have no marks on them at all and yet they all are dead,” Dr. Farshe reported.

  The group goes down some more hallways that lead to a large chamber, the main laboratory. They walk inside this vast chamber to see even more undead corpses mixed in with human remains. None of the bodies seem to have been involved in any type of fighting.

  “Man, this place gives me heebie-jeebies,” Gartooth remarked.

  “These humans over here have no marks on them, and my scanners are not picking up any type of damage or any biological hazard, or at least any known biological hazard. This is a covert laboratory, so there may be some unknown pathogen floating about. Some of the computer systems here still work. I am trying to access information now,” the doctor adds.

  “Secure this area and do not leave this room. Maybe we can find some valuable information on these computers that we can use.”

  Grimtooth remarks with a nervous tone, “Look at these vampires over here…it looks like the life has been drained out of them. I didn’t think vampires could feed on each other, or why would they? I do not understand. Holy crap, these Bone Warriors have the same markings, what the hell could drain a Bone Warrior?” The entire landing party is beginning to feel very uneasy about this place.

  Eve says, “I sense a presence here, a telepath. I can feel the emotions: very chaotic, alone, angry, hungry, confusion. A very powerful mind.”

  Dr. Farshe says, “This laboratory facility was researching biological weapons according to these records. The experiments included a lot of genetic experimentation with half-breed mixing, most notably with telepathic races and creatures with telepathic abilities. Some of these records are 30 years old. One of the projects named in these records is project Evella.”

  “What...?” interjected Eve.

  “There was a project with your name on it that, according to these records, they were experimenting on reptilian and human telepathy to try and make a more powerful telepath as a means of defense against the undead. They were trying to make a telepathic slave warrior. The only successful subject was lost about 30 years ago in transit: Subject 37.”

  “That was me, which means I was created here before I escaped or should I say rescued by pirates,” Eve said. “Is there any other mention of me?”

  “Query, Evella. While it is doing that, I am downloading all information from this computer onto our ship’s computer,” the doctor paused. “Yes, there is one other reference to project Evella. It is in another project called Evella 2. This project took some of the DNA from Subject 37 and mixed it with a human male with a high PSI rating. This new formula was introduced into new hybrids that were supposed to give the hybrids the ability to kill vampires and other undead in the same fashion that vampires killed living beings via drainings. In addition, these hybrids also transmitted a very infectious disease to all forms of the undead. Subjects E2-135 and E2-136 were the first successful hybrids to survive the process and who retained the abilities of the project’s goal. There were some side effects that gave these two subjects the ability to drain the magic force out of sorcerers whether they were undead or not.”

  “What that means is they can kill sorcerers in the same fashion they kill vampires by draining the magical force out of them. Undead are primarily given life by magical force, whereas living beings have a different type of life force. Vampires feed off the life force type that living beings have. Telepaths have a different type of life force and thus are the reason for these experimental projects. The researchers basically redesigned a telepath and made it function similar to a vampire but with the requirements of feeding off of magical energy. In simpler terms, a reverse vampire.”

  “In addition, the telepathic energy that is used to drain magical beings also carries a similar contagion like the undead, except it only infects a host with a magical life force. Basically, it is the undead virus in reverse. This virus is more powerful, though, because it resides in its host even after death for an infinite period of time. That means it is a booby-trapped corpse. Any undead or sorcerer who comes within range or touches the body gets infected.”

  “Sounds like people playing God, and it looks like one of their experiments decided to kill their masters after they got freed by some unfortunate vampire,” Eve states in a not-surprising tone. “I can feel them. They are here, and they are powerful and have no control over their abilities—it is likely a child or children.”

  “You are the mother of those monsters, so do not forget that. Remember that they were not a willing participant in these experiments,” the doctor reminds Eve. “Upload almost complete.”

  “Good, then we’re getting out of here. I will not stick around this place, as I’m getting a bad vibe,” Gartooth says.

  “Yes, I agree,” Eve says.

  They begin to move out the same way as they came in and they noticed that the hall that they came down had finally collapsed, so they had to backtrack and go a different way. They decide to travel north. They go up a ways to a four-way intersection and hear some noises coming down the dark hallway, but cannot not pinpoint from which direction. Eve gives Gartooth the signal and gestures to go down the North Hall.

  “Why do I always get chosen to go down the creepy hall of doom first?” Gartooth signs. He creeps slowly down the hall with his laser rifle pointed in front. Then suddenly, one of the guards behind him farts very loudly, causing Gartooth to jump backward in fear.

  “Really? Seriously?” He looks back and frowns at the guard. The guard just shrugs his shoulders apologetically. Gartooth hears snickering from various sources in the group behind him as he turns to continue. They go down the hallway, slowly checking each room. They discover a large room off to the left, which evidently is the cafeteria. They assume there might be a way out through the kitchen or elsewhere. They enter the cafeteria doorway single file with Eve and Gartooth in front.

  Suddenly, two figures come hurling through the doorway on the other side of the cafeteria with glowing blue eyes. They leap up onto a table and hiss with fangs glaring.

  “Vampires! Open fire!” Gartooth says. Laser beams start firing at the shadowy figures, as blasters hit the two figures as well as parts of the wall behind them. Neither of the targets seem to be affected by the blasts. One of them launches a lightning bolt, hitting Gartooth in the chest and slamming him backwards into the wall. The other one releases an uncanny screeching sound, and the guards start fighting each other in chaos.

  Eve yells, “Get back into the hall now!” as she releases a massive telepathic wind blast that picks up all of the tables and chairs and sends them flying upward, sweeping the two figures along with debris into the wall and making a loud crashing sound. The force was so great it punched a hole in wall leading to the kitchen area. The entire area shakes as the lights flicker on and off. Eve feels the violent rage, confusion, and pain from the two telepaths as they slowly emerged from the pile of rubble. Eve is in the room alone as the others watch on a monitor outside the hall. Eve grabs them telepathically and hoists them up into the air and holds them while trying to focus on suppressing their telepathic abilities. She feels that these two beings are very powerful telepaths who had no discipline, no way to control their powers. She also senses that these test subjects have no idea what is going on and are totally confused. She notices they are wearing metallic collars around their necks—maybe some sort of control device put on by their creators or maybe something that was supposed to inhibit their abilities but is failing to do so. She is straining to hold both of them as
they are incredibly powerful minds but very chaotic. She removes the neck devices with her mind. As the devices fall to the floor, the test subjects’ chaos and pain subside at a rapid pace. Perhaps their creators did not realize the neck devices did not have the effect they were hoping for. Instead of controlling them, they cause their subjects to go insane.

  “Relax, calm down. No one is going to hurt you. It will be okay,” Eve said telepathically and sent images of a peaceful and relaxing nature. She looked into their minds and even though their bodies were probably teens or young adult, they seemed to have the education and social skills of a five-year-old. This is probably because their creators were only interested in using them as controllable weapons. They did not even speak a language yet, but they could still communicate telepathically. They calm down and talk to Eve telepathically.

  “Where are we? What is this place? I am scared. What is going on? Why are people so mean to us? We are confused.”

  “We are leaving this horrible place, children. I will protect you from harm. Everything will be okay. No one will be experimenting on you anymore.”

  “Who are you? Why are you wearing a suit like those mean people?”

  “The suit is used to protect me against things that might harm me. You do not need to wear one of these suits because things that can harm me cannot harm you for the most part. I am your mother,” Eve flatly states. She looks at them and notices they resemble vampires, but they are different in several aspects. Apparently, they do not need oxygen survive, and walking out in open space does not seem to bother them, much like undead.

  “Come with me, children, as we must leave this place at once. It is dangerous to stay here.” She gives them a hug and reassures them everything is okay. The two young girls leave the room holding their mother’s hands. Out in the hall, the rest of the crew is sitting there watching the monitor out in the hall but not understanding what is going on since most of the conversation was done telepathically.

  “Um…so what is up, Boss,” Gartooth says, wanting understand.

  “It will be okay; these are my daughters, and I am taking them with me. They had some sort of collar on them that I think it was supposed to control them, but instead it was driving them insane. They have the mental development of about a four- or five-year-old. They can’t even speak a language yet, which is understandable since their creators were not interested in their educational and social development as they simply wanted a controllable weapon. In my mind, those sadistic bastards got what was coming to them for what they did to my girls and me. Call it poetic justice,” Eve said. “I can communicate with them telepathically though.”

  “Okay, but we will need to keep them separate from the crew until I can confirm that they are not contagious to us. There is one thing I would like to note, they do not register as living beings or undead; instead, they are something else a new sentient life form,” Dr. Farshe explains. She looks at Gartooth’s bio-armor and sees a huge hole.

  “It is okay, Doc. It did not go all the way through as this armor is pretty tough. I could not have taken a second hit—that is for sure. Guess I got lucky. A minor flesh wound,” the crocodile winks.

  “Back to the ship. Let’s go.”

  After about 30 minutes, the landing party is back on board. Eve’s daughters freak out a lot of the crew at first but nonetheless they are taken in. The daughters are placed in bio-suits and moved to Eve’s quarters. The doctor starts running tests on them to make sure that they are not infectious to the crew.

  Back on the bridge, they are getting ready to move away from the asteroid belt.

  “Gartooth, I want you to blow that entire place to dust, including the undead ships, so begin now.”

  “Yes, Boss. You know how I love to blow stuff up,” he commences to pressing buttons. They hear the large explosions below them. They watch on the vid screen after 10 minutes of firing big cannons and unloading some missiles and the entire asteroid is obliterated.

  “Helma, let’s get out of here.”

  “Yes, Boss.”

  After about two minutes, 42 says urgently, “Contact just outside the asteroid belt. Elemental Empire ship signature: it is a battleship, dreadnought class, crew about 3,000, and 35 fighters—they outgun us 10 to 1. The Telherra, the Telepath hunter flagship. They are probably responding to the distress signal that we responded to.”

  “They are probably not going be happy that we blew up their super-secret, black-ops, naughty, naughty laboratory facility,” Gartooth remarks, being facetious.

  “We are being hailed,” 42 warns.

  “On vid.”

  The screen lights up with a picture of a very large black Wolfkin male in a smartly dressed uniform.

  “I am General Hurt, the captain of the flagship Telherra of the Elemental Empire. You’re trespassing in our space. What business do you have here?”

  “I am Captain Noctu of the Reptilian merchant vessel....” Eve paused, “Noctu. This is a neutral zone, so how can you claim that we are trespassing? You have no claim to this area of space.” She knew that he knew she was lying about the ship’s name. She just did not want to say it because it was a name of their main black-op project.

  Eve continued, “Besides, there is nothing out here that says Elemental Empire on it, now is there? We are just doing an astrological mineral survey of these asteroids to see if they contain any ores that we might be interested in mining.” They knew she was lying. They also knew that she was the one that probably destroyed their lab facility.

  “I don’t think they are buying that story, Boss,” Nelma says, nervously.

  “Make sure the mines are active and the status web is deployed and cloaked,” Eve says and then presses the reply button to hear the general’s reply.

  “I think you destroyed our lab facility, and you probably took something that was not yours. I might be able to forgive you for destroying our lab facility if you give me what you took…, Evella,” General Hurt demanded.

  42 says, “He launching fighters…looks like all of them.”

  Eve could not think of anything else to delay for more time.

  “You have 60 seconds to comply. What is it gonna be, Captain?” Gen. Hurt insisted, with growing impatience.

  Eve instructs, “Fire all batteries at the main ship now.” She knew they would never let them live no matter what the general said.

  Aboard the battleship, orders were flying about.

  “General, they are firing on us. Shields are up. Fighters are almost in intercept range. Even though it is a ‘merchant’ ship, it has firepower, shields, and armor that are impressive for that size of ship. Of course, it isn’t a match for a battleship,” First Officer Bean informs. Bean was a human about 35 years old; he had been in service for seven years.

  “Even if we get the data or whatever they took, they cannot be allowed to live,” Councilman Jax demands.

  “Yes, I am aware,” Gen. Hurt acknowledges. The large black Wolfkin was rather annoyed by the whole situation.

  “Now if everyone is done telling me stuff I already know, let me do my job.”

  Back on Eve’s ship.

  “Okay, Boss, the fighters just hit our traps. The mines just took out nine of their fighters, and 12 of them are stuck in the status web, and it is draining all their power. They will have no power in about five minutes. The other 14 just engaged us. The shields are holding, but will be gone in few minutes. The small rail guns are firing on the fighters,” Grimtooth says.

  “Keep hitting the big ship with the big cannons, and fire missiles at the fighters. Nelma, plot a jump course to Reptilian space. We are going to lightspeed as soon as we get out of the asteroid belt. Steer us behind the status nets to their block line of sight using their trapped fighters. Then hook around the net at the last minute and get to our jump point, Helma,” Eve commands with authority. Ship-wide intercom activates, “Doctor bring my daughters to the bridge now. Rulu, report to the bridge, and Pura do the same.”

  �
�Captain, I have not finished my testing on your daughters yet, so I do not know if they are contagious,” the doctor says, using her personal com badge.

  “It is not going to matter in a few minutes when we get blasted into a million pieces by that battleship in front of us!” Eve yells in a hurried fashion.

  “We have taken out seven of the fighters, but our shields are gone, and we are counting on our armor only right now. Forward rail gun battery on the port side has been hit and is not working,” Gartooth says over the exploding noises in the background.

  Nelma,” Course laid in for the jump, Boss.”

  “We are at the status net, but the battleship has moved to the front of the opening and is blocking our exit!” Helma says in a panic.

  The doctor, the daughters, Rulu, and Pura enter the bridge. Rulu goes over to engineering station and transfers engineering commands to that console. Pura goes to the ship status station.

  “Doc, get them out of those spacesuits,” Eve blurts out as the ship shakes from an explosion.

  Pura says, “We were hit on the port side again in the rail gun ammo holder, all the rounds detonated in the magazine. There is an enormous crater on the port side; levels 13 through 21 and sections 10 through 19 are open to space: 93 dead, almost half the crew.”

  “The blast took out four fighters and disabled two more. The last one got tossed into the status net from the blast explosion,” Grimtooth reported.

  “Sub-light and jumps engines still okay,” Rulu says.

  Helma responds, “Want me to make a run for it and slip around the left side facing the starboard side of the ship to the battleship? We still have armor and guns on that side.”

  “Yes, when I give you the word. It is going to be a tight squeeze, being that close to their guns we will only have a few seconds to get into jump position. Helma, as soon as we are in position jump, don’t wait for my command.”