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[ICFW NOTE: THIS FILE IS IN MULTIPLE PARTS, COMPOUNDED FROM THE FIRSTHAND MEMORY LOGS OF "DEATH," "COMMANDER" AND "REDD" TOGETHER IN THE FIELD AT THE SITE OF THE EARLIEST KNOWN REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENT. THESE FILES ARE CONSIDERED PART OF A COLLECTION OF PRIVATE LOGS, AND WERE ONLY RETRIEVED BY FORCE AT "COUNCIL'S" DIRECT REQUEST.]

[ADDITIONAL NOTE: ICFW REPORTS THE CRITICAL INJURY OF SEVENTEEN (17) PERSONNEL IN RELATION TO THE RETRIEVAL OF THESE FILES. ALL ICFW AGENTS ARE HEREBY WARNED TO AVOID DIRECT CONTACT WITH ALL THREE SUBJECTS AT ANY COST, ON PAIN OF DEATH. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE MAIN SUBJECT'S ABILITIES OR INTELLIGENCE; HE IS JUST AS THOROUGH AND VIOLENT; PERHAPS MORE SO, THAN MANY OF HIS PEERS. --ICFW.]

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[PRIVATE MEMORY LOG NO: 6319827]

*[DATE: 029-019-7563 (ICFW CALENDAR), *

09 FEBRUARY, 2075 (EARTH CALENDAR)]

[LOCATION: EAST HARBOR TOWER, BAY 209, KO'TARI A, CAPITAL CITY OF KI'SETTA.]

*[MAIN SUBJECT: A'KEHAS BENDA'HI, ALIAS "BENDI," ALSO CALLED CODE NAME: "DEATH."] *

*[AGE: 15 SEASONS. APPROX: 14-16 EARTH YEARS] *

[SPECIES: "BLACK-FURRED SAND-TAIL", FELIDAE, CONFIRMED Z'EKITOMA PROJECT SURVIVOR. CURRENTLY CAPTAIN OF THE "FANG AND CLAW."]

[CODE NAMES "COMMANDER" AND "REDD" ARE BOTH SECONDARY SUBJECTS.]

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** ----BEGIN PRIVATE MEMORY LOG----**

"Hey, Captain A'ki! Come over here; have a drink with us!"

A round of cheers and shouts of encouragement erupted from the large group of ship-mechanics nearby, all huddled over a long, metal table strewn about with discarded empty bottles of K'vota. The last Mecha shift of the working week had recently ended, and, as is the usual custom, one of the Mechs had taken up a collection from everyone else and had returned bearing a literal cartload of different bottles of fiery liquor.

On some days, I actually wished I was old enough to head over and join them; to drink away the pains of my loss and regret in their company, and to celebrate the freedom which I now cherished. Instead, when I did drink, which had become more and more frequent as of late, I would do so in the privacy of my quarters onboard my ship, where nobody would bother me or take the bottles away. After all, there were some privileges that even reaching the rank of 'Captain' couldn't buy...

Heaving a sigh, I wiped away a thick streak of bluish-brown engine-core deposits on the long sleeves of my dirty Mecha coat, before retracting the tools I'd been using to replace the engine's six glowing purple cores into the heavy metal braces around my wrists. The black-and-white striped patches of fur on my hands and feet had become thickly coated in a layer of core-mud and grime. I already knew that it was going to take me hours in an industrial-strength shower to scrub this shit off.

Still, when it came to my vessel, I'd always preferred to do the mecha work for myself; it was one of the first skills I'd learned among the pirates, and it had become a permanent habit of mine even as I'd eventually been voted up to the rank of full-time Raid Captain. Some of the most satisfying results, as the Commander once told me, are the ones you're willing to achieve for yourself.

Stepping backwards out of the ship's cramped engine bay, I gritted my teeth and growled with effort as I struggled to hoist one of the two heavy, steel and lead-lined outer hull plates back into place. I was nearly about to drop one of the damn things onto my foot, when I suddenly felt the weight of the heavy steel being lifted from the other side. Craning my neck out to get a better view, I caught sight of a familiar, tangled mess of shaggy black hair. The Commander's face twisted upwards into a forced smile, as he too, began to struggle to hold up the other end.

"Commander?!" I called out, slightly perplexed, "I thought you were still out in the field? What're you doing back here?"

Together, we shifted and strained as we attempted to manually lift the heavy plate back into its proper place. A metallic 'hiss' eventually signalled our success, as the plate was suddenly pulled from our hands, and an automated stream of liquified metal began to roll down its seams, sealing it securely in place.

"Yeah, I was!" he shouted back, panting heavily as he bent over at the waist, trying to catch his breath. "I just got back from X'iol 4. We've been helping them to rebuild their cities and farms after the battles there ended last month. You wouldn't believe how quickly it's been happening; once the Council finally found out what I had planned, they basically gave me a blank check!"

"Oh, yeah?" I nodded slightly, as I bent down to lift up the second hull plate from the floor. "How's the progress?" My two black-and-white striped tails began to twitch behind me as my curiosity was piqued.

"Well, I've been using all of the Council's funds to help restore their economy, as well as bring the X'iol System's four members of the ICFW Council out of hiding. The Xiolis should be holding their first free elections by this time next year!" He exclaimed excitedly in response, as he bent over once again to help me lift up the second plate.

Through our combined effort, we managed to just slide the heavy, triangular plate into place, sighing in unison as the ship's vacuum-sealing functions suddenly kicked in once again. Watching the thick trails of liquid metal trace their way between the cracks and joints of the two plates, I managed a slight smile as I slowly nodded my head in satisfaction.

Finally, my work here was done.

"Well, at this point, why wouldn't they?" I managed to respond, turning to look up at him as a warm smile began to tug at the corners of my muzzle. "I mean, the Council offers protection from the T'erii, the promise of a fair and stable government, and to top it all off, access to us. And we pretty much take care of everything else. Or, at least, you do. Personally, I can't figure out how you manage to juggle it all; being a pirate, a soldier, a politician, and a revolutionary, all in the space of one campaign... If you asked me, sir, I'd say that you probably have the most difficult job out of us all..."

"You'd likely be right about that one, kid..." The tall, thin man remarked with a smile. I watched as he began to pat down on the pockets of his thick black coat, before retrieving a small, rectangular box from one of them and pulling out a long, thin paper tube filled with a leafy, brown substance, which he tossed upwards and expertly caught between his teeth.

I'd first heard about this practice from some of the mecha crews who'd recently taken up the habit themselves. These 'cigarettes,' as the Commander called them, were seen as an unfortunate gift by the pirate crews and the citizenry in general. Tobacco, as the plant was apparently called on his home world, was exceedingly harmful to the bodies of all who imbibed in it, and yet, one of the first things he'd done, when given the opportunity to return to planet Earth to 'gather supplies,' as he'd put it, was to stock up on some of the human race's most potent and mind-altering intoxicants. There were also rumors abounding that he'd even been growing plants and fungi with narcotic and even hallucinogenic properties. But nobody had been able to prove it yet.

I sniffed the air appreciatively as I watched him use a small, gas-fueled torch to light up one end of the paper tube, before taking in a long pull of smoke. As he exhaled with a satisfying sigh, we both watched as the wisps of grey-blue smoke began to trace their way gracefully along the outer hull of my ship. Noticing my curiosity out of the corner of his vision, he chuckled softly, before removing another one of the paper tubes and handing it over to me.

"Back where I'm from, you used to not be able to purchase these until you were at least twenty-one years old. Then, back in the 2050's, the government decided that enough was enough, and just made all tobacco products illegal, even electronic nicotine devices. At the time I was growing up in, you were lucky to be able to find one of these for a small fortune. Thankfully, after I saved their asses during the wars on K'ol, the Council was more than happy to give me permission to visit Earth and pick up a few things. After a few pit stops in Mexico, Bolivia, and Laos, I managed to find the great-grandson of an old tobacco farmer in Virginia, who luckily still had some viable seeds. The old guy almost had a heart attack when he saw my ship..."

He chuckled slightly, taking another long drag from his cigarette as he shook his head slowly.

"But, what do you know? It turns out a lot of things grow surprisingly well here on Ko'tari."

I turned the thin, paper tube over in my claws, raising it to my nose and taking in a deep sniff as the aroma of well-cured tobacco filled my senses. Truth be told, I'd recently taken up the smoking habit myself, after it had begun to spread like a wildfire among the mechas and the pirate crews. I mean, who could resist something new? Besides, it often went well with my nightly bottle of k'vota... But still, I hadn't exactly told the commander about any of that yet.

"So, after the K'ol wars, they let you go back to your home world?" I asked, trying to change the subject. "What made you decide to come back to Ko'tari?"

The question seemed to startle him at first. Then, after a moment of contemplation, he shrugged his shoulders, heaved a sigh, and took one final drag from his cigarette, before stomping it out on the ground.

"That was about five years ago, kid. You remember; it was right after we took over the core mines in the K'ol system and set Jack's people, the BAL's who were used in the Z'ekitoma project free. I was... desperate. I'd barely been able to maintain my sanity up until that point.

Besides, in case you hadn't noticed, out here on Ko'tari, there was never anything that was available much in the way of "chemical happiness" besides k'vota and other forms of booze. So I went to the Council on my own with a proposition. If they were willing to let me go back to Earth to pick up a few things, I would agree to ally myself with their Coalition for a few years, in case the T'erii decided to make a move."

Sighing once more, he reached out a hand and gently stroked the black fur on top of my head.

"But, truth be told, I'd always planned to come back. Ko'tari; it's become my home now. Its people have become my friends, and they look up to me to show them how to live better, more open and free lives. And after everything they've been through, I couldn't just leave them. I swore it to myself. When I first found and established this planet as a free world, I swore to myself that I would never let these people be taken, abused, or forced into chains again. Especially not after what those bastards did to..."

His voice silently trailed off, as his gaze shifted to stare blankly towards the stars which shone outside of the harbor's windows. After a moment of this, he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, before retrieving a second cigarette and sticking it between his lips.

"Well. What can I say, Bendi?" he muttered between his teeth as he used his torch to light the cigarette, "It's been a long, hard path, these last ten years. You would know; you've been with me every step of the way, since the very beginning. At first, it was all just an adventure, you know? Raiding ships, stealing supplies, freeing slaves... But then, after a while, it became political; it became serious. People started dying, calling us terrorists... These days, I sometimes wonder, in my heart of hearts, if any of this has even been worth it..."

"It was definintely worth it, sir," I responded without hesitation. "You know what I've been through; the things they did to me, and made me do... After being born into that hell, I can honestly say that meeting you and learning from you have been the two most important achievements of my lifetime. Do you remember how I was, the day you first found me?" I reminded him, reaching over my shoulders to unfasten the thick belts which held my mecha suit in place.

Pulling off the cumbersome garment, I tossed it into a heap on the floor, before reaching for my sleeveless black leather vest, which I threw on over my naked chest before meeting his eyes once again as a wide grin began to form across his lips.

"Hell yeah, I remember! You were wild! Like a killer jungle-cat out of hell! Even after all this time, I still can't believe the shit they were doing to all of you guys... Stunted growth and mental programming... Bio-enhancements, genetic manipulation, forced assassination training... That shit reminded me of old horror movies back on Earth, with mad scientists and super-soldiers..."

My gaze shifted silently to the floor as I shook my head sadly, my mind beginning to fill with the memories of their so-called 'treatments' and 'experiments.' Surgeries, narcotherapy, physical augmentation... It had taken me months of study once I'd gained my freedom to even begin to understand what the T'erigai were doing to me and the other cubs like me, and it had taken two years of controversial psychological deprogramming just to get over it. Even now, just thinking about it brings back a feeling of fear and pain.

Realizing that I'd been silent, I turned to face the Commander, who was now eyeing me with a look of genuine concern on his face.

"What's the matter, sir?" I asked, perplexed.

"...Do you remember what day it is, Bendi?"

Just then, it hit me. Now I knew why he'd rushed away from the battlefield to come and tend to me.

"February ninth, Earth calendar, right?" I replied, my voice monotone and devoid of any emotion.

"Yeah..."

"Shit... So it's that time already, huh? It's been another year..."

"That's right, kid. It was six years ago today, that Captain Redd and I went out on our first raid together. It was when we took the Freedom, and when we... found you."

Suddenly, it felt as if every bone in my body had been paralyzed. Subconsciously, my hands began to tremble, and I could feel the fur on my tails beginning to stand on end as they nervously twitched from side to side. The voices of the other Mechs, who had been laughing and enjoying their drinks nearby, began to fade away into silence, becoming replaced with the building sounds of the pain and terror that had been locked inside of my mind. Roars of anguish. The screams of the dying; the pain. I could only close my eyes and grit my teeth as the memories began to flood through my mind like a burst dam.

Visions of pools of fresh blood, sterile operating chambers, and twisted, mutilated bodies began to flash before my eyes as I subconsciously began to relive the memories of the hell that I'd been born into. The feelings quickly became so intense and overwhelming that I nearly became lost to the voices, clapping my hands over both ears and shaking my head violently in an attempt to quiet the chaos.

In the end, the feeling of a strong hand gripping my shoulder shocked me back to reality. Suddenly gasping for breath, I turned to see the Commander staring down at me, a look of genuine worry and concern drawn across his normally peaceful face.

"Bendi... Just breathe, cub. You're not in their fucked-up labs anymore; you're right here. You're right here with me, and you're safe; I promise. Now, just take a deep breath, and try to stabilize your thoughts. I'm going to go have a word with those guys out there, but I'll be right back, alright? Are you gonna be okay?"

I could only nod my head in silence as I closed my eyes and took several slow, deep breaths in an attempt to center myself. Every year, on the anniversary of my rescue, I always suffered from flashbacks and feelings of guilt and regret for what I'd done. So many bodies... So much blood...

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sounds of loud complaints coming from the mechs who were drinking behind me. I could hear the Commander's stern but gentle voice arguing with them as well, and the short confrontation continued for a moment, before I heard the sounds of bottles being collected and frustrated footsteps departing begrudgingly from the harbor floor.

"Hey, Captain!" came the commander's voice from behind me.

Turning to face him, I saw him gesture for me to join him at the table that the others had been drinking at. As I approached the metal table, I noticed several untouched bottles of liquor sitting in a neat row at one end of it, each one a different shape, size, and variety of intoxicating liquor. Walking back towards the ship, the Commander lifted two of the long, thin core-holding pallets from the ground, before dragging them over to the table for the two of us to use as makeshift chairs. I seated myself next to him at the table as he leaned over it, taking ahold of three of the tallest bottles and setting them before us.

"What's going on, sir?" I asked, suddenly confused as to his intent.

"What's going on, Bendi, is a little ritual I learned when I was your age, back on Earth. Fortunately for you, though, the drinking age on Ko'tari is only fifteen seasons, but with all the shit you've been through to get this far, I'm pretty sure that number is negotiable..."

The sweet, fruity smell of a locally-made k'vota caressed my nostrils as he popped the cork from one of the bottles, before setting it in front of me.

"That's Iso'ai, isn't it?" I remarked appreciatively. "That's made right here in Ki'setta."

"It is, indeed. That's a hell of a nose you've got on you, kid, but it's not like you haven't done this before..."

I considered lying to him at first. After all, I'd managed to hide my drinking and smoking from him for quite a while as I'd worked my way up from a common ship's mechanic to a Captain. But still, something inside of me felt that it just wouldn't be right... Heaving a sigh, I gripped the neck of the bottle and raised it to my lips, sucking down a good quarter of the fiery liquor as he looked on in awe and a hint of acceptance.

"I'd heard you'd started drinking from the members of your crew, but damn, kid! When did you start taking it to this level?!"

"When I made Captain..." I muttered under my breath, as I raised the bottle for another swig. "How do you think I've been getting to sleep for these past three years? All the battles, all the raids... Not to mention the nightmares..."

I fully expected to be reprimanded for this admission. After all, although I'd been bio-enhanced to the maturity of a full adult, I was still, in the eyes of the laws, an underage cub. Instead, I got a heavy sigh, followed by a nod of understanding.

"You want a light for that smoke, kid?"

I'd completely forgotten about the cigarette I'd palmed for later. Removing the paper tube from my vest pocket, I stuck it between my teeth and allowed him to light it for me with his torch.

"Bendi, you know I'm never going to judge you for the choices you've made. But I do have to ask you; was this my fault? Was it me; did I do something wrong to add more stress on you? Was it the crews?"

I shook my head quickly, inhaling from my cigarette as I did so. "No sir, it's not you. It could never be you; you've done more for me than anybody else I've ever known. You gave me an education; goals for my future. You gave me a family. And it's not the raids, or the crews, it's just..." The thoughts in my mind were so jumbled that I couldn't finish the sentence.

"Well, whatever it is, we'll figure it out together, Bendi. And you're right, we ARE family, but that also means we never lie to each other.

And we've talked about this; when it's just the two of us, you don't need to call me 'Commander' or 'sir.' After all, you're more than just another soldier to me, kid. We signed the adoption forms, remember?"

I nodded my head silently in reply, taking another long pull from the cigarette as I attempted to steady my thoughts.

"Then please, son, help me to understand. You know that there's nothing I wouldn't do to help you if you needed it."

"... Like I said, it's not the crews, or the life..." I slowly began, running a hand through the striped fur on the back of my neck as I struggled to find the right words.

"It's something inside of me, you know? Something damaged or broken; something they messed with. That's really the best way I can describe it...."

My hands began to tremble as the memories once again started to return, the overwhelming sensations of pain and fear coursing through me like a virus. However, these disturbing thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of a second bottle being uncorked.

"Then, let's talk about it," he said with a slight grin, nodding towards the bottles set before us. "We've got all the time and liquor in the world. Let's get it all out; lay all the cards on the table. Just you and me, what do you say?"

Nodding my head silently, I took one last puff from my cigarette, before stubbing it out on the metal table and reaching out to grab my half-finished bottle. Raising it to my lips, I finished its entire contents in three large gulps, before slamming it loudly onto the table, and reaching for the second one.

"Whoa, whoa! Kid, you're gonna want to take it easy on that stuff! That's--"

"Two-hundred proof, cask-strength I'tarra. I know; I actually paid for this one myself," I finished his sentence, before taking a long drink from the bottle, and setting it back down in front of us.

Already, my vision was beginning to blur, and I knew that attempting to stand up at this point would likely end with me becoming well-acquainted with the harbor floor. Still, the man who'd adopted me, and had chosen to raise me as his own son had come to me to learn my truth, and with the warmth of the liquor flowing through my body, I was beginning to feel less troubled by the prospect of remembering.

"You've got a recorder on your comm, right?" I asked him, my voice already a throaty growl that indicated intoxication. He nodded his head in confirmation. Drawing two fingers across the underside of his wrist, a holographic projector rose up from beneath his skin.

"Okay..." I began, " I want you to turn it on, and I want you to listen. This is probably the only time in my life that I'm ever going to get this far into it, so I'm going to do all of this once, and then when it's over, we can talk about it."

He nodded his head once more in understanding, before activating the holographic recorder.

"...And DAD?" I called out towards him. "Nobody gets to see this file. EVER. Deal?"

"Deal. It's your life son, so you can start wherever you want. Don't feel pressured, just let it all flow naturally."

"Alright then, give me a second to think. I'll try to get as far back as I can remember about that day..."

---

Blinding lights...

Cold steel...

The feeling of dozens of needles, poking and prodding at my flesh...

My vision is blurred from the anesthesia as I struggled to move my head, only to find it securely held in place by a heavy metal bar placed around my neck... From above me, several creatures, their faces masked, covered in scales of grey and vomit-green, chattered excitedly as their eyes pored over every inch of my naked body, pointing towards my legs as tey continued to drone in their deep, throaty language.

The painful translation implant that had been placed inside of my skull had only recently begun to function at some point during my last two waking cycles. My body struggled to adjust to the heavy doses of their drugs as I strained my senses to their limits in an attempt to understand what they were saying...

"The bio-enhancement procedures were successful!!" One of the scaly figures intoned, as he quickly moved to enter notes into what appeared to be a holographic communications panel.

"Yes, however, we cannot present this subject to the senate in its current state..."

"The senate can all die," The original creature spat out with an air of contempt. "Are you not convinced by our progress?! Look at this cub!"

Once again, he gestured excitedly towards my body, pointing out the results of the numerous 'treatments' and 'procedures' they had performed.

"Eighty-six seasons of study! Ten generations of culling and breeding! The entire lives of our peoples' greatest minds, sacrificed! And now, look! Finally, we have done it! We have bred and built the future of our race! With this subject as the proof of our success, we can breed an entire army!"

"An entire army? You have high hopes for your only surviving male subject, Z'kari," A deeper, more sinister voice interrupted. " As it stands to me, this program of yours, to breed the perfect soldier, appears to be a complete failure."

A strange, scale-less creature suddenly came into view, shaking a pointed claw in the direction of the paralyzed scientists. At a second glance, I realized that he, too, appeared to be one of their species. However, he looked as if his scales had been forecfeully removed.

"And this one..." he continued, pointing his claw towards me, " Is an abomination! A cub, with the strength and speed of six fully-grown T'erii?! Intelligence that surpasses even our own greatest minds?! You have not bred the future of our people, Z'kari, but the end of them!"

The scientist called Z'kari appeared to be taken aback by the harsh words of this new arrival's voice.

"General, I swear to you..." the scientist stuttered slightly, attempting to find his voice. "The cub is broken and docile! He will follow orders in battle without question! He--"

"He will kill every one of us with his bare claws if he gets free!" The general interrupted, turning to stare back at me with his lips parted in a fang-bearing snarl. "A CUB! Eight seasons, not even old enough to MATE! And you've given him every tool he needs to destroy us all!"

Suddenly, every other pair of eyes in the room turned to face the floor. Huffing indignantly, the scale-less general strode directly up to the scientist called Z'kari, before jamming a claw directly into his scaly chest.

"Listen well, Z'kari. We are approaching our exit point on our route to K'ol. When this ship passes through that gate, I want this cub to be an unliving corpse! If he is not, then you shall be..." With those final words, the general turned and stormed out of the room, cursing loudly in his local dialect.

"Bastard..." The scientist muttered under his breath, before heaving a sigh and walking over to a machine filled with many thin, hollow tubes, several of which were attached to my arms and legs. "They will never understand... They will never change. Perhaps the other tribes made the right choice..."

As he pressed several unseen switches on the device, I could feel a pulsing wave of warmth rising from my feet to my chest as I was suddenly injected with some unseen drug. Gasping slightly for air as the chemicals swept over me, I could feel my body begin to shut down as the drugs suddenly forced me into unconsciousness; a dark, dreamless sleep...

Some time later, I awoke with a struggling gasp, my ears ringing with the loud blaring repetitive sound of some unseen alarm. My vision still groggy, I noticed that I was still laying on my back on the cold, steel operating table. However, my restraints appeared to have been cut or otherwise removed. Sliding my sore legs over the edge of the cold surface, I gritted my teeth in silent pain as I fell to my feet onto the deck below.

Staggering with each step, I slowly willed my legs to carry me towards the scientists' laboratory, hidden by a simple sterile curtain which covered a nearby open door.

Inside the lab, I was greeted by a scene of pure chaos. Many of the nurses and scientists that I'd grown to recognize lay motionless, their bodies spread out in pools of thick, blue blood upon the laboratory floor. The survivors appeared to have taken up arms, and were struggling loudly as they attempted to fight back against a dozen or so of the largest T'erii guards I'd ever seen aboard the ship.

The scientist named Z'kari, his gray face a scowl of anger and rage, was burying a thick surgical blade into the bowels of one of the guards, before suddenly catching sight of me out of the corner of his eyes.

"Cub! You're awake!" he cried out in surprise, pulling the blade from the stomach of the now-deceased guard before quickly making his way over to me.

"Can you run?! Are you able to fight?!" he called out, a look of worry and concern drawn across his face. Unsure of how to respond, I simply motioned towards the knife held strongly in his claws, which was steadily dripping blood onto the floor. Without a shred of hesitation, he immediately reached out, and offered me the handle of the blade.

"Then kill them! Kill the ALL! These people are a disgrace to our tribe! There are others, pirates, coming here now to set the slaves free! You are a cub, a weapon, and they will take you with them! Now go! Use what I have given you! TEAR THEM APART AND LEAVE NONE OF THEM ALIVE!"

He shouted these last words as tears formed in his eyes. Before he could finish, however, his last breath came out as a choked gasp, and he suddenly fell face-first onto the floor before me. Standing behind him, my eyes caught sight of one of the guards, his blade still dripping with the scientist's fresh blood.

"Come now, cub," he snarled between clenched teeth as he raised his blade for another strike. "Let's not make this difficult..."

I felt my lips curl as a deep breath hissed in between my fangs. At that moment, I didn't know whether to scream or shout. Instead, what emerged from my maw was a roar so loud that it echoed off the walls, shaking the metal panels, and bringing all the fighting in the room to a sudden, shocking stop.

The scientists and guards all stared blankly at me, their jaws open as I breathed heavily, the surgical blade clenched tightly between my claws.

"Your general... He was wrong," I snarled out in their throaty language, before crouching on my feet, tensing my muscles for my coming attack.

With a loud roar, the guard in front of me sudden;y brought down his heavy blade in a wide arc, slicing through the air where my neck had been as I effortlessly stepped to one side and dodged the blow, my eyes tracing his blade as it appeared to move with an impossible slowness.

Exhaling loudly, I turned with a speed I didn't know I had, dragging the surgical blade across both of the guard's knees, slicing his hamstrings so quickly that he didn't have time to recover. He'd barely opened his mouth to release a scream of pain, when I drove the blade under his throat, burying it deeply to the hilt into the base of his skull. Choking on his last gasp, the guard tumbled heavily to the floor, a puddle of blue-black blood quickly forming under his chin as he gurgled his last breath.

Turning to face the others, I saw that their eyes were still focused upon me. With another ear-shattering roar, I launched myself across the room in a blinding sprint, carving the blade through the air with such force that I could almost hear it cut the wind itself. When I finally reached the exit towards the ship's main deck, I turned back to face them all again, my claws still gripping the knife as I panted to catch my breath.

One by one, the guards I'd slipped past began to drop to the ground, precise, surgical cuts suddenly splitting open their throats and stomachs as they fell, gasping, onto the cold steel floor. The surviving scientists simply looked on, their bodies trembling with such shock and fear that they couldn't seem to move.

"...Your project was a success," I hissed through clenched teeth, before turning around to leave. "But your general was right about one thing," I added, almost as an afterthought.

"I'm going to destroy them all..."

With those final words, I left the room, and used the handle of the blade to crush the door's external control panel, trapping the remaining scientists inside the lab. For what they'd done, a quick death would've been too gentle of a release. I decided to take the advice of their dead leader, and try my hand with these 'pirates', who were on their way to take the ship. At this point, anyone else, anywhere else, had to be better than this hell...

The main deck was full of guards and crew, already on high alert, as the alarms continued to echo across the walls of the ship. As the nearest scaly head turned to face me, its owner let out an alarmed cry, reaching for a pair of short, curved blades leaning against the wall nearby, as he watched my blood-covered form step calmly out of the door of the lab.

The painful, brutal training I'd been forced to endure, along with the others in the 'program,' suddenly kicked in, almost instinctively. Rushing forward, I easily ducked his first wild swing, before smoothly driving the bloodstained surgical blade between his ribs and directly into his heart. With a slight grunt of effort, I snapped the handle off the metal knife, leaving it firmly planted inside of his chest as I reached out to catch his two sword-like weapons before his body could hit the floor.

The curved, scimitar-like weapons felt light in my hands, almost weightless. these would do quite nicely for what I had planned...

After what seemed like an eternity later, I was finally able to stop and catch my breath. As I gasped and panted loudly, gritting my teeth against the pain of a few lucky cuts I'd received, I used the nearby wall to steady myself as I peered out over the once-crowded open spaces of the main deck.

Now, instead of guards and crew, there were blood and corpses, mangled and slashed T'erin bodies piled high near each exit and choke point, some still dripping steadily as their veins deposited the last drops of their lives onto the cold steel floor below. The metallic, alkaline scent of their blue-black blood hung in the air as I took in deep, gasping lungfuls, a part of me reveling in the amount of terror and violence that I had wrought.

The only living souls left aboard this ship, aside from the scientists that I'd trapped inside the laboratory, were the scale-less general and his bridge crew, along with the slaves I could smell, locked away down in the holds below. Sucking in another deep breath, I let out another hull-shaking roar; my final warning to the ones who had put me through so much pain and suffering.

'I AM COMING FOR YOU!' The ferocious bellow echoed as it bounced off the walls.

'DEATH COMES FOR YOU NOW!'

---

[SECONDARY ENTRY: ICFW CLASSIFIED DATA. LOG RETRIEVED AND ADDED AT THE REQUEST OF "COUNCIL"]

PRIMARY SUBJECT: I'ANNI RE'ISEKKO, CODE NAME: "REDD",

SECONDARY SUBJECT: JOSEPH B. ABEL, CODE NAME: "COMMANDER."

---BEGIN SECONDARY LOG---

"Alright! The boarding crews have launched! Let's see what kind of challenge these bastards can give us, shall we?!"

Redd's deep, scratchy British accent echoed throughout the bridge as he turned around towards the crew to repeat the orders in Ko'tari.

"What can we expect?!" I shouted over the commotion, wanting to be as prepared for any confrontation as possible.

"If we're lucky? A small fight and a large treasure haul!" he called back to me, his red-scaled tail swishing excitedly behind him as he continued to direct our slapdash crew of pirates from the main control console.

"And if we're NOT?!" I burst out, suddenly feeling a lot less confident in my new friend.

"Then a LARGE fight... And nothing else..."

I silently began to scold myself for agreeing to this raid. Personally, I'd much rather have stayed back on Ko'tari prime, rather than fly all the way out here just to run into a ship filled with enemy troops! Shaking my head and muttering to myself, I turned to walk towards the large set of double-doors which led out towards the top deck.

"What was that?!" I suddenly heard Redd's voice cry out from behind me. "Hey, hey, HEY! Slow down! Now, just what are you--"

His voice was cut off by what sounded like a string of Ko'tari expletives, being broadcast loudly over the bridge comm system.

"THEY'RE FUCKING DEAD! THEY'RE ALL DEAD!" The voice screamed out in Western Ko'tari, "HOLY GODS, WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO US, CAPTAIN?! THERE'S NOTHING HERE BUT--"

The panicked chatter instantly cut off as a blood curdling scream suddenly erupted over the comms. Turning around and stepping back in front of the main console, I listened intently, as did everyone else on the bridge, as a series of shouts and jumbled commands began to come in over the airwaves.

"Christ, what the hell is going on?!" I muttered to no one in particular. Standing next to me, Redd shook his head, a puzzled look drawn across his scaly face as he struggled to listen in.

Finally, after a few more moments of jumbled audio, a clear and panicked voice began to come over the comms once again.

"We've found a survivor, sirs!" The voice chirped anxiously, before being replaced by another, more deep and raspy-sounding tongue.

"He's not making any sense!" The pirate stammered, before turning away from his comm to ask the newcomer another question in the strange-sounding language.

"What's he saying?!" Redd shouted into the console, as the other members of the bridge crew worked anxiously in an attempt to isolate and increase the strength of the strange signal.

"Put your comm up to his face! I want to hear him for myself!"

The pirate chirped an affirmative answer, before a deep, gravelly voice began to loudly erupt through the speakers on the bridge. Hearing it clearly, I now recognized the language. It was T'erii. The survivor that they had found must've been one of their crew.

"HE IS COMING! WE MUST LEAVE NOW! HE WILL KILL US ALL! HE WILL KILL US! PLEASE! WE MUST LEAVE THIS SHIP!"

The translation swam through my head as I quickly took in the obviously fear-laced shouts.

"What are you speaking of?!" Redd yelled back, his voice coming out in a perfect imitation of that familiar, throaty bark that I'd once heard so many times before.

"THEY BRED A MONSTER! HE HAS KILLED THEM ALL! ONLY THE GENERAL AND HIS SLAVES REMAIN! HEAR HIM! HEAR HIM! HE HUNTS US EVEN NOW!"

An ear-splitting roar suddenly erupted over the comm channel, causing several members of the bridge crew, including myself, to grimace and cover our ears against the sound.

"JESUS! Fuck!" I cried loudly, as the foreign sound began to pierce even the depest recesses of my brain. At first, I expected it to fade, like any other non-verbal sound that was processed by my NTI implant. Instead, a hushed whisper began to crawl across my temples, a jumble of nonsense that seemed to be, I hoped, a translation error.

"Pain. Blood. Die. Kill. Death. DEATH COMES FOR YOU."

That last statement trickled out as a complete sentence, making my blood run cold.

"Redd? Is this General the one you said you were after?" I asked aloud, with my breath catching in my throat with each syllable.

"Aye..." He replied, his jaw hanging agape as he slowly began to nod his head.

"That's what I was afraid you were gonna say..." I muttered, as a series of alarmed shouts and cries of pain suddenly began to come in over the comms. Quickly, they escalated to screams and rapidly retreating footsteps; the sound of the boarding crew scrambling to get away from some then-unknown assailant.

"Call them back!" I shouted in Redd's direction, suddenly feeling even worse about this endeavor than I had to begin with. "Call them back, before whatever it is out there kills them all!"

Redd swiveled to face me, the look of panic in his brown eyes telling me everything I needed to know. He hadn't been prepared for something like this; this was true foreign enemy territory, even for someone like him.

"SHIT!" I exploded, grabbing him by the collar of his coat and pulling him away from the consoles as I stepped forward to take control.

"ALL BOARDING CREWS FALL BACK! FULL FUCKING RETREAT!" I shouted loudly in Southern Ko'tari, the order being instantly acknowledged by the loud beating of retreating troops. Turning back to face my catatonic co-captain, I found Redd staring blankly into the sea of flashing consoles as his lower jaw still hung largely open in shock.

Mustering what strength I could find, I raised my open hand, and slapped the draconian creature as hard as I could across the side of his muzzle. Snapping to and sputtering loudly, he turned to face me with a rage-filled glare of hatred in his eyes.

"The HELL was that for?!" he yelled, reaching up to stroke his jawline as he continued to huff and stare daggers into my face.

"Wake the FUCK up, you old, scaly bastard!" I shouted back, jutting my chin right up into his muzzle. "This is YOUR run; YOUR revenge! I don't need you fucking off into space! I need you right HERE with me, you understand?!"

His expression quickly changed from anger to shame and guilt. Cursing under his breath, he gave a forceful tug on his wispy, white mane, before letting out a loud stream of expletive-filled orders, which the bridge crew seemed to understand before I could.

"What was that?!" I yelled, confused as to why I couldn't translate them.

"I told them to dock us with the enemy craft! The escort and follow crews took off after we fired that last salvo, remember?!" he explained, his voice now steady and his expression serious.

"Once again, Mr. Abel, you're correct. This IS my run. If anyone should be confronting whatever it is on that ship, It's my duty as a Captain."

"Well, why not just SAY that?!" I blurted out incredulously.

In a sudden break from his usual character, Redd let out a burst of true, guttural laughter in response, his hands stroking the hilts of his two large swords as he turned to head for the doors.

"Well, I'm a pirate, aren't I? I've gotta save face somehow, you know. Now, are you coming along, or would you prefer to stay here and watch?"

My feet began to move before my mouth could protest. As I followed the aging old pirate captain down the steps which led to the cargo hold, I noticed that he seemed to move with more confidence in his step, and less of his usual brash cockiness.

As we approached the large airlock doors which led to the ship's docking chamber, I remained silent, following a few steps behind his large tail as he confidently led the way. Stepping inside of the large, cube-like chamber, I watched as he turned around to seal the doors behind us, before turning to meet my gaze with a slight smile across his scarred face.

Taking his place by my side, I watched as he expertly drew both of his swords from their sheaths. The twin pair of blades shone with a bluish-purple tint as they shone in the pure white light inside of the airlock chamber.

"A mixture of Ko'tari and T'erin steel," he explained, taking a moment to allow me to admire the craftwork.

"As is stated in the Laws of the Masters, these were forged by mine own hand," He sliced the blades with lightning speed through the empty air in front of us, chuckling heartily as he did so.

"Is that a requirement for every Master?" I asked, suddenly wondering about my own future as a member of the Tribe.

"Aye," he confirmed with a single nod of his head. "But a student's first pair must be a gift, forged for their use by their chosen master, " He nodded appreciatively at my own pair of blades, not like his, but rather a style of long, thin daggers. "When this is over, I'll teach you how they're made," he continued, as the chamber was suddenly pressurized from the enemy side.

"And once I'm done, I'll make you a second pair myself."

I couldn't help but smile as he said that. Before I could respond, however, the outer airlock doors suddenly flew open, revealing a panicked stream of blood-covered pirates. They pushed past us with blinding speed, cramming themselves into every corner of the airlock until the chamber was completely full to capacity.

"LOCK THE DOORS!" One of them screamed as the two of us calmly stepped between them and boarded the enemy spacecraft.

"HE'S GONE INSANE!" Another member of the crew yelled out in warning. "HE'LL KILL ANYTHING HE SEES!"

With that, several of them manually pulled the doors shut, sealing themselves off from whatever was chasing them, and leaving the two of us to investigate this particular mystery on our own.

"They could've given us more to go on than THAT, don't you think?" I muttered as I quickly pulled my own blades out of their sheaths. At this point, any information at all would've been helpful. But oh, well... Into the belly of the beast.

Redd raised a clawed hand to stop me as we quickly approached a three-way intersection. Crouching slightly on my heels, the leather shoes I'd had custom made giving way with ease, I peered around a nearby wall, fully expecting to see some sort of scene straight out of hell.

I probably shouldn't have expected anything less...

At first, I thought the walls of the ship had been painted in some sort of midnight-blue pigment. In fact, it looked so fresh, that I reached out my hand to touch it. Alarmed, Redd suddenly leaped over and snatched my arm out of the air, returning it to my side as he began to shake his head silently.

"Don't touch the walls..." he whispered, "They're covered in blood." He reached up with one claw and tapped his snout knowingly.

"Someone like me could smell that on you for miles away. We don't want to end up being tracked..."

I just nodded my head in a confused response. Painted with BLOOD? Tracking by SCENT? We were starting to enter what seemed to be a more primitive realm of battle tactics. Motioning down towards one of the dimly-lit hallways, he suddenly nodded his head in firm recognition.

"There's only a handful of people of people still alive on this ship, other than us, and a few recently-taken slaves down in the holds, I can already tell that by the scent," he explained, his voice a hushed whisper.

"Three of the five are no threat; I can already smell the puddle of piss from between one's legs from over here. The other two are equally scared; they're hiding even from us. Whatever has been using this ship as its own personal killing ground has definitely got them on edge..."

"What about the last one?" I inquired in my lowest voice.

"Well, there's the puzzle, friend..." The old pirate muttered almost to himself, With a curious look on his face, he silently lowered his snout towards the floor, close enough to almost touch the metal. Sniffing gingerly, he then shot eagerly up to his feet, an excited grin now plastered across his scaly face.

"Well, that changes things a bit now, doesn't it? I'm suddenly interested in meeting this 'monster' for myself..."

I was confused, which Redd immediately noticed. He silently led me further down the dark, deserted corridor, towards a large, open space, where I finally got my first glimpse of what had occurred on this ship. Pools of blue-black blood were caked beneath piles of green and grey-scaled corpses, some stacked as high as five in one spot.

The smell of the fresh kills was nearly overpowering; neither rotten nor sweet, but a pungent stench that almost burned my nostrils. Tapping my shoulder with a claw, Redd directed my attention towards a pattern of frenzied, bloody footprints, which seemed to lead towards the edge of the large common area we'd ventured into. Kneeling quietly to the floor, I peered down at them, trying my best to piece together what sort of chaos had happened here.

"This blood is different from the others, isn't it? I asked, pointing towards a small spray which coated a nearby wall. The color of this blood was noticeably lighter, almost an opaque blue, compared to the blue-black fluid which was seeping from the dead.

Lowering his snout to take a sniff, Redd suddenly stood back up, stroking his bearded chin in thought as his mind began to work over the possibilities.

"That makes three points of confirmation," he whispered, nodding his head slowly. "But still, I don't see how it's possible..."

"Care to enlighten me, friend?" I whispered with an annoyed grumble, now officially jealous of his professed talent. Nodding his head, he pointed a claw towards a series of small, five-pointed footprints which seemed to lead straight through the numerous trails of blood.

"See those, there?" He whispered. I nodded my head in confirmation.

"Those prints and that blood on the wall that you just found, in addition to what that survivor said... See the height of the blood spatter? It barely goes to waist-height, and that's nowhere near anything vital on a T'erii. On the other hand, the footprints are barely spaced apart, which means that either someone was walking rather awkwardly, or--"

"--We're looking for a KID?!" I suddenly exclaimed, unable to hide my feelings of shock and disbelief.

"They BRED a monster," Redd reminded me, quoting the panicked T'erin survivor's final words.Looking back over the bloody battle scene, I could hardly believe it at first, but then, I began to find more and more of the small, steady footprints...

"Christ..." I exhaled under my breath, as the full scope of the assault suddenly became perfectly clear.

"Aye..." Redd muttered, sniffing the air around the piles of scattered bodies nearby. "He slaughtered them all, quick and clean. Cuts to the throat, the stomach; the hamstrings, to bring them down to his height. From the look of it all, he's got some strength in him. See that dead guard against the wall over to your right?"

I turned to examine the body he was referring to.

"There's a surgical blade broken off in his ribcage," I observed as I slowly backed away, trying not to consider how it had gotten there.

"He jammed it between the ribs perfectly on the first strike, then broke the handle off the blade. see the empty leather sheaths next to him?" Redd observed, pointing towards the corpse.

"--He took this guy's weapons..." I finished for him.

"What do you want to bet that he's still hunting down his target?" Redd called out with a sneer. "I KNOW that scale-less bastard, don't forget. I happen to know that he's quite fond of, shall we say, 'unconventional' tactics..."

"And how does that help us?" I questioned, unable to see his point.

Ignoring my question, the old drake suddenly let out a menacing snarl, leaping past me as he suddenly thrust one of his swords into the open space between two corpses which were lying nearby, next to me. A howling whine of pain echoed across the walls as a a heavily-scarred, bleeding T'erin rolled out from under the pile, clutching the new wound on his side as as he bore his fangs and snarled loudly in rage.

"You!" he barked loudly in their deep, throaty tongue. "Why, after all this time, must it be YOU?!"

"YOU forget your place, slave-master," Redd barked back at him, raising a sword so that it pointed directly towards the injured creature's chest. "Your heart belongs at the end of my blade!"

With that, he unleashed a primal roar, closing the distance between them with an alarming speed I'd never seen him perform. Before he could deliver the killing blow, however, an even louder roar pierced our eardrums, shaking the panels of the metal bulkheads with such force that they appeared to shiver with the sound.

My vision instantly blurred, my legs losing balance as the sound drove me immediately to my knees. Looking back towards Redd and his opponent I could see that both of their jaws had instantly dropped in shock as they remained frozen in place, abandoning their battle and turning to face the new threat which seemed to be approaching at a rapid pace.

"SHIT! HE'S COMING BACK! If you must kill me, do it now! Quickly! Before He does it first!" The scale-less general's barked words were peppered with fear.

"And what did YOU do to him?" Redd snarled between clenched teeth, "For you and your crew to earn such a bloody fate?! Tell me!"

A muted whimper escaped the general's snout as his eyes suddenly darted to face the hall across from us.

"I... I ordered him killed!" he choked out desperately. "His kind are an abomination! The fanatical pipe dream of minds long dead! With what we gave him, he could grow to destroy our entire race!"

"And WHAT was that?!" I snapped back angrily. "What did you DO to this child?!"

"W...What DIDN'T we do..." The frightened T'erin muttered, his entire body shaking beneath the folds of his grey uniform. "They gave him the strength of six of our kind, and intelligence beyond our greatest minds! They were trying to breed the deadliest soldier... and I called him a failed experiment..."

"You created a monster, one you couldn't control, and you ordered him to be KILLED?! Where he could HEAR you say it?!" Redd scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I can't tell whether you're brave or stupid..."

"At this point, nor can I..." The trembling general remarked, his eyes now fixed solely on the passageway in front of us.

As we all stood in silence, the sound of soft, muted footsteps began to approach us from the shadows; a steady, yet determined gait. A moment later, a small feline cub, with black fur, white stripes, and two tails suddenly appeared from the darkness, his coat completely covered in the blue-black blood of T'erins. In his hands were gripped two scimitar-like swords, still dripping with the fluids of his latest kills.

The young cub came to a stop before the short set of steps which led down to the common area. I could feel his eyes watching my every move, silently deciding for himself whether or not Redd and I constituted a threat to him. I could see no fear in his gaze; nor curiosity or hidden emotion. He simply stood and watched, as we, in turn, watched him, neither of us daring to make the first move.

Finally, shaking away the fear and caution which had ravaged my mind, I decided to break the silence myself.

"Are you hurt?" I asked him in standard Earth English, before I could consider whether or not he could understand my words.

"No," he responded simply, his high-pitched, child-like voice catching me off-guard. "I have sustained no fatal injuries."

"What about those cuts?" I continued, pointing to a pair of deep gashes on his chest and left shoulder.

"I don't feel the pain," he replied, turning to have a look at the injuries himself, before returning his gaze to me. "Are you the 'pirates?'"

"Yeah... I'm Josh; Josh Abel. And this is my friend, Captain I'anni Re'isekko. But he prefers to be called Redd. What about you? Do you have a name?"

"A'kehas Bendahi."

"Death Comes For You..." Redd whispered in my ear. It took me a moment to realize that he was actually translating the cub's spoken name.

"That's a complicated name. Could I call you something simpler?" I asked, smiling slightly. The cub appeared to think about this for a moment, before giving a single nod of his head.

"Bendi. You may call me Bendi," he finally suggested, before raising a small hand and pointing towards the shaking general, whose throat was still at the edge of Redd's blade.

"What will you do with him?" he asked, in a tone of voice that told me that my life might depend on how I would answer.

"Me? Nothing. My friend here wants him dead. Do you think that we could come to some sort of agreement?"

The cub nodded his head once more. "Kill him. Kill him where he stands, and I will not harm you or your people. That is my offer."

I was about to respond, when a loud, strangling gasp drew my attention towards Redd. turning back, I saw that Redd had immediately impaled the scale-less general upon his swords, both blades piercing out through the wounded creature's back. With a grunt of effort, Redd withdrew both of his swords, allowing the now-dead general's body to crumple onto the floor in a heap of flesh and blood.

"What?!" he huffed with a shrug of his shoulders. "The cub gave us a good deal!"

Looking back towards the blood-spattered cub, I noticed that his expression was neither one of shock nor surprise. Instead, he seemed to understand the situation perfectly, with a slightly amused look drawn across his small muzzle. Just then, his face suddenly twinged into an expression of pain, and I watched as he reached up to stroke a small, bald patch devoid of fur on the back of his neck.

"Got an NTI implant, did you?" I observed, motioning towards my own recovering surgical scar. "Hurts like all hell, doesn't it?"

Lowering his head, he simply nodded, saying nothing.

"Know what might help?" I suggested, smiling halfheartedly, "A warm bath and a hot meal, in my experience. So what do you say? Want to come back with us?"

Bendi's eyes seemed to instantly brighten as he understood my meaning. Carefully, he descended the steps into the common area, and slowly began to approach me. As he drew closer, I heard the sound of Redd behind me, taking in a sharp breath.

"Josh..." he hissed slightly, "We're here for people and TREASURE, remember? What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" I responded, as I knelt on the floor, ignoring the pools of stagnant blood which soaked my pants.

Reaching out my right hand, I smiled at the young cub as he continued to make his cautious approach. Finally, he stepped close enough to my outstretched hand to reach it and clasp it in his own; a fierce grip that nearly startled me.

"Can't you see it, Redd? He IS a treasure. And I'm taking him home..."

---

---END CAPTAIN'S LOG----

[ICFW END-NOTE: SUBJECT "BENDI," CODE NAME "DEATH" WAS FORMALLY ADOPTED BY CODE-NAME "COMMANDER" ON HIS TENTH SEASON BIRTHDATE. SUBJECT PREFERS TO MAINTAIN FORMALITY DURING MISSIONS AND FIELD OPERATIONS, BUT CAN SOMETIMES BE HEARD REFERRING TO "COMMANDER" AS HIS FATHER.]