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As Fayr began to open the sealed access door that led to the

spinal corridor of the ship, she braced herself for the worst. Depending on how

far back the sealed itself, she would be made aware of which portions of its

hull were breached and therefore whether or not to expect she and her cargo

would survive long. Gold on black eyes watch intently as the mechanical whirr

of hydraulic pumps heralds the unsealing, the door itself finally falling back

and then sliding into one wall. Her eyes widen slightly as the situation down

the corridor made itself apparent to her, and she slowly fell down into a

crouch as the instincts her training imparted onto her started screaming.

The corridor itself miraculously showed very little damage

due to the crash. Many of the compartments of the ship were not sealed,

indicating the internal sensors of the ship had not detected anything burning

like it had when it had sealed the flight deck and her in it. The lights

flickered occasionally and if she were not staring intently and a possible

threat, she would have surmised that the fusion core of the ship could still be

salvaged. What truly drew the attention of the ebony scaled creature dragoness

was a lone figure sitting crouched at the end of the corridor. It had looked up

just in time to see her crouch down, and seemingly imitated the motion; Fayr

could only discern parts of him in-between the flickering of the inset lights

lining the passageway.

Slowly at first, but with gathering speed the creature

approached her with clearly hostile intent. Despite this, Fayr crouched there

and calculated the situation with a cool demeanor that a casual observer might

mistake as calm. In her mind, time seemed to slow down to a crawl; several

implants within her brain began to accelerate the rate at which her mind

processed the situation, something only limited by the speed at which circuitry

could calculate and by the rate at which the biological cells could absorb the

stimulus. Within moments she had read the pieces of its expression that could

be seen in the moments between light-flickers, calculated the rate at which the

creature would reach her, and the different vectors of attack that could come

about. Each response was generated, probabilities changing based on observed factors

such as speed and the bunching of muscle groups observed in her opponent. All

of this happened within the space of milliseconds and continued to play out as

she made a sudden realization that would change the dynamic of the entire

encounter.

It was one of her kind, escaped from below. He was still

under the influence of the programming that The Corrupt had left them with,

somehow having been activated and intent on killing her. She realized at that

moment this might be their insurance for making sure she did not survive even

if the ship did, having likely sent activation signals to those of her kind she

had stored within the armored cargo bay. A slow, warm smile creeped onto her

lips as she realized this; it meant they had once more underestimated her

resourcefulness. Bracing herself, she prepared for the moment the dragon nearly

twice her weight would come crashing into the flight deck entrance to kill her.

She already knew what her response would be at this point,

as her mind automatically finished calculating the correct martial maneuver; use

his own energy against him. Stepping to the side suddenly, the moment he

reached her she caught his outstretched and heavily muscled arm and let him

continue his charge with a push and a twist. The movement managed to catch him

off-guard, just as her other arm caught the back of his neck to force his

momentum downward. Her fellow dragon crashed head first into the back of the

specially designed cockpit seat, issuing a loud bang that reverberated down the

long corridor and echoed back; the seat itself was decimated by the impact,

breaking nearly in half.

"Looks like you didn't have the same mental upgrades. You

could have calculated that coming." Fayr observed quietly and coolly, speaking

under her breath.

She gathered no response from him, as he lay slumped over

the unbroken half of the chair. She knew she likely didn't kill him, more just

knocked him out. She had taken a major gamble in that he wouldn't have the same

ability to calculate as she did.

"Now to take care of this situation permanently.." The

dragoness murmured, leaning over his armored skull. He was already slowly

beginning to stir, hardly showing the damage he had sustained.

Reaching over, Fayr settled her talons in particular pattern

around his skull. The metal infusion within her talons conducted a massive

surge of electricity into his skull, causing him to become wracked with spasms

for a moment and before jolting awake and flailing at her. She managed to back

away before he could strike her.

"Wh- what did you do?!" Suddenly the ebony drake was

coherent, the feral and mindless look she had just moments before seen in his

eyes was gone. His voice was like rolling a hiss through gravel.

"I freed you. You are welcome." She knew the look of

confusion in his eyes. It was the look of someone who's mind was unrestrained

by programming for the first time. He was coherent, able to use language, but

it was like he was also a child; born to the world anew.

"Who are you?" Was his obvious, second question. He was

still wary of her, eyes mistrusting due to her being the source of a recent

pain and likely quite a headache.

"Just call me Fayr. I'm bringing equality to our kind." She

said with a serious face. He didn't seem to appreciate her use of humor

currently, but she gave a smirk anyway. She held her hands up and backed away,

as she knew his training would cause him to perceive the gesture as peaceful.

"I will let you recover for now, you've had quite a spill.

Everything will be explained in time, but long story short I short circuited

your control chip." Fayr tapped her skull to visually indicate. Realization

dawned on his face, along with fear.

"You... That violates our directives." He stated dumbly, still

relying on what The Corrupt had brainwashed him to believe.

"My friend, we have new directives... and they involve the

fall of a corporation. The beginning of our kind's freedom." She stated as

matter of fact. Her smile was almost motherly as she prepared to teach her

first new disciple.Prologue: Click for Previous Page