I stood there baffled. In shock, but most of all, I begin to really worry. Daron was right, even if Mia could warn Jack and the others, even if they could get back to earth and raise some kind of defence. what kind of defence would be enough to fight an enemy like this. I didn’t think that even Earths navies combined could produce half the number of ships that I could see in front of me. They stretched for miles into the darkness. In galactic terms, Earth was a tiny nothing in the middle of bum fuck nowhere. Any battle would be like a small police force trying to fight off an entire garrison. “Fuck… How do you have so many ships?” I asked quietly. “So many? Ha!” Daron laughed at me yet again. “This is only what I could smuggle away from my father's campaign on Thera without him knowing. I couldn’t get any Crushers, only these smaller Scythes.” “Scythes?” I asked, wondering if the word meant the same to him as it did to me. “Yeah. They're fast and deadly. Made to lay cities low like crops on the soil. They can lay waste to civilisations from a high altitude while leaving the more valuable assets untouched.” So it does mean the same. I thought. “Have you ever seen the sky blocked out by ships?” Daron asked. “I’ve only ever seen the sky blocked by clouds,” “I saw it once. When my father made a display of his strength to the board of directors, he called down a million of his Schythes while they watched. It was the first time I understood the fear a tiny individual must have when their planet is invaded. It’s beautiful.” Daron held a small smile. “So you're going to attack Earth without your father's knowledge. Won’t he see this as a betrayal? Get angry at you?” I asked. “Don’t bother trying to change my mind,” Daron said, seeing right through my words. “My father respects actions more than honesty. When I present the ledger of your planets goods and services. Of the lands ready to be auctioned off, he will see me as the son he always wished I was. Everything I already am.” I swayed slightly, not unsteady on my feet, not with any movement of the ship, but with the loud beating of my own heart and the rising and falling of my chest. “Move through,” Daron ordered to one of the men at the helm and the ship began to close the distance to those in front. As we drew level, the ships around us flashed a series of orange and yellow lights along their flanks. “Look how they salute our presence. No one has ever saluted you before have they?” “No. It’s not something I’ve ever wanted, but whatever gets your dick hard,” I muttered, I grunted as the guard behind me grabbed me by the neck and began squeezing. “Stop that!” Daron barked at the man and the pressure was removed. “He means no disrespect. In his culture, it is a sign of friendship to insult one another, as I understand it, to talk of someones ‘dick’ is a true mark of familiarity.” Fucking Keg and his lessons. “Take these chains off and I’ll show you how friendly I really am,” I said. “I’m not stupid, Erick. Even if you respect what I have done here, I don’t doubt for a second that you will do everything you can to stop me. Just enjoy the view.” The ship continued to advance past the thousand others until we emerged at the front of the formation. Ahead of us was perfect darkness. There were no stars or planets that I could see. “There is nothing here,” I said, confused. “No, not yet. It took a while after you and Mia told me of Earths location, to correctly find the place. Longer still to get what ships I could out here. We’re currently on the edge of your home system, but in the infinite wisdom of the creators, they have instanced it until your induction period is over. If we continued on now, we would only fly right through empty space, devoid of light or life and out the other side to the edge of the known universe.” “So you came all the way here for nothing, you don’t know when the induction is ending. You can’t just float here forever,” I said, If Daron thought they would be waiting for months, maybe he would give up and turn around. If that was the case then the others would be able to contract the Grey Scarred as well as other companies and guilds. “No, you’re wrong on that too, naive” Daron said, bringing that weight crashing down on me once again. “Do you remember how we were talking about universal consistency? That same time when you were so trusting and naive to reveal the location of your planets?” he asked. “Sure. Before we knew you were a manipulative bipolar cunt,” I answered. “Well it's true, the Creators are one thing above all else,” Daron said, ignoring my comment, “And that is consistent.” He stepped forward and tapped on the navigation console. The holographic image changed, to reveal a large countdown timer reading [ -1 day], “ You weren’t the only person to be forthcoming with information, just my favourite.” Daron said with a smile. I only scowled in response. “The one thing everyone wanted to know above all else was what happened next. They were all too willing to tell me everything they knew about the start of your induction, including how long ago it was.” Daron said, almost dancing in his triumph. “They’re always the same…” I muttered, “Shit.” “Exactly, so I worked it out as best I could. This is our estimate,” he motioned to the countdown, “To be more accurate, I believe you will be getting a notification in…. a few moments,” As though he was reading the future in some horrible tea leaves, my scanner buzzed on my arm and Daron's smile grew. This time he really did dance a happy little jig. “I told you! Creators I’m good!” he called to the room. There was a muffled cheer that went around the room. These men and women were paid to fight and die for Daron, not to share his elation. With my hands bound behind my back, I couldn’t read my scanner, but that didn't matter. Daron tapped his own and swiped the screen toward the nav console. The screen morphed again to reveal an enlarged copy of my own scanners screen. There across it was a system notification. [System Announcement: People of Earth, congratulation on your induction. May all you have learnt guide you for the future you have always dreamed of. In the next thirty seconds, your system will be released. Protections and restrictions will be removed. Best of luck.] Below the message was a count down similar to the one Daron had used. It currently read [21 seconds….20 seconds] My heart caught in my throat. He had timed it perfectly, I thought. From gathering information to moving his troops. Even as far as pulling me from the cell to be present when the notification came. [18 seconds]. We had been naive and foolish. Real fucking idiots. I had seen a young man, out of his depths and in trouble with the world. But it had been us who had been out of our depths. [17 seconds] Why had no one warned us that this was how the greater universe worked? That here were killers and kings around every corner ready to take what they wanted and leave dust behind. [16 seconds]. Daron was silent with me, as we both stared at the countdown, Daron's anticipation bubbling at the surface. [15 seconds…14 seconds…13 seconds]. “Hold him,” Daron muttered quietly, not looking away. From behind, two guards stepped up to grab my arms, raising me slightly from the ground as to ruin my leverage and ability to move. I hung there, gaping at the timer and Daron. “I can’t have you getting ideas now, I know what seeing the numbers run down can do to a person,” he said as the timer ticked to [9 seconds]. He needn't have worried. Right then, I felt nothing but defeat. I had been played like he fool and couldn’t see myself doing anything to change that. [3 seconds…2 seconds…1 second] When the screen changed to a simple, [Welcome] the view in front of the ship morphed with it. The darkness shifted, tearing like wet paper to reveal specked, sparking, star-filled space. In there somewhere is Earth I thought. If Daron's previous achievements were anything to go off, we would be pointed right at it. “I want everything we can get out of the engines. Once we take Earth we can send for replacement cells so burn them out if you have to. Understood?” Daron asked the room, there was a mixture of quick nods and, “yes sir’s” from the room. “And you, You can keep yourself busy in the cell. I’d rather you weren’t underfoot. Don’t worry, I’ll bring you out when there is more to see. Just don’t make a nuisance of yourself.” Daron said. “Wait, that’s it? What am I here for Daron? So you can gloat? So I can listen to you monologue about your shitty life?” I asked. “That, and I needed someone from earth to check that I was right. Also, I would rather you weren’t the one out there preparing to fight us. If I can remove Earths most dangerous individual, then it’s a win-win for me, right?” “What are you talking about, I’m far from the most dangerous." "I beg to differ. Take him away," Daron ordered with a nod to the guards behind me. They pulled me from the room, back through the ship and into the lavish cell before stalking back down the hallway and out of sight. With nothing else to do, I dropped down on the bed with my arms still bound underneath me. It wasn’t the most comfortable position but it was enough that I managed to calm my breathing. Could I pretend to be sick, draw the guard into the room and overpower him?” I wondered. It was unlikely that I would be able to do much without the use of my arms as I had never tried using my mouth as a weapon in a straight-up fight. Was there anything I could use to start a fire? I looked around the room at the furniture, weighing up the option of breaking the chair apart and using the legs to create a friction fire, before dropping the idea. Surely someone would be watching me, and even if I succeeded, I would likely only find myself in a vented room. Was I strong enough to headbutt the wall into breaking? Probably not. I would likely be able to dislocate my shoulders and bring my arms to my front as I had done in Carlton's ship, but I wasn’t dealing with low ranked slavers. Killing a hundred or more well-trained mercenaries wouldn’t be such a walk in the park. Out of options or ideas, I lay my head back and counted bolts on the steel ceiling, eventually falling into a light state of rest. I was left to stew for hours before a guard slid the door open and pulled me from the bed. I didn't recognise this one, he was younger than I would have expected from one of Daron's mercenaries. As though to compensate for his smaller stature, he was ladened with knives strapped to his legs, grenades across his chest and belt and a thick assault rifle across his back. Despite being on what was arguable a comfortable ship, he was ready for battle. “The other guys busy?” I joked. “No actually, I wanted to meet you myself. My brother has said many good things about the formidable Erick Sanders,” The young man said. “Your brother?” “Daron, my estimated younger brother.” The man said with a creased brow. With him saying it, the familiarity became more apparent. They shared the same eyes and chin, although this mans face was longer and lacked Daron's boyish cheeks “He never mentioned another brother, I thought Faron was the only one.” “Well he wouldn’t would he. We share a mother only,” he said. It was clearly a point of contention. “Unlucky,” I muttered. Based on Daron's description of his mother, I assumed that the man held little to no power in the family. Explains the excessive weapons, I thought, eyeing up his grenades and knives through the glass. “You don’t seem so formidable. I think I will ask Daron if I can duel you when all this mess is done.” He said as he directed me to the bridge for a second time. I scoff slightly, “If you want an easy death,” I said, laughing. I heard the scuff of boots on the smooth floor and was shoved to the side against the wall. Pressure on my back pushed me against the wall, squashing my face. I continued to laugh. “You surely don’t share Daron's demeanour, been spending too much time with Faron?” I felt his hot breath against my ear, “When this is all done I’m going to humiliate you, and if I’m lucky I'll do it a second time right after. I’ve never had a human before,” I felt his crutch as it pressed against my backside. This family is a bit fucked up. When I didn’t reply, he pulled me from the wall, grabbed my upper arm and began leading me forcefully along. No sooner had we entered the bridge, that Daron began speaking again, paying no mind to his brother who stepped back to the side of the room, watching me with a satisfied grin. “Look, my friend! Your planets first defender!” Daron called, hopping with excitement. I looked out the window to see a tiny spec of light in the distance of space, glancing at the holographic navigation table I saw a highlighted and enlarged ship as it darted back toward an even larger asteroid, obviously trying to escape the armada that was quickly closing in on it. “It looks like they're trying to make a run to hide in the asteroid's shadow, It looks like a mined rock, Sir. We’ll have to go around it to get to the primary target, would you like us to engage the retreating ship?” A woman called from the pilot's chair. “Can you accurately hit it at this range?” Daron asked the woman. “Not accurately, though we can always try,” “Send off a few shots, If we cant hit it I don’t want us wasting any more time. How long until we have a visual on the Primary target?” Daron spoke the woman and the room in an utterly convincing tone of authority and confidence, as though he had been commanding ships for twice his life span. “We’ll see it once we round the asteroid,” the woman replied, multitasking as she tapped furiously on her console. Around the asteroid? There wasn’t an asteroid that close to Earth was there? I wasn’t an astronomy expert, but I was almost certain of it. “Continue captain,” Daron ordered. He stepped back beside me. “Volly of three at will. All ahead.” The woman called to the room. Three people at weapons stations began manipulating their consoles. Their holo-screens flashed as they calculated the trajectory of the ship and lined up for a shot. I watched with bated breath as they fired. Three small missiles were visible as they leapt from the ship below us. From the bridge, at the nose of the ship, we could see them zip past us and out into space. Switching to watch on the table, the highlighted rockers were tracking true, closing the distance fast before the smaller retreating ship banked, twisting as smaller signal flairs blew from its rear. Two of the rockets exploded against the flairs while the third missed the ship by meters as it danced away to detonate against the asteroid. Internally I whisted in surprise and appreciation of the pilot's ability. “Another, Sir?” The captain asked. “No leave it, they will have nowhere else to run once we have Earth in our sights,” Daron said, his good mood still not slipping. On the monitor, the small ship rounded the edge of the asteroid as we followed. When we finally cleared the massive rock I almost shouted in surprise. In the centre of the bridges window’s was Earth, and between us and it was a horde of ships. I couldn’t make out their exact shapes, only seeing their silhouette's against the sun-splashed planet. I glanced at the holo nav table as it began scanning. Hundreds of thousands of ships, maybe even millions, most of them small liners, but there were so many that they created a shield in front of Earth. In the centre, there were Earths largest fighters, likely from the continents navies. The rest of the ships all looked like private vessels. Many looked highly modified and unique, in classic human fashion. There were roughly twelve or thirteen billion humans on Earth, both real people and AI-controlled NPC’s and it appeared that between them, they could muster a significant force, how they organised it so quickly was a mystery to me. “WHAT IS THIS! HOW HAVE THEY ORGANISED SO QUICKLY!” Daron roared, causing those nearest him to twitch. “ERICK! EXPLAIN!” I eyed Daron as he stomped and swore, finally seeing his unhinged side while behind my back, I untucked my shirt and pulled a grenade from within. I turned to look at Daron's half brother and flashed a toothy grin. His eyes went wide as he saw the ball in my hand, then as he patted his belt, feeling the empty spot where the grenade had once been clipped. He pushed off from the wall and sprinted towards me, the rest of the room ignorant to his movement as they watched their leader screaming bloody murder at the appearance of Earth's defence. I ignored Daron and leapt away from his brother, clearing the table as I rushed to the front of the bridge. I turned, swiping my thumb in a line across the surface of the grenade as a body slammed into me. I let the momentum carry us both between the pilots. As we slammed into the window, the grenade which was pressed against the glass, exploded.