Seethkar, First Quadrant, Andromeda Galaxy.

Amaryah

Mya's breath caught as they zoomed through the opening in the ground. The colony was like a cocoon. With black structures pressed together going down its entire length, disappearing into the hollow below stretching so far down that Mya could not see its end. Lights lined the concave walls of the settlement in long beams and bathed the colony city in a harsh artificial light that did not reach its gargantuan, hollowed out center.

The ships sped downwards trying to get as close as possible to the designated drop point. They had a long way to go to get to the core of Seethkar – the source of the planet's life. There was no sign of it. Not yet. Below the ship was just a yawning, dark abyss that swallowed up any light given by the light strips along the colony's walls. That was where Mya's unit was heading to plant the Tyrhung.

An army rose to meet them and fired, their ships advancing menacingly. It was time to go. She sprinted to the pod room, and with Zogan's help climbed into an expulsion pod. It carried two persons and would freefall to and adhere to any waiting surface below. He quickly climbed in behind her and wrapped his arms around her small waist. She flicked the engage switch and the pod shot through a tunnel, shuddering as it was flung high speed into the smoke-filled air below.

It halted with a force so great that Mya's teeth clattered. The pod popped open with a hiss while she double checked to ensure her space suit was functioning properly, she didn't want to breathe the fumes leaking into the city. The black helmet fit her snugly and reminded her of the ones they wore on earth when people used to ride two wheeled motor vehicles. The only difference was that it was lightweight, less bulky and held two cylindrical disks across the mouthpiece to allow for breathing of clean and filtered air.

She gazed up as the fighting carried on above them, ships diving and rolling to avoid blasts while releasing return fire. A next pod crashed into their own, almost sending them over the side of the horizontal beam they stood on. It popped open with a loud hiss and Zogan growled. Nezerra popped up from inside and met his gaze.

"I will fight with my family brother." she lifted her chin in challenge.

Zogan looked down at the abyss and at his wrist screen and cursed. They did not have the time to argue. He looked her over and Mya placed a hand on his arm, "Do not make me regret this Nezze, stay out of trouble."

"I know what to do." she snapped and stalked forward.

Mara's helmeted gaze followed her sister's movements from her perch on a nearby beam. Nezerra flashed Mya a triumphant smile as she joined them.

Zogan gently pushed Mya forward and she started running along the thin beam. The rest of their team doing the same. The fighting above was the distraction while their team was to plant the Tyrhung. There were five other teams mobilizing in tactical positions throughout the city, their only job was to plant bombs throughout its most vulnerable sections to aid in the air squad's escape when everything was complete. They'd landed a good distance from the unseen planet core – the life-giving engine that hummed loudly below them, hopefully the distraction held and they would meet no opposition. They reached the surface of the ragged black walls of the cocoon city. Box like homes hung from the very same walls jutting out like jagged pieces of glass. Mya readied her suction device and started to descend, Zogan going before her. She looked to her left and saw Mara and Aishmi rapidly descending, with Azazel, Ravanna and another Kozan warrior following close behind. Dressed in their all-black spacesuits they looked like shadows dancing in the light of the explosions above. Mya breathed in deeply and climbed downward.

Unknown

He sat in his large metallic woven chair facing the screens before him, shadowed by the three standing forms near his throne. On it showed the Kozan prince climbing along the walls of his city. Anger coursed through his veins at the audacity of the pompous prince.

He dares to try to destroy Seethkar, the world of the true rulers of the galaxy. He almost laughed at the thought.

Almost.

He controlled his anger though, otherwise they would already be a smear of guts on those very walls they held too. This was all a part of the plan, he needed them to get to the life engine of the planet, and then he would cause the prince to suffer, in ways that he never imagined. He would make an example of him and send his remains to the pathetic supreme that had declared war on his world when she'd locked him into this wretched first quadrant and denied his claim to rulership. She'd stated that his ruling methods were not those held by the sanctuary, what a weak excuse for an elder.

She did not deserve the title of supreme. He would make an example of her too. All in due time.

He looked to those awaiting his command and pointed, they rose and slid forward, entering the tunnels that would lead them right into the path of the descending group. A growl of satisfaction rumbled from him, and his withered lips peeled back to reveal sharpened jagged teeth that glistened in the shadowed room.

Amaryah

The colony flashed with lights from explosions behind them, but Mya held steady and climbed downward. Her limbs had begun to tremor slightly but still they kept going. There was no sign of the enemy pursuing them, the distraction continued to work perfectly. Eventually they dislodged as they passed the danger zone of live fire, the fastest way to the core - or planet engine as they called it - was now through the empty space in the middle of the city that descended deep into Seethkar. They stood on a ledge, balancing precariously at the edge.

The air was littered with falling ships, damaged and no longer able to fly. The smaller silver ships of the enemy falling under the hostile blasts of their allies. They fell in large fireballs from above with small figures jumping from them to avoid falling to their deaths. Mya's heartbeat sped up; she wasn't afraid of heights, but this was crazy. The depth was so far that anything that lurked below was swallowed up in a deep darkness. She still hadn't caught a glance of the engine but felt its energy and humming continuously thrum through the air. Zogan looked to her, his gaze scanning over her, he'd probably heard her accelerating heartbeat.

"Ready?" he asked.

She looked up at him and swallowed. Her fear had no place here, she was a warrior, and she was doing this for the greater good. "Yes."

They pushed from the ledge and fell. Some of their unit fell before them, falling through the air like arrows. Mya remembered when she'd done the same daring activity during her training with Zogan and his warriors looking on. This was completely different; a shiver ran down her spine. This time there was no safety net.

The blistering cold wind blasted her helmet, frost formed, was melted away by the suit, and then immediately reformed. Small holograms showed the positioning of their team members on the left inner corner of her helmet and Mya kept an eye on it as it flashed red with warning if falling ships came too close. A large wing came crashing down, writhing with flame and Mya rolled out of the way using small puffs of air from her suit's thrusters.

They reached the end of the lights lining the city and were swallowed up by the abyss. The darkness so complete that without the holograms showing the presence of her mate and the team she would've felt utterly alone, lost. And yet, they still continued to fall.

Mya'd been expecting the impact, but it still caused her to jerk with surprise. A loud whooshing sound filled her ears as she entered the icy liquid held in the lower depths of Seethkar. She stroked her arms through it and kicked her legs, the small lights on her suit barely showing more than a foot ahead. She knew Zogan was before her, trying to protect her from threats as best he could. She scanned her holograms for Nezerra and saw that she swam beside her older sister Mara.

Something brushed against her, and she looked sharply to her left. A bloated form floated in the water like an apparition. Its face smooth with no discernable features, too logged with whatever they swam in to be properly identified. Mya swam forward trying to put as much space as she could between the dead thing and her. She failed. The liquid up ahead was thick with them, and she had to push her way through. She guessed that it was how the Ajal disposed of their dead, but she wasn't sure. She kept her eyes fixed on the point of her light trying her hardest not to see the twisted features of some of the dead floating around.

The thick liquid was vibrating around them, Mya felt the engine before she saw a soft light ahead. Its energy wrapped around her, so powerful and seeming to be almost sentient. Her eyebrows scrunched together as she concentrated, trying to determine whether it really was alive. The engine emitted a blast of energy and she recoiled. Whatever it was, it did not like her probing. She winced at the pain lancing through her head and gritted her teeth as she pushed the curiosity out of her mind. She shouldn't care whether it was sentient or not, she was only here to destroy it anyway.

The light grew to a red glow, and Mya finally saw what they'd been searching for. The humming rose as they neared the engine's location. The life giver to this planet. From her viewing distance it was a small globe of red throbbing light, and in it, shadows swirled like fish in a pond. Large growths reached from the ground below it and wrapped around it as if trying to protect it from harm. It was set in the dead center of what closely resembled a maze of overgrown hairy roots like those that had wrapped around the engine. To Mya it felt like a massive force that had been caged, she did not think its release would be a good thing for this planet, even the first quadrant. This was all set underneath a see-through covering. Almost like glass.

They suctioned themselves to it and crawled across its surface until it gave away to a rusted metallic surface lined with pipes and conduits. Ravanna and Azazel set to work with the grey pads, setting it against the slimy black-grey surface beneath their feet.

Mya glanced around, her useless light shining into the darkness but illuminating nothing. She felt as if they were missing something, she scanned the darkness again and sensed nothing. She shoved the feeling down focusing on what was happening before her – she couldn't afford to be distracted. There was the soft popping sound followed by the hiss of their lasers and soon they dropped to a dirt ground below. Mya went before Zogan, dropping and rolling to absorb any damage it might have caused to her joints. The last entrees resealed their entrance using the same grey pads that pulsed and fused the glass-like material back together with a thin covering.

The underworld smelled like dirt and rot. The only light was that of the engine throbbing in the center of the twisting massive root growths before them. Mya could not see past the snakelike growths to the actual engine, her vantage point from above had given her a false sense of the vastness of the system beneath them.

She sucked her teeth and retracted her space suit. The air indoors was breathable thankfully. She pulled on her googles so that she could see better in the gloomy room. They started forward, carefully picking their way through the roots. She grunted as she climbed over them, they felt mushy beneath her weight, as if a wrong movement would cause it to collapse in on itself taking her with it. The thought sent her scrambling over them. They could've torn through them with blasters of course, but that would draw too much unwanted attention.

There was still no sign of the enemy.

All they had to do was reach the engine, plant the Tyrhung, swim out and reach the rendezvous point with the help of the other teams' distractions. The Tyrhung would obliterate the engine, causing it to collapse in on itself and the world would die.

Easy - Peasy...Right.

They moved steadily forward, with Ravanna leading the way having planned out the quickest route based on the limited information they'd been able to compile. Mya's hand stayed near her blaster, still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. She wanted to be in and out as soon as possible. The dry, stale air buffeted her face as she moved, and she scowled. There were only the soft footfalls of their team as they tracked the engine through the twining roots. Mya scanned the pathways behind her, spine tingling.