The mysterious officer stood still, staring through the glass.
Where did you find it, his voice barely audible, almost a whisper.
It.. It was found in a damaged colonial nyx s..s..sir, drifting in the tau 23 system. Stuttered the doctor.
Scared witless of this darkly menacing and yet strangely handsome young officer, the doctor of Ibiza station was doing his best to remain calm.
One of our scouting groups found it. It killed 4 slaves with its bare hands, shaking with terror at the thought of what he was about to say, and tore out one of our soldiers throats with its teeth........
The only response that showed on the officers face was a single eyebrow flexed upwards. Was it a look of approval the young doctor saw? The officer turned and looked at the doctor. His eyes glazed over for a second and then he said
The masters want it. I shall take it with me.
But sir..i have orders not to let anyone in contact with it, let alone move it. Orders from the council of dons themselves. Stammered the doctor, trying his best to not show his fear.
Oh? whispered the stranger in an oddly seductive voice, is that so?
The officer had his blaster back in its holster before the body hit the floor.
Well I'm afraid that I'm going to have to disobey, the man chuckled and picked up the security key card, setting the stretcher with the wretched looking human to hover into his cargo hold, he left the infirmary and boarded his ship. Setting a course for the temple he settled into his chair and let his mind free. The masters were going to be very happy when this one was “enlightened”.
MOTHER!!!
His head snapped up. Staring with unseeing eyes into the blackness around him. He tried to move but couldn't, finding himself shackled by some unseen force.
*** Hello***
A voice in his mind.
Mother you have come to me, at last, forgive me, I have missed you so much and now you are here?
The presence in his mind seemed to falter and then made a decision
*** yes... I am your mother, tell me how you came to be***
But you must surely know mother, have you not been with me? Tears were trickling down his cheeks, unashamed. Mother all I did I did for you. Are you not grateful to your son?
A calming presence entered his mind.
***hush now. And remember, remember and show me all***
And he did, he remembered as if it was happening again, as if it was a holo movie that he was seeing again.... he remembered it all.
You b*tch! The small boy watched as his father beat his mother, watched as he had been forced to do every night. Every night for the 12 miserable years he had been alive. But this night was different. The mixture of cardamine and alcohol in his fathers system had made the rage even worse than usual. And this night he kept on punching and flailing, beating the pitiful being that had once been his wife into a bloody lifeless pulp before turning on his son.
He turned with a crazed look on his face and the boy cowered in terror. As his father advanced on him he caught a glimpse of what had once been his mother and the terror had turned to hatred and rage. Pure blinding rage. Still his father advanced upon him, fists dripping with the still warm blood of his mother, and the boys mind snapped. Standing and picking up a small coffee table in one movement he hurled the table at his fathers head. Knocking him unconscious.
His father came round in a whole world of pain his hands and feet spread out in a cross shape. Rough iron bolts pushed straight though the bones of his ankles and wrists to fasten him to the floor. And his son standing over him, the very image of terror. The boy then began to torture his father gently pushing tiny iron pins into the limbs and torso of his father. One at a time, one for every beating his mother had endured to protect her son. And the boy loved it, weeping and cackling in manic glee at the hurt he caused to his father. Until after 4 days the screaming stopped and his father was dead.
Time became a blur at this time and it was as if his memory was being pushed forward rapidly, skipping over the escape from Bretonia on board a freighter.
The strange presence controlling his mind paused briefly to examine his time in liberty and the crime spree that led to him joining the lane hackers.
The boy now turned man spent a while in the company of the lane hackers, doing the dirty work he loved and no other would do. When he wasn't out disrupting the lanes in his Broadsword Bomber he would sit in the bar, in the back corner muttering to himself, to his mother. Madness. If the young man slept he did so with open eyes and still muttering.
One fateful outing to ambush a trade convoy ended badly, he was sent alone for the tip off was that a single colonial atlas transport would be traveling through the California system. It was an ambush and there were many escorts. Needless to say the ever maddening young man was captured.
More darkness and blurred time.
Captured and held prisoner of the colonials, until one day as he was being transferred he escaped. Killed the pilot of the nyx he was in and flew it into the depths of the tau-23 system where he drifted.
Mindless madness.
Begging his mother for help starving to death in the deep blackness of space. The radiation penetrating the ship and eating into his mind. Not that it could be much worse. All thoughts in the mans head were of his mother, he had a near worshipful devotion to the memory of her and he thought she was with him, watching over her son.
Sir we got a contact on scanners. A single Nyx, no power and only a single lifeform aboard. Orders?
Bring it in... lets have a look at it, commanded the captain of the outcast light exploration gunship.
The small craft was tractored in close and a small squad of soldiers and some slaves were waiting in the docking bay. Slaves were sent in first. Nothing.
Then screams, like nothing the soldiers had heard before.
Inhuman screams of pure terror.
A squad of soldiers was sent into the small craft and saw there a maniac, covered in the blood of the slaves, stood amid the bodies, chewing desperately, as only a starving man could, on the arm of an unfortunate slave. One of the soldier rushed forwards, baton in hand and the man turned quick as a flash and grabbed him by the throat. Pinned him against the wall, cackling in delight the blood soaked maniac brought the soldier close and sniffed. So much fresh food he squealed and proceeded to tear the soldiers throat out with his bare teeth.
Darkness again...
*** yes.... son I forgive you. You will serve me now as you should have before. You will be my servant and the soldier of my servants***
Yes mother... thank you... I will do whatever you say mother
The young officer had witnessed all, shown by the masters.
What do you require of me masters?
*** you will mould him, encourage his... talents, and turn him into our tool. Make him one of our phantoms***
Yes masters, I will do as you will.
He turned in his chair, and set his ship at cruise speed for the temple.
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--==}{ Just a simple guy trying to make my way in the universe }{==--